Busta Rhymes and GloRilla: Two Generations of Hip-Hop Superstars Connect

B
usta Rhymes strode into the Apollo Theater with a massive entourage on Nov. 22. But most of his guests were his adult children, beaming with pride as their father readied himself to rock the stage. Busta brought his family to see him headline Rolling Stone’s second annual Musicians on Musicians event at the legendary Harlem venue because it was a special event for him. Busta is a hip-hop veteran — his first solo album dropped almost 30 years ago — and he’s still a chart-topping artist. He’s currently finishing his 12th solo album, so rest assured, there will be even more Busta in 2025.

GloRilla sauntered into the Apollo that same day like the superstar she is. You would’ve thought she owned the place. If she were any hotter, we’d have to call the fire department. With Glo’s badass voice, her Memphis twang, and her DGAF attitude, any track she’s on could be a hit. This year she dropped a massive mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang, with smashes like “Yeah Glo!” and “Wanna Be,” then came back with her debut album, Glorious, and smacked us with more smashes like “TGIF” and “Hollon.”

Glo is like Busta in that both of them have very animated, theatrical, memorable ways of elocuting. There’s a lot of color and texture in their voices, and they speak English in interesting ways. I think of both of them as phone book artists — as in, they could read the phone book and it would be compelling, because they have voices with an almost visual quality and unforgettable diction. Their basic approach to talking is fascinating. Both Glo and Busta sound like animated superheroes.

Busta is one of the last remaining leaders from an era when New York was the king of hip-hop. Glo is one of the leaders of the Memphis scene which many say is one of the hottest in hip-hop today. They’re two very different superstars who fit together so well they should make a record together. For real.

Until then, the three of us sat together on the Apollo stage.

Glo, you are on fire right now — your career is so hot. Are you pinching yourself? Are you like, What is life right now?

GloRilla: I did finally get used to it, but the first year and a half I was like, “This can’t be happening for real.” But I knew when had got used to it because I’m trying to keep it going. I don’t want to just live in a moment. I want to keep it going.

Two superstars in the building! Glo, how is life for you right now?

GloRilla: Every day I got to pray and thank God for it, because everybody don’t get to see this. So I’m super grateful and I’m super blessed, super humble about everything.

I know you studied hip-hop and the people who came before you. What do you love about Busta’s music?

GloRilla: How fast he be rapping! I could never do that. My tongue too big or something. How you do it? What’s the secret?

99 percent of MCs would like to know.

Busta Rhymes: I’m going to be honest with you. It’s called relaxing. If you notice, when I do a song like “Ante Up” or a song like “Scenario,” me and Spliff [Busta’s longtime hype man] will bounce off every part of the stage. But if I’m doing “Break Your Neck” or “Gimme Some More,” my movement is minimal and Spliff will do all of the antics around me to keep the animation going while I calm down. It’s really about centering everything to where the primary focus is. And in that moment it’s my mouth.

That makes sense.

Busta: I can’t be doing all of this shit when I got to give you proper enunciation. I got to be clear — because it defeats the purpose to do the fast thing if you don’t understand what I’m saying. I do have to give credit where credit is due, because there’s two legendary dancehall Jamaican artists that I saw do this for the first time. One’s name is Lieutenant Stitchie and he’s actually going through a medical crisis right now. So we want to send some prayers up for the legendary Lieutenant, and we also want to give a big shout out to the legendary Papa San. When I first saw them do it they was actually clashing against each other in 1986 at a Sting Clash in Jamaica. I never saw nothing like it. It was amazing to me. I thought they were superheroes and I wanted to be a superhero. So I just practiced to try to be a superhero like them. And eventually I was blessed enough to figure it out and become one.

You’ve said that Shabba Ranks is your North Star, as far as the dancehall artists who shaped your idea of what sort of artist you should be.

