Busta Rhymes Album: “Anarchy [Clean]”

I highly recommend this LP to anyone who has ever enjoyed a Busta Rhymes album or is just looking for something to jam to. It starts out a little slow but cranks it up around track five and continues to build until Busta's collaboration with rappers DMX and Jay-Z: "Why We Die". This album is what you might you call an artistic piece. You could just write it off as tripe like so many other `artistic' albums, but that would be denying Busta's obvious talent and stylish jams. Busta manages to convey an important message with "Anarchy" while still keeping it real with tight beats and flowing lyrics.

Busta uses real headlines from various news stories in presenting what he feels is wrong with the world today in a thoughtful intro. This is followed by a moving ballad ("Salute Da Gods! ") with a phat beat and a melodic chorus. The next two tracks tone it down a bit, they are a little slow but they do have appealing beats and some interesting rhymes. I was a little disappointed when I heard tracks three and four: "Enjoy Da Ride" and "We Put It Down For Y'all". I thought: Where is the hard-rocking Busta Rhymes who I know and love? Where are the infectious choruses and hardcore beats? Both of those questions were answered with the jammin' "Bladow! " and my personal favorite "Street Sh**". "Street Sh**" has an outrageous bass/synthesized harpsichord moving melody/bass line which I still can't get enough of. In his song "All Night" Busta proclaims that he is "the god up in the flesh y'all" and his new school beats mixed with his flowing old school lyrics prove it.

Although his single "Get Out!" is an interesting song (which kind of reminds me of Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life"), I think "Street Sh**" (although the title isn't exactly MTV friendly) is a better example of the album's raw power and Busta's lyrical finesse. "The Heist" has a great mix of rapping talent and reminds me of a song off of The Root's Album: "Things Fall Apart", although I can't pin down which song it is that reminds of Busta's "The Heist". "A Trip Out of Town" is another one of those great hardcore songs of Busta's, mocking gangsta rappers' hard-style of "keepin' it real", reminiscent of "Things We Be Doing For Money Part 2" on Busta's '97 LP, When Disaster Strikes. "How Much We Grew" is a great fictional account/quasi-history of Busta's life.

"Here We Go Again" is a rocking Flipmode joint that I just love. Although I'm a little concerned that my favorite Flipmodian Lord Have Mercy wasn't involved in this track or even mentioned, I'm delighted with new arrival Roc-Marciano's performance. On "C'mon All My N***az, C'mon All My B****es" Busta Rhymes uses that fast style that's so popular at the clubs, think last year's "Gimme Some More" and DMX's "Damien" on caffeine. "Make Noise" with Lenny Kravitz gives rap rock a whole new meaning with Busta rapping over a track with a little bit of Lenny's ambient riffs ending with a 70's grunge style guitar solo. "Ready For War" with M.O.P. has a great sampled horn line, very grandioso, very old school sounding. It's got a great chorus with real gangsta appeal and gives you a real sense of Busta's street smarts. DMX and Jay-Z lend a hand with "Why We Die" which asks the questions (who woulda thought) `why we die?' and `why do the good die young?'. This is a very thoughtful track showing the artists' problems growing up in the game.

All in all, Busta Rhymes' "Anarchy" is a very moving LP with great lyrics and phat beats. Anyone considering themselves a fan of rap or hip-hop should check out "Anarchy".

Once again, Busta Rhymes makes another album full of great songs. Just like E.L.E., The Coming, and When Disaster Strikes, Anarchy is full of great beats, and catchy tunes. If you like Busta's other CDs, be sure to pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.

I think that Busta's best work has already come and that this stuff isn't Busta anymore. I think Busta is trying to conform more to what rap is now, which is lazy and done without much thought. Busta is better than that, and better than this! What happened to the energetic Busta who had all of the crazy, colorful videos? That was the real Busta, that was when he really had style. Now all we get is Busta standing in front of the camera wearing his own hip-hop label. It was cool when he was creative and wore all of the costumes. Anybody can stand in front of a camera wearing some label. Busta used to be better than that.

Not exactly what I expected, but creative and original. This album displays a different style for busta. Busta is one of my few commercial artist I can honestly say that I respect and idealize. I have always loved Busta's style, energetic lyrics and the perfect timing of his verbalization. He always brings new flavor at least every other year with a new album. I have loved all his other albums. Of course I like this album, but not as much as his previous ones. His production is just too MTV materical for me. As a crossover artist Busta Rhymes will get much international respect, but this album made me drop my level of admiration for him. A couple of tracks are worthwhile, but for the most part they are nothing special. I would actually say not much effort at all was put into this album. Too many guests and so many different producers overlaid this album. A couple of tracks such as Salute the Godz, and Callin All My Nig**s are eye opening tracks, but for the rest I would say I was disappointed for the most part. If you are a true Busta fan, go ahead and get this, but just be aware you might not feel this one.

Josh Warren ~ hip-hop analyst

This release is still very new so perhaps it just hasn't grown on me yet, but I typically judge music on how it makes me feel when I hear it for the first time, and so far this just hasn't hit. While far from being a failure, "Anarchy" simply doesn't hold together as well as past works. So far the only standouts are the child-like sing-songy "Get Out" and "Live It Up" with superb production by Jay Dee from the Ummah. The iffy quality of this release hardly warrants it's 75 minute length, and makes me think perhaps it's time for Bussa Buss to take some time off from acting and dedicate more time to producing top-notch music again, we fans deserve nothing less. O well, maybe next time.......