I really do love it when the New York Times and other such publications refer to Busta Rhymes as “Mr. Rhymes.”
Back when we did the Scarface at the go-go post, a few readers requested that it become a regular series. Well, here it goes. Busta and some semblance of Flipmode (probably just Spliff Star) rocking with BYB shortly after the release of The Coming. His energy translates pretty well even if his mic seems a little too low.
The Coming was a pretty great rap album, iirc. Maybe it requires a revisitation?
It is a myth that Rap-A-Lot doesn’t know how to market artists. While it’s true that Z-Ro should be a national legend and Devin a pop celebrity by now. But that’s the thing about RAL, they have a marketing plan, it just doesn’t involve superstardom. The J. Prince buisness marketing plan focuses Rap-A-Lot artists directly where they’d be most comfortable: small, primarily black cities throughout the midwest and south. In short Prince and them are simply completely unconcerned about about selling records to whitey. (My Rap-A-Lot connect used to return my phone calls and emails with the quickness when I wrote for Vibe and XXL. It’s been all tumbleweeds since I’ve approached them as a writer for the Washington Post and NPR…) This might not be a horrible business plan in this day and age because whitey doesn’t buy music anymore. Oh and also it’s made RAL the longest running independent rap label in the history of genre. DC might be the most obvious case study for these localized successes. Until recently DC seemed like Houston-North musically – screw tapes, UGK, etc. all go hard here. This is because Rap-A-Lot has marketed directly to DC natives for the entirety of the labels existence. Devin is damn near a superstar. Ro is an underground legend. Even Yukmouth moves units in the DMV. And Scarface is undeniably the city’s favorite rapper. (more…)
