Busta Rhymes has finally gotten his just due, and will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s BET Awards.
Billboard reported that the former Leader of the New School will be honored by his peers on Sunday (June 25), and artists like Coi LeRay and Rah Digga will be paying tribute to his thirty-year career during the show.
Busta Rhymes will be the third rapper to be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous Hip Hop honorees included Queen Latifah and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
“Busta Rhymes is a multifaceted, award-winning artist who has mesmerized audiences for decades with his original hip-hop sound and one-of-a-kind visuals,” Scott Mills, CEO of BET, said in a statement to Billboard. “He continues to leave an indelible mark on the culture that we hold dear, and it is with great pride that we present this year’s lifetime achievement award to a visionary, a master of rhyme and a true pioneer.”
Despite his thirty-year Hip Hop career, Busta Rhymes is still making timely, relevant music in the 21st century.
On Thursday (June 22), the Dungeon Dragon teamed up with BIA for the first summer jam, “Beach Ball.”
The song — which will be featured on the former Leader of the New School member’s forthcoming album — features bouncy beats and catchy rhymes, and of course, BIA at her raunchy finest with Busta doing his usual dark and deep cadence.
“See I inflated the plot/ ever since the day of crack sales, I upgraded the block, n-gga,” he spits. “Yeah/ Louis and that Gucci make a bug in Bergdorf/ Take me to a dressing room and gimme top ’til she coughin’/ Waterfallin’, suckin’ on these beach balls/ and all these bitches walkin’ ’round me/ talkin’ ’bout, ‘I miss y’all.’”
The official video for the song dropped on Friday (June 23).
Fans of the Hip Hop mainstay were curious early last week when he cleared out his entire Instagram page, leaving behind just a single cryptic photograph to tease fans about his next move.
On June 16, the Dungeon Dragon deleted all of his photos, including his profile photo. In its place, he left behind a picture of a beach ball, which he also made his latest profile picture.
“6.23.23 [eyes emoji],” he wrote in the caption, suggesting that this might be the “drop date” for his new album (but, as we now know, is the drop date for the “Beach Ball” single).
