New Busta Rhymes Album, Tour Coming This Summer
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 06.04.2008
Busta headed to Projekt Revolution, planning release of Blessed and "moving the chess pieces" this summer...
Busta Rhymes has been tapped to perform on the main stage of this summer's Projekt Revolution tour, which also features performances by Linkin Park, Chris Cornell, the Bravery and Ashes Divide, among others.
Rhymes recently drafted Linkin Park to guest on his new single, "We Made It," which was produced by Cool & Dre and Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda. The track will appear on Rhymes' eight studio album, Blessed, due later this summer via Flipmode/Aftermath/Interscope.
"It made perfect sense for us to be on the tour together, so we could perform ['We Made It'] and bring it to life for people every night," said Rhymes.
Rhymes plans to perform new material from "Blessed" during Projekt Revolution, but doesn't expect his set to get too flashy. "I'm really one that loves the traditional sense of hip-hop," the rapper explains. "I like microphones and turntables."
"This album is Busta Rhymes in a mastered way," he says of Blessed. "I think [Dre] felt like it was time to allow me to spread my wings and take the best of what I learned from my experience in doing The Big Bang to this new album."
Along with Linkin Park, "Blessed" finds Rhymes collaborating with T-Pain ("Blown"), Ludacris, Lil Wayne ("Throw It Up"), Akon, T.I. ("Don't Believe 'Em"), Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Common ("Decision"), J. Holiday ("Hits for Days") and the Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger ("If"), among others.
Lyrically, Rhymes drew from "my own personal experience, like a lot of shit I've been through for the last two years," he says. "I'm also giving people my perspective on what my experience was, because I never really made time to communicate with the people about my perspective, especially when a lot of the heat was going on with my situation. I'm able to properly control the way everything is addressed on my album."
Busta also appears in the upcoming film Order of Redemption, which also stars actors Armand Assante and Tom Berenger. He also appeared on the CBS MMA debut this weekend.
"We're strategically moving the chess pieces to make sure we're doing the most incredible things that we can be doing," says Rhymes, noting that he has a "couple of deals we're going to be closing on a corporate level."
Following the Projekt Revolution tour, Rhymes says he will head overseas to headline an arena tour. "We're starting in Europe and then bringing it back to the U.S.," he says. "We're still coordinating the lineup right now."
