Busta Rhymes is getting ready to release his 10th studio album, and he’s recruited a comedian to help him with his rollout.
On Monday (Aug.17), Chris Rock posted a video of him repeatedly chanting the words, “You n***as can’t fuck with the god Busta Rhymes” to the tune of Chopin’s “Marche funèbre.”
The caption alongside the video read, “It’s official @bustarhymes new album is titled #ELE2. Coming soon…,” confirming the upcoming release of Busta’s next album.
The rapper posted the same video on his own Instagram page, thanking his close friend Rock for helping to get the word out. In his following post, he announced he has a new song with Vybz Kartel that will premiere on Friday (Aug. 21).
Extinction Level Event 2 has been a long time coming. In 2014, when Busta was four years into the process of putting the album together, he parted ways with Cash Money Records so he could focus on the vision for his LP.
Following his release from the label, he explained his decision in an interview with “Sway in the Morning,” citing creative differences.
“I was there for two years and the opportunity was a great opportunity at the time, because of the type of deal that was done,” the “Touch It” star explained. “For me, with this particular project and all of the sacrifice that went into it – recording the album for five years, I [lost] Chris Lighty making this album, I [lost] my father making this album – the s**t I was putting into this album, I’m not compromising my vision for it.”
He continued, “So if I feel like if, in the slightest way, we ain’t facilitating everything necessary for the vision to be seen and executed in the way I’m envisioning this s**t for the last five years, let me live and die in my own inequity.”
In a 2018 interview with HipHopDX, he promoted the album as if it would come that year, mentioning he’d received public cosigns from producers 9th Wonder and Just Blaze as well as Rapsody.
“They’re all legends. They’re all icons in the game and you know, when they speak, people listen,” he said. “It’s something I’ve never really had happen in this dynamic where word-of-mouth and the fellow comrade endorsement publicly in this dynamic has happened at this magnitude.”
Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God will serve as the sequel to Busta’s third studio album Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front, which came out in 1998.
The project included Billboard Hot 100 hit “What’s It Gonna Be?!” featuring Janet Jackson and received three Grammy Award nominations for Best Rap Album, Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 42nd Grammy Awards.