Melle Mel continues his rap hot takes, as he said that Busta Rhymes is better than Jay-Z. Moreover, it seems like those comments came from the same interview in which he said Eminem is only considered a top five rapper because he’s white. Of course, that assessment set the Internet on fire for a bit, but this take seems a bit more nuanced. Furthermore, it sounds as if the Furious Five member spoke primarily of both’s abilities as MCs. At the end of the day, he sided with Busta for his magnanimous stage presence and his intangible yet hard-hitting talent.
“But now my point is, could he go up against Busta Rhymes?” Mel said of Jay-Z referring to Billboard‘s greatest rappers of all time list. “Could Busta take Jay-Z, yes or no? I don’t have no fear of getting on stage with anybody and crossing mics with anybody. Busta’s a hard draw. That would probably be the hardest draw in the game. He got all the intangibles. It’s a certain thing that Busta got that a lot of MCs don’t got. When he comin’ on that stage, if you out in the crowd, you know something is about to happen. It ain’t just the regular run of the mill ‘I can’t wait for him to do so-and-so song. It’s that magnetism. It’s like a different level that all MCs don’t have that he got. I’ll ride with Busta. If you got the list in front of you, where is Busta on that list?
Melle Mell Says Busta Rhymes Is Better Than Jay-Z
“On an overall 360 of an MC: the pen game, the studio game, the rap game, but the stage presence, that’s got to be in the equation,” he continued. “And absolutely, Busta’s stage presence is better than Jay-Z. Absolutely. I mean, it’s no denying that. Did you see where Busta is on that list? 33. Now, it ain’t [32] guys that can take the guy. That’s my point. Now if he’s 33, it’s not [32] guys that’s gonna say, ‘I want Busta, I wanna do the Verzuz.’ Don’t nobody want him. It ain’t gon’ happen. He could call dudes out. It’s not gonna happen. The type of MC that Busta is is more along the lines of what we was trying to do back in the day. You take your lunch pail to work, you go to work, and you work hard.
“It’s not like, as time went along, the industry kind of guy, the entrepreneur kind of guy, the guy that can do three or four things, he makin’ all different kind of money,” he concluded. “You know what I mean? And there’s a place for those guys and there is greatness in that. But I’m talking about 24/7, 365 days a year, wake Busta up out his sleep, wake Melle Mel up out his sleep, wake Caz up out his sleep, give this n***a a mic. Something gon’ happen. That’s my opinion of MCing, and my opinion should count more that the guy from the Vibe. ‘Cause there’s no way that Busta Rhymes is 33 in the greatest rappers of all time when, who’s gonna rap with the guy?” Let us know your take in the comments and return to HNHH for more hot takes in the rap game.