Busta Rhymes has shut down the suggestion that older rappers don’t “respect” the younger generation of artists.
Appearing on British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast, the legendary rapper took issue with the narrative that older heads don’t have time for young rappers.
“I’m never gonna listen to the narrative of the elder statesmen or the older MCs don’t really respect what the new guys is doing. That shit is bullshit,” Busta said.
“Speaking for myself and the type of artist I surround myself with, we don’t feel like that. We don’t move like that. When we was young artists, we wanted the big dudes to put their arms around us.”
He continued: “Chuck D gave me my name, Big Daddy Kane used to let me come to his crib, he put me on his albums, De La Soul, they did the same shit for us. I feel like it’s only right we do the same shit for the next generation of muthafuckas, especially if they dope.
“And I’m a fan of a lot of these new artists. I wanna work with them ’cause they still inspiring me to wanna go in the studio and stay razor blade sharp with my shit. And I see a lot of them paying homage. There’s a lot of muthafuckas walking around with hairstyles like how I used to wear it with my dreads.”
Busta concluded by saying: “I just wanna make sure they know we not only here for them to give them the answers and the mentorship and the guidance and the information. I also want them to know we love them too, we fans of what y’all doing, we see you paying homage and we want y’all to know we paying homage to y’all too.”
Listen to his comments at the 1:38:30 mark below.
Busta Rhymes has previously been open about wanting to work with younger rappers and has collaborated with a slew of them including Coi Leray, Kodak Black and DaBaby.
He also recently named a number of younger peers as dream collaborators, with the likes of J. Cole, Drake, JID and Coco Jones on his wish list.
Speaking on The Breakfast Club last year, Busta said: “I ain’t work with Cole yet, I wanna work with Cole. I’m a huge fan of JID. JID is crazy. Big shout out to JID.
“Huge fan of Drake. Would love to work with Drake. Coco Jones is incredible to me. I’m a huge fan of Janelle Monáe too.”
The Flipmode Squad frontman also named R&B singer October London, who he likened to Marvin Gaye, and Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe, who he hailed as “incredible.”
Busta says “When we was young artists, we wanted the big dudes to put their arms around us.” Unfortunately they dont feel the same way, its a cultural difference. But I dont blame older rappers for eating of younger rappers plates. The industry only cares about youth and considers it some kind of stupid selling point. And its only in hip hop. You dont see no reggae, rock, or country music up and coming artists dissing the legends.
Exactly the ageism has reached its peak and we all supposed to be growing so this lil this lil that ain’t really making no sense but disrespecting your elders or being exploited for your young age and inexperience
If only respected himself by keeping them garbage ass young n!ggas off of his that wack album he dropped last year.
Point missed.
Yep. You definitely missed it if you think im trying to kick knowledge! 😅
These brats should answering why they don’t respect their elders. Bunch of weird, crybaby cornballs.
these old dudes always on the scene with some mush mouth nonsense that’s why no one respects them. you never saw rolling stones in a mohawk claiming to be punks. maybe they sped up the tempo of a record or put in a disco bassline to stay current but other than that they stayed true to something – same with isley bros.
You mean the old dudes that perfected the art form that these pop stars emulate and suck dry with little contribution. MJ is the goat and the golden era is the pinnacle of hip hop. Can’t wait to see the new generation disrespect this current bitch ass generation the same way. Shit is gonna be hilarious.
I respect Busta he made a lot of fun rap records in the 90s and is always good for a tune. But when I hear how he has to work with this and that “artist” it makes me question his credentials as an artist himself. I understand that’s how the “game” is now but really he should stand on his own. good artists don’t need 50 collabs to stay hot
I think you will find it’s the other way around. Young rappers don’t respect the older artists.
Why??? Because they were the ones that started this thing called rap. I believe these young Kats could learn so much about the industry because they have been through it already. I really don’t understand why they aren’t being more transparent with each other. I drive for Uber the amount of young kids that state today’s music is trash is astounding they relate more to 80’s and 90s music as being the best era in music and that’s from this generation. Big Ups to our Founding Fatjers of Hip Hop.