When i heard Busta was gonna release a follow up to one of his most successful and greatest albums of his career, my hopes for this album were very high and hopeful! sometimes when your expectations are high it’s not a good thing but with E.L.E. 2 it didn’t matter as it delivered on every aspect! busta has never really released a bad album just some more commercial that others and none surpassed his first 3 albums and for over 20 years i’ve always wanted that next banging Busta album with more Real Hip Hop than radio friendly cuts and club bangers an that’s what we got. It’s a complete album, it has everything from raw banging hip hop, minimal, trap, club bangers and radio friendly tracks but 80% is real hip hop and that’s made this album one of the best not only in his career but in modern hip hop and hip hop needed this album! And i mean the industry! Bring back the real to the mainstream!
Like ‘Pac’ Told ‘Biggie’ nearly 30 years ago “when you make an album do a few radio friendly tracks and the rest do you and whatever you want”. this formula is still the success to an album that will not only be a true hip hop album but also be successful without being a total crossover sell out album which cares only for numbers and popularity and not the culture or art of hip hop and mainstream hip hop has fallen deep into former and Busta has finally shown the industry you don’t need to make music like Drake, Lil Wayne, Migos, Lil Pump or Post Malone to be a success and Thank you Busta.
From the Jump it gets poppin’, and with the legends ‘Rakim’ and ‘Pete Rock’ my hopes were getting answered and damn even though he don’t jump on the mic much these days it’s still a blessing to hear the god MC lace a track. ‘The Purge’ is a quick 70 second track that shows what’s up. The Purge siren is a nice touch to make the beat raw. ‘Strap Yourself Down’ Sees Busta Return To his Best with Savage Rhymes and using his unique flow plus the humour we all knew him for to make and absolute hip hop banger. Now ‘Czar’ really is a banger and reminds us how good Busta is and that the bangers he makes are still top notch. ‘Outta My Mind’ is the ish i like to hear. Taking a track and chopping it up to make something new and WOW that is how you do it, and this is the sort of thing missing from the industry (obviously we hear it all the time in real hip hop and the underground) and you don’t get more Hip Hop than Chopping a track up like ‘Jason Voorees’.
The title Track has Minister Farrakhan dropping knowledge and it’s not an interlude so make sure you don’t skip as Busta really hits the spot with the current climate and really goes well with Farrakhan’s words. ‘Slow Flow’ is a dream come true. Another Busta and ODB collabo and i wish it was a true new feature as i miss ODB still to this day! R.I.P. Dirt Dog. So glad Busta done this feature and it really shows Busta ain’t forgot about Hip Hop. ‘Don’t Go’ is another great feature and this time it’s the ATCQ legend ‘Q-Tip’ and man, i love the vibe on this, it’s more chill but damn it really sounds like the late 90s Busta! ‘Boomp’ and ‘True Indeed’ are straight bangers (yes we are getting spoilt even at the half way point of the album). ‘Master Fard Muhammad’ is a great chill jazz style track with minimal drums and even though i’m not a ‘Rick Ross’ fan at all, i really dig this cut. ‘Yuuu’ ain’t for me as it’s a crossover track and i really don’t like that style of flow, it’s always sounded disjointed and i like everything to flow proper, even though Busta does his thing at the end, i have much more meat on the bone to chew to worry about one track.
The next two tunes are trap so if that’s your thing these two are for you and even i like them as with someone as talented as busta he still rips them up even though the claps, 808’s of trap are boring as hell now, hearing someone like busta rip up a distorted 808 is worth it (just a few times) and ‘The Don And The Boss’ is just that, and if you know about Vybes Cartel you know he Run tings in Jamaica (literally) and he is one of my Fav artist along with ‘Capleton’ so i love this track. ‘Best i can do’ is back to the real and WOW ‘Busta’ and ‘Rapsody’ kill it over some soul sampled hip hop and this is my flava and i can’t get enough of this track. ‘Where i Belong’ really does throw it back to E.L.E. 1 and man what a way to do a radio friendly track with one of the R’N’B artist’s from the First E.L.E. and it sounds like it’s own part 2. ‘Deep Thought’ see’s Busta dive into just that: his deepest thoughts and over a dark Jazz infused beat with accoustic bass it’s flames.
‘The Young God Speaks’ is the only skit of sorts and the beat from ‘Deep Thought’ Carries over which is a nice touch. ‘Look Over Your Shoulders’ is another soulful track and even Lamar returns to his best with what made him big but Busta lights this ish up. ‘You Will never find another’ is such a banger and could be a modern day Motown Classic with sick drums. ‘Freedom’ has a Detroit, Slum Village/J Dilla vibe to it and Busta really gets deep on this one. ‘Satanic’ See’s E.L.E. 2 go out with a bang and the last two tracks Touch on some life topics of racism and politics and of course if you didn’t skip the end you will hear ‘Chris Rock’ close the show and what a show it was! who would of thought the end of the world would of been so enjoyable!
Bangers: Too many to list but personally there’s at least 14, 15 tracks i absolutely dig.
Score: 10/10 it’s a perfect score because not only did Busta Deliver on this album, the Industry needs this album and with 22 tracks and only a few skits (if any) leaves space for your radio friendly or crossover tracks and the rest is pretty much banging, from the raw Hip Hop first half to the Deep soulful back end, the album is one of the most complete albums of recent and even not liking a few tracks midway it has enough to really be a modern day classic and by the end of the album i felt like i’ve been on a journey.
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Most definitely an epic album!