Riddle Me This: What the fuck happened to Papoose and Rah Digga?
A funny thing happened around the top of 2006.
People started to care about Busta Rhymes again.
And it was all because of this one track; this new Swizz Beatz produced single that excelled in showing off many of Busta's patented trademarks: his mastering of the pre-chorus voice lift, often confused for a scream or a yell, and less often recognized as what it truly is: an invigorating exercise in verbal intensity. And of course, there's the soft yet animated verbal dexterity present on the verses.
You know what song I am talking about.
"Touch it- bring it - pay it - watch it -turn it - leave it - stop - format it..."
For nearly four minutes, people began to care about Bus-A Bus, taking him up on that offer at the the top of the song of taking our asses "back to the club real quick", something that apparently, we weren't "ready for."
And truly I don't think we were, but all of a sudden, out of nowhere, many of us realized that we missed Busta. Even the many of us who checked out E.L.E (Extinction Level Event), [okay, or Genesis which really ain't that bad either] boobed out heads, got crunk, and listened without prejudice. We were reminded of what he had been missing, thanks to poor single choices and spotty albums. We also realized that we wanted this crazy shouting fool back in our lives coming with the bangers.
I realized this twice in the past week.
The first time was last Saturday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Daft Punk show. Sweaty mess. Lights go dark. Pyramid gets highlighted. The bots get to it. Over an ass shaking, block rocking beat comes the voice of Busta's fembot
"Touch it- bring it - pay it - watch it -turn it - leave it - stop - format it..."
I went bananas because well, it was Daft Punk, and also because this song had been brought back into my life, and 1)I hadn't heard it in a minute, and 2) I forgot how much I adore it, and love shaking my ass to it. And when I say "shaking my ass" I mean shouting out a loud OHHHHH SHIIIIT! when I hear it, and dancing too hard to it as if, to quote my girl Teresa, "I ain't never heard music before."
Cut to Thursday night.
The Echo Plex.
Echo Park.
No disrespect to Chromeo. [Who put it down by the way] But by the time those fellas took the stage I was fucking exhausted. Flosstradamus killed it. I mean kiiiilled it. Working up a black sweat, shirt in my pocket, dancing with androgynous Asian hipsters killed it. Many songs in the set stood out, but which one took me back to that oh shit moment of that Daft Punk show?
"Touch it- bring it - pay it - watch it -turn it - leave it - stop - format it..."
-Sigh- It never gets old.
Hearing this song takes me back to a time when Busta Rhymes was an artist worth ponying up money for when a new album dropped. Took me back to a time where I stood in awe of this man's stage presence at Moby's Area Two tour. No hypemen. No weed carriers. No guy shouting the last word or few words of Busta's verse. Just Busta, his boy Spliff, a stage, a DJ, and a mic. The choruses were loud, and during the verses, the beat got low, real low, and Busta took his time, emphasizing every single syllable, making sure you took note of that verbal and lyrical dexterity I spoke of earlier. And trust me, you did.
That's the Busta we miss. That's the Busta we want. Not the Busta who gets more air time on BET, not because he has a new video to drop on Rap City or 106 & Park, but because he attacking "faggots", toting glocks, or ridin dirty. It's a goddamn shame, cause if anything, the banger that is Touch It, (along with that hot remix presented above), his scene stealing turn on T.I's latest disc, along with the presence of Touch It in Daft Punk's and Flosstradmus' sets show that we the people still care about Busta, the question is, does he still care about us?
Bonus:
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