Busta Rhymes (Ft. Chance The Rapper) • "Hello"

View fullsize

Christmas really did come heavy for hip-hop fans as several projects from big names found themselves suddenly out in the public spectrum. Among those was the very reliable and long-awaited full-length from Busta Rhymes who offered up Return of the Dragon, The Abstract Went on Vacation for free over the holiday. Included in the drop was this gem featuring our very own Chance The Rapper who repays the favor from SURF by going all the way in on this verse. 

The bars here are somewhat reminiscent of his guest spot years ago on Childish Gambino's "They Don't Like Me" from his ROYALTY tape that was essentially a Chance track with a short cap verse from the owner of the single. Here, Chano similarly does the most while parrying back and forth between fantastical ideas, real life problems and the spectacle of it all. It comes delivered initially with a rhyme scheme that immediately took me back to Lil' Wayne's verse on Drake's "I'm Goin' In". Rapping "Hello rap game hey hi how ya dern / I done took my time and now it's time to take my turn" over a famous Luniz beat made for a memorable lead in that only gets better from there. Apparently the track also samples Adele's super-hit "Hello". Listen closely, too, there might just be some hints at when Chance's full-length will finally be dropping, apparently it wasn't coming down the chimney so we're once again on toes. 

It's always dope to see the hometown artists find a placement with legends like Busta, but this does raise interesting questions as to how many loose Chance verses may be floating around from the SURF sessions. While Erykah Badu's recent project came without one, keep your eyes peeled moving into 2016 for more ripples from that wave.

Download Busta's entire project for free here.