Busta Rhymes put on a suit and tie earlier this week to deliver a special performance backed by a live orchestra at Carnegie Hall — see footage below.
On Monday (February 27), the iconic venue held a special event titled Carnegie Hall Presents Power Network: A Black History Month Conversation and Concert with hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings from the podcast series Earn Your Leisure.
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Busta Rhymes served as the night’s special guest performer alongside his longtime hype man Spliff Starr dressed in tuxedos. The duo performed hits such as “Ante Up,” “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” “I Know What You Want” and more.
Busta took time out of his set to tell the audience how huge it was for him to be a kid from Brooklyn performing at Carnegie Hall and his mother helping him out along the way.
“While she was making breakfast, I used to see Transformers and Voltron,” he shared with the sold-out audience, noting that his cartoons would come on between 6:30 and 8:00 am.
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“So, names like Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Soundwave [I would hear]. It was interesting when I went to the corner store to get my Charleston Chews … I would see brothers on the corner and they would have names like Lord Victorious and Supreme justice … Peace to the Gods!”
He continued: “The point that I’m trying to make is that I learned a lot tonight while in my dressing room looking at the TV monitors and watching these incredible gentlemen speak.”
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The event had special guest speakers such as Robert F. Smith, Dr. Paul Judge, Derek Ferguson, Yvette Badu-Nimako and more, all of who shared their respective business insights with the audience. Busta continued to explain that what he learned during the event isn’t taught in schools and is something that he cherishes.
“Interestingly, what I learned today they don’t teach at school,” he said. “Same way I learned from these brothers that stood on the corner … like how much the earth weighs … how far the earth was each planet from the sun … what’s the total square mileage of the planet … the original man is the Maker, the Owner, the Cream of the Planet Earth, the God of the Universe.”
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He added: “So, to come from those humble beginnings, I was being taught like this from dudes that looked like the ones would racially profile. I was taught by these brothers to believe that I was made in the likeness of God and I believe this so much I claim that divine that everything that I wanted after I would just claim.
“32 years later by professional recording career on stage at Carnegie Hall. Leading up to this moment, I had two tear-jerking moments. I cried a lot. They were tears of joy. I am so happy to be here.”
Meanwhile, Busta Rhymes was recently depicted in the third season of Hole series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, but fans aren’t happy with the actor who plays him. The actor, Saeed Jackson, appears in a scene where he speaks to RZA’s character, and fans have let their displeasure be heard.
“I NEED YA TO GO RECAST FOR BUSTA RHYMES IN WU TANG SZN 3 RIGHT NOW!!! Ya just pissed me off,” one person wrote, while another added: “Nah why that got that dude playing busta rhymes in wu-tang ? That got me hot smh!”
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Another Twitter user added: “Wu Tang know they was wrong.. this don’t look nothing like Busta Rhymes this N-gga look like Iman Shumpert lil cousin!”
