- Our next guest is a 12-time Grammy-nominated,
multi-Platinum rap star.
My band is really excited.
They were just playing. They were freaking out.
They're very excited.
His latest album is called
"Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God,"
AKA 2020, and it's out now.
Please give it up for Busta Rhymes, y'all.
(audience cheers and applauds)
Yeah! Lester played those, he's very excited.
Alright, well, we've been talking.
What's up, Busta?
- What's up, Kelly, how you doing?
- I'm living my best life, talking to you.
I'm having a good day.
- My type of talk. I love to hear that.
- Oh my God, I love the title of your album.
I've actually renamed it AKA 2020
'cause it feels like it could be that.
We've actually been talking about motivational words
for the new year, just to kind of keep everybody's
kind of positivity going and maybe have a fresh start.
Is there a creative kind of mantra or a certain mantra
that you live by?
- My favorite tool is, failure is never an option.
And the next one is to be, you gotta be swift
and changeable in order to be remaindable.
- Whoa, what? Remaindable?
I ain't even heard. That's nice.
But I also notice though,
you were really motivated to get fit this year.
I wish that had happened to me,
but can we see the photos
to represent what I'm talking about?
What the hell? What are you doing, asking for a friend?
- I think the beautiful thing in life
is the hill and the gully ride, you know.
- Yeah.
- And I was really going through probably
one of my most challenging times in my life.
I've had some lows, like we all go in.
None of us exempt from actually going through
some sort of hardship,
but I lost my dad in, I believe, 2014,
and I didn't deal with it in, like, a real, like,
mourning way.
I kind of just drowned myself in work.
- Yeah.
- And I kind of really neglected to take care of me.
I was at about 340 pounds.
I was having issues with my health,
and wasn't telling anybody.
I had blood, I was on blood pressure medicine.
I was on two blood pressure medicines, by the way.
I was on a acid reflux medicine.
And I also had a horrible sleep apnea,
and I was also growing pallets on my throat.
And it just reached an apex and it got to a point where,
you know, my son, my oldest son,
who I had working as my road manager at the time
was so disappointed at what he saw in me.
And I never heard that from my son before.
So, it was a crossroads,
and I wasn't happy with the way I was feeling
and the way I was looking at myself.
And I knew in order to put this music out,
I needed to not just sound incredible,
but I needed to feel incredible,
and I needed to look incredible.
And I wanted to make sure that I had
successfully executed doing everything
that I was able to do within my means
and within my control and within my ability
to not leave a stone unturned
when it came to securing this win,
which is probably one of my greatest wins ever.
- Oh, that feels, that's gotta feel great, man.
Like, I do know that feeling
when you work on something and you're like, man,
I don't even care how it works out out there.
It got out of me. I'm so proud of it.
I did it. That's got to feel amazing.
And I heard, I just want to know if this is true.
My brother actually turned me on to your music
when I was really young, probably too young,
but I loved it.
And I have to say though,
I heard that your, you, actually, your first time,
your first, like, rap name wasn't Busta Rhymes.
Did you? You had another?
- No, it wasn't.
Yeah. My first solo album came out in 1996,
but my first record that I ever put out
came out in 1991 with my group, Leaders of the New School.
And Chuck D from Public Enemy
actually gave us the group name
Leaders of the New School,
but my first rap name was Chill-O-Ski,
and there was nothing cool about that.
- Like -
- Don't laugh at me, Kelly, don't laugh at me.
- Well, I just, I love it because
I just have always known you like since forever,
so I cannot picture you with another name
other than Busta Rhymes.
That's so fitting, like, you're Busta Rhymes.
Like, you are not Chill-O-Ski.
- I'm definitely not.
And you know, when Chuck D said that to me,
that my name should be Busta Rhymes,
I was like, I don't like that name.
Why should I be, why would you pick that
out of all names for me?
- [Kelly] You gonna bust a rhyme someone.
- Right, but that's, he said, you know,
Leaders of the New School is a statement.
You know, if you're going to be leading the new school
in the new era of hip hop and MCs and rappers
and you're going to be a significant part
of the climate shift in the culture,
then you gotta represent that from your name first.
They used to always ask me to bust a rhyme,
so it was kind of synonymous with that.
But whenever I did, you know,
get my opportunity to bust a rhyme or to rap for anybody
when they asked me to,
I just had such a charismatic and animated way,
you know what y'all know and love me for.
And I've been consistent with that since day one.
So, Chuck D said that it kind of reminded him,
my aggression in my performance,
my animation in my performance,
it reminded him of the legendary
Minnesota Vikings football player from 1985,
whose actual real name, first and last name
is Buster Rhymes.
So -
- Oh my gosh. I did not know that.
- So, I trusted his judgment.
I tried it, and it ended up sticking.
And once the world got ahold of it and fell in love with it,
I ended up eventually falling in love with it.
- Yeah, well, and it sounds like,
I love that it wasn't just about your music.
It was like your sway on all of culture,
like you were going to be a part of a movement.
I love that he thought big like that,
so quite the visionary as well.
Everybody, Busta's new album,
"Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God" is out now.
You gotta check it out.