It Ain't Safe No More
Busta Rhymes's sixth solo album loosely follows in the tradition of his 1998Extinction Level Eventand 2000'sAnarchy, offering up lucid, timely commentary over futuristic beats. In fact, his previous new-world-order rants provide a perfect prelude to his post-9/11 analysis on the title track. While Busta offers his unpredictable array of flows across the usual balance of club tracks ("Make It Clap"), hottie songs of praise ("Hey Ladies"), and obligatory street anthems ("What Do You Do When You're Branded"), one can't help wonder why he'd mix in tired concepts (south Asian compositions on "Take It Off Part 2") or perform the pimped-out, playa routine on "Taste It," with its sundry (yawn) sexual references. Like its predecessor,Genesis, this album is sonically superior to most in the marketplace, thanks to contributions from the Neptunes. While big-name collaborations withMariah Careyon "I Know What You Want" (where Busta croons) andCarl Thomas("The Struggle Will Be Lost") don't exactly change the price of butter, hey, at least Busta's not pointlessly advertising chi-chi liquor companies this time around.--Dalton Higgins