Unlike many of Busta Rhymes’ most fruitful creative relationships—Hype Williams, the Neptunes, Q-Tip, Spliff Star, Rah Digga, Swizz Beatz, DJ Scratch—his long-term partnership with producer J Dilla was never flashy, almost understated. When teaming with Dilla, Busta never got any volatile, flamboyant, shout-rap singles with music videos made of Tex Avery-styled antics and critical levels of fish-eye lens; never any hip-hop radio chokeholds or sneaky pop radio Trojan horses. However, the juxtaposition of Busta’s fire-breathing flow and Dilla’s muted, ill-proportioned pockets always served as a perfect chaser to the rapper’s more ostentatious moments of woo-hah and rowr-rowr and cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.
Between 1996 and his death a decade later, Dilla quietly contributed seasick tracks to six of Busta’s first seven albums—a legacy of incredibly funky songs that were never marketed in a way to warrant a blue text hyperlink on Wikipedia. In November 2007, under the aegis of mixtape DJ Mick Boogie and with the blessing of Dilla’s mom, Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey, the Dilla-Busta Accord continued with Dillagence, featuring more unheard and underheard recordings of the rapper-producer team. It was an incredible showcase of their working relationship, with Busta often mirroring Dilla’s off-kilter rhythms and skipping melodies, dipping into Nice & Smooth flows (“Step Up”) and eating up the occasional Donut (“Best That Ever Did It”). It didn’t make much of an impact at the time, though: The cult of Dilla was still growing, Busta was in his “King of New York” phase (cf. “Touch It,” “New York Shit”), and mixtape junkies were busy watching the tail end of Lil Wayne’s classic era and the beginning of Gucci’s.
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Nearly 10 years later comes Dillagence II, a sequel that is slightly less exciting than the original, but still full of thrills. Since Busta is recording brand-spanking-new raps over vintage productions, the album’s timeline is asynchronous. But Busta remains a reliable craftsman and, hey, who doesn’t want to hear 19 never-released Dilla beats?
The best songs here move at mixtape pace: short durations, chorus-less raps, experimental beats, and gonzo flows—especially since Dilla’s own work has most often been appreciated via the sketches and scribbles of albums like the landmark Donuts and the posthumous Jay Stay Paid. Little tracks like “How the Boss Will Deliver,” “Entry,” and “Drugs” are quick and dirty knockouts. “SPAZZZ” combines the work of three producers—Dilla, Detroit grimester Black Milk, Kev Brown—into a vintage boastfest where Busta is having so much fun that he starts pretending the mic is off. Album highlight “Talk Ya Shit” makes magic with a slowed-down Gilberto Gil sample and a vintage, Auto-Tune-free Lil Wayne punchline rap. “How You Want It” has a “Dilla time” snare that’s so off the beat it feels like it’s going to teeter off the track entirely.
Dillagence II falters when it starts making overtures to being a big-tent rap album. The famous guests—many who never rapped on a Dilla beat during the producer’s lifetime—all sound perfectly serviceable, but the illusion becomes anachronistic when Ludacris starts joking about “cancel culture” and Big Sean says he’s “got you swinging off of the chandelier like the Sia song.” A raw and unfinished collab with D’Angelo (“This Woman”) has the neo-soul icon doing some falsetto Sister Nancy lines, a nice flashback to the Voodoo days. However, Busta’s soggy “I Love My Chick”-style love-rap is mostly cornball. A six-minute closer with Common and Jon Batiste (“What We Got in Common”) pushes dramatic Dilla beats into the melodramatic and sounds like they’re both gunning for second Oscars.
J Dilla made beats like regular producers make carbon dioxide and it’s still a joy when new ones emerge. Should Busta have just data-dumped the 300 instrumentals he’s sitting on? Maybe, but then we wouldn’t get Lil Wayne saying, “I ain’t doin’ well, bitch, I’m doin’ Wells Fargo” over one of the funkiest pulses to ever grace his voice. And whither Busta, still a relentless and hungry old-school craftsman, even in his 35th year in the game—should he be relegated to trying to Dungeon Dragon on a blown-out rage rap beat? Instead, Diligence II captures both of their vintage magic in a sturdy, powerful package.
