Album Review: Busta Rhymes & DJ Scratch – I Bullshit You Not Mixtape (2009)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Potholes
In preparation for the May 19th release date of his eighth album Back on My Bullshit, Busta Rhymes combines forces with longtime Flipmode collaborator DJ Scratch to create the mixtape I Bullshit You Not, available for free through the DJ Scratch webpage. While the free online mixtape is becoming a staple (though an increasingly stale one at that) for generating hype for an upcoming release, I Bullshit You Not at least attempts to circumvent the cookie-cutter formula by including entirely original production as opposed to recycled beats from hit songs barely a few months old. While commendable, the final product leaves much to be desired and is hopefully not indicative of the material present on Back on My Bullshit.
This mixtape is clearly filler material; no beats stand out beyond the level of “decent” and Busta sounds unusually uninspired on many of the tracks. The movie references scattered throughout his verse on “Director’s Cut” are clever enough to make for some pressing of the rewind button and the ruminations about religion on the final track, “Feel My Pain”, are certainly unexpected yet welcome, but beyond that the subject matter is both tedious and trite. Granted, I never go into a Busta Rhymes album expecting complex metaphors and jaw-dropping lyricism, but the standard street braggadocio and violent shadow-boxing becomes dull here due to the lack of Busta’s trademark energy. The mixtape feels like a phoned-in performance from a skilled emcee who is capable of much more. There is also an overabundance of guests, none of which (with the exception of Raekwon on “Try Your Hand”) contribute anything besides paling in comparison to Busta’s humdrum performance (note to Busta: please keep Spliff Star limited to music video cameos and off the microphone). Though I should give M.O.P.’s Lil’ Fame at least a bit of credit for the funniest line on the whole mixtape, saying, “Respect my conglomerate…I don’t even know what that word means!” in his trademark gravely and aggressive fashion on “The Game Room”.
Like the rapping, the production throughout is passable but overall underwhelming. Scratch throws some old-school video game samples into the aforementioned “The Game Room” that are supposed to sound cutting-edge yet nostalgia inducing, yet comes across as forced and ultimately annoying. “Foreign Currency” (perhaps a referential title to the controversial “Arab Money”?) has a nice Middle Eastern vibe to it, but the beat is slightly diluted by Busta choosing to chat over it for the final two minutes of the song. “Piano Man” sports a Jay-Z vocal sample from “What We Do” which works well with the track, but the keys become repetitive over the course of five minutes. While none of the beats fall into the unlistenable category, none stand out as being memorable.
I understand that as a free mixtape, I Bullshit You Not is not meant to showcase the respective A-games of either Busta Rhymes or DJ Scratch, but I can’t help but feel disappointed that there weren’t, in the very least, any high-energy head-nodders that I’ve come to expect from Busta. While I Bullshit You Not is far from bad, it is not a mixtape that I predict I’ll find myself returning to over and over as I wait for Back on My Bullshit to drop.
I felt the same way about this mixtape. I liked some of the production, though not all of it, and it sounds like Busta was asleep for most of it.