Busta: Shabba Ranks is still the North Star. What I got from Lieutenant Stitchie and Papa San was the technique of mastering speed rap. What I got from Shabba Ranks was the wow. Big colorful clothes, and kick your one foot up this way and one foot up that way when we on the stage, and the jumping around and simultaneously appealing to the street for the dudes, but also making sure that I found the right balance to appeal to the beautiful queens as well.

Speaking of the beautiful queens, what do you love about GloRilla’s music?

Busta: I’m going to tell you right now what I love about GloRilla. The GloRilla that we love is the GloRilla that we see ourselves in. We see ourselves in her. She is unfiltered. She’s not politically correct. She’s the truth. It’s beautiful when you are untainted by the industry, and her music speaks to my soul like that. You know what I’m saying? And it don’t hurt that she’s super sexy on top of it.

Glo, when I clued into your movement was when I heard you say “I ain’t got no [n-word] and no [n-word] ain’t got me.” I love that line. We’ve heard lots of songs about “I don’t have a man,” but you’re like, yeah, and you know what else, no man got me. I’m free.

GloRilla: I mean, that’s just what it was. I’m super single and I ain’t claiming no [n-word], so I don’t need no [n-word] claiming me. Don’t be telling nobody we talk, like, don’t be playing. I’m not yours. I’m mines.

One thing I love about both of you — just the way you both talk and articulate and play with words is crazy. You two both, you don’t even have to say incredible things, but it’s still going to sound amazing.

GloRilla: How I talk, it’s just Memphis. I don’t know no other way to explain it. It’s just Memphis. You been to Memphis before?

I’ve been to Memphis for sure. Some people say Memphis is the center of hip-hop right now. You accept that, Bus?

Busta: I’m not going to lie. There’s a significant role that Memphis plays as a staple in the hip-hop culture, and Memphis is where Stax Records is from. The ingredients that we used as hip-hop artists, before Memphis became such a significant staple in hip-hop, was kicks and snares and bass lines and singers from Stax in Memphis. So Memphis actually has been a significant contributor to all of the ingredients from the foundation of this hip-hop shit. So we got to give it up to Memphis all day.  

Glo, do you love New York hip-hop?

GloRilla: Yeah. I like New York hip-hop now. New York as a city, it’s congested. I had my daddy down here a few weeks ago and my dad was like, “Hell no. I can’t live out here.” It’s too much shit going on. It is fast and people out here, y’all walk past each other up real close and don’t care if you walk up on me. So yeah. I like New York music, though.

What do you love about being an MC?

GloRilla: The fact that I get to minister the people in my music. Yeah. I like the fact that people take my music and my lyrics as affirmations. I like this.

I know you saw that little video of Rihanna singing your song “TGIF” to A$AP Rocky.

GloRilla: Yep.

How did that make you feel?

GloRilla: I’m telling you, I was so geeked. I was in rehearsals for BET and I was just on my phone and I saw Rihanna pop up on my feed and I swear to God, I screamed so loud. I was like, y’all, this ain’t real. Rihanna is dancing to my song. I love Riri.

Busta, you’ve been doing this for a minute. Glo’s a superstar. She don’t need no help. But is there some bit of wisdom that you could impart to the young superstar?

Busta: First and foremost, the one thing that I learned that was super important when I was new, when I was trying to get on, I wanted the big homies to put their arm around me and give me the grooming and the schooling and the information and let me learn and ask questions.

His big homies were A Tribe Called Quest…

Busta: De La Soul…

The Jungle Brothers…

Busta: Parrish [Smith] from EPMD used to take me out in his Benz and I’d see his healthy diet and I used to ask him, “Why are you not eating pizza and burgers and shit?” He was like, “Because we got too much to do, between mingling with people and they different energy and performing and traveling. We got to eat healthy to be healthy.” He also used to drive me to different properties that he owned, and he used to be like, “Yo, Bus, take your money and buy real estate.” That led me to doing development property investments with my mother. This is when Williamsburg and Dumbo was just starting, 17, 18 years ago. So I’m just saying — I didn’t learn this from school, I learned this from MCs.