Hip Hop heavy hitter Busta Rhymes broke the Internet when he began releasing singles back to back from his new album Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God on his official YouTube channel.
ELE 2 picks up where Extinction Level Event left off with 22 tracks of sharp rhymes and quality production. On the Pete Rock-produced E.L.E. 2 Intro, Chris Rock opens the album and proves the proper hype man from beginning to end. Busta also reminds people of the inspiration of ELE and ELE 2:
“See, back in ’98 when I dropped the first Extinction Level / I was fighting inner demons with personal scores to settle / they put it in a movie cause they knew that we ain’t really know / funny how they tried to tell us 22 years ago”
Rakim then blesses the track. Both artists well versed in the 5 percent nation and mathematics, Rakim continues the message with a reference to his own material:
“I tried to warn ‘em with The Seventh Seal / the world is wounded, it may never heal / even mother nature’s getting ill, it’s getting real / when millions get killed when that deadly weather spill”
The God MC then drives home what is a recurring theme of the entire album:
“Then read Prophets in the Quran and ask yourself / do you rep a nation bred for hating? / judgement day ain’t far, don’t get left debating / cause what they thinking is the end of creation / is actually the reincarnation of Gods, the death of Satan”
The official club bangers of the album are Czar featuring M.O.P., Outta My Mind featuring Bell Biv DeVoe, Master Fard Muhammad featuring Rick Ross, Slow Flow posthumously featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard, YUUUU featuring Anderson .Paak and Where I Belong featuring Mariah Carey.
Another notable feature is relationship-themed Best I Can featuring super underrated MC Rapsody.
Although ELE 2 is full of features, Busta holds his own on tracks like Strap Yourself Down, Deep Thought and Satanic. In Satanic, Busta calls out the hypocrisy in the music industry:
“Asking for forgiveness while displaying blasphemous behavior / at first we seen it subtle, now niggas display it major / and going out they way like they doing Satan a favor / and gamble with they life like rattling dice in a shaker”
One of ELE 2’s stand-out tracks is Look Over Your Shoulder featuring Kendrick Lamar. Produced by super producer Nottz, Kendrick Lamar spits:
“Big marbles, nigga/I lead this new generation, boy don’t argue with us/marvelous beat selectors, authors and novel spitters/and it’s all for the literature/and it’s all for the hideous, the nastiest flows, the Chlamydia”
Busta continues the lyrical flow over the Michael Jackson laced track:
“Shhh, look over your shoulder, get me? / cause I done bodied the game to the point niggas scared to rap with me / kept burning til they anointed me one of the kings of Black history / and yes, I see the game is a little different, niggas lack simply / them bars and I spit ‘em like darts til they puncture your kidney / you trash and it don’t matter how much you try to convince me”
ELE 2 was a much-needed album in the year of 2020 for a couple of reasons. First, the Internet needs to know what a great Hip Hop album sounds like. The freedom of Hip Hop artists is necessary, but so is understanding that not all albums or MCs are created equal. Second, the theme of Extinction Level Event 2 is relevant now more than ever.
The title track of the album, E.L.E. 2 The Wrath of God, features the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan who speaks on the current powder keg that is American politics:
”You killed your last man when you killed Dr. King, you will not get that chance to do that to me / and if it pleases God that you do kill me, right after you kill me, all of you gone die / cause I’m not here by myself, I’m not here of myself / you can see that God must be backing me / otherwise, where would I get the strength to say and do what I do? / No, man, it’s our time now”
After Farrakhan speaks, Busta drops the central gem of the album:
“How many more protests? How many more marches? / zero results, it’s so grotesque, don’t even get me started / then count on my mama, she knows best, fight for the dearly departed / God is the armor, we so blessed, let’s zoom in on a target / from a certificate, a merit down to a felony / for one’s actions of these, justices will reward a penalty / pants too tight, nigga, it’s been part of the plan, fool / they fucked around and made the demasculinization of man cool”
He then continues:
“Fuck following trends that don’t make us men is the recipe / care for your women, your mother and children, it’s necessity / in the last couple of years, you niggas look like you need therapy / mentally it appears as if the imbalance is chemically / how you gone try to stop God’s work? / that could never happen, even after I’m back in the Lord’s dirt / I’m here to present the impact of the Extinction Level Event 2 / I’m only here to present and bring the impact of the Extinction Level Event 2”
Busta Rhymes released this album with the energy of someone who had a chip on his shoulder. In Hip Hop, having a chip on your shoulder is almost a prerequisite to producing classic material. And that’s exactly what he did.