Busta Rhymes

You could throw a pretty big top-dollar music festival with all the guests that show up on Busta Rhymes' upcoming album Back on My B.S.: hip hop luminaries like Young Jeezy, Jadakiss, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Common and T.I.; R&B stars ranging from T-Pain to Estelle to Ne-Yo; producers like Dr. Dre and the Neptunes -- even Linkin Park, every MC's favorite mook-rock group. But there's a difference between having a ton of co-stars and getting overshadowed, and you'd need to blot out the sun to overshadow Busta Bus. The gravelly-voiced master of the club anthem has toned down the outlandish surrealism that made him a Martha Stewart-bantering crossover phenom in his "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" days -- heads are still reeling from the fact he cut off his dreads back in '05 -- but if last November's single "Arab Money" is any indication, he hasn't toned down his swagger.
Fri., March 6, 10 p.m., 2009