The entire concept of the hip-hop skit was fast becoming passé by 1997, but you could still find them on classic albums from that year, including Likwidation by Tha Alkaholiks and Organized Konfusion’s The Equinox.īut skits and other bad moments can be forgiven because it’s hard to stay mad at Busta Rhymes. When Disaster Strikes also has some low points including a few wildly misogynistic and homophobic skits. “So Hardcore” meanwhile is produced by The Ummah, with J Dilla continuing to hit his stride, by now well on the way to greatness. DJ Scratch would for a time become the default beatmaker for Busta Rhymes and his Flipmode Squad, while also occasionally still making music with the group that gave him his original breakthrough, EPMD. It was a solid record that appealed to both the purists and the masses, bolstered by the flamboyant “Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check,” and the even crazier remix featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard.īeyond the familiar singles, When Disaster Strikes offers several head-nodding deeper cuts produced by the perennially underrated DJ Scratch, including “We Could Take This Outside,” a track deserving of special mention for sampling the hauntingly melancholy “The Windmills of Your Mind” by Henry Mancini. The years that followed the LONS break up saw Busta continue to outshine anybody dumb enough to invite him onto their music, before he finally hit the big leagues with the excellent 1996 full-length debut The Coming. Highlights include his spot on A Tribe Called Quest’s anthemic “Scenario,” where he somehow managed to upstage Q-Tip and Phife, and a verse on “Come on Down” from Big Daddy Kane’s 1991 Prince of Darkness album. (The Inner Mind's Eye), the follow up to their acclaimed 1991 debut A Future Without A Past. The unraveling of a group that helped define the classic early ‘90s hip-hop sound was a loss to listeners, but what we gained was the emergence of one of the biggest personalities in rap.īusta Rhymes’ path toward solo stardom had in fact begun a while before his group fell apart, thanks to a run of show-stealing guest appearances since 1991. It was only a short time since the release of their second album T.I.M.E. There's an awkward moment in a 1993 episode of Yo! MTV Raps when midway through being interviewed by Fab 5 Freddy, the group Leaders of the New School split up. Happy 20th Anniversary to Busta Rhymes’ second studio album When Disaster Strikes, originally released September 16, 1997.

Busta rhymes when disaster strikes