Busta Rhymes

Album: EP 1 (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Qveen Herby is the "bad bitch" rapper reinvention of Amy Noonan, known for her duo Karmin with her husband Nick. Karmin got their start when they posted a cover of the Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne collaboration Look at Me Now on YouTube with Amy doing the verses of all three rappers. Truly striking was how she handled Busta's section, keeping up with the flow and pronouncing every word clearly. The video went viral, and Karmin took a deal with Epic Records, one of many labels the came courting. After four years on Epic, they left in 2014 to go independent. In 2017, they announced the end of Karmin and the beginning of Qveen Herby, with Nick taking a background role as producer. They released music every few months in the form of 5-song EPs; "Busta Rhymes," a throwback to the video that first made them famous, is on their first EP.
  • This song is a vehicle for Herby's hyperspeed flows, but also a tribute to Busta Rhymes, her speed-rapping paragon. "My teacher is a legend," she raps about him.

    "I have studied Busta's work through and through," she told Songfacts. "His dexterity and his skill to rap fast especially, and even the way he shot his visuals. I have learned so much from him."
  • Herby got to meet Busta Rhymes, and it went well. "I don't think he expected a little white girl from Nebraska to be so inspired by him, but he came up to me and he recognized me right away," she said in her Songfacts interview. "He said, 'How did you do it? how did you rap like that?' I was like, 'Dude, I learned it from you.' That was an incredible moment."
  • With help from various directors, designers and stylists, Herby makes videos for at least one song on every EP - she has a huge following on YouTube. For the "Busta Rhymes" video, directed by Benjamin Farren and Brandon Douglas, she never leaves the couch, but still gets her message across. "For some artists it's better to spend a million dollars on a video and go to Paris and jump off the Eiffel Tower and do all the special effects, but for me, sitting on a couch and rapping is the most engaging thing I can make," she said.

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