Woo Ha

There's an adage in the publishing world that books have the shelf life of yogurt. The same could be said of rappers, if yogurt lasted for years at a time. Like chemically stabilized goat yogurt. Rappers have the shelf life of goat yogurt.

A better analogy is that they basically live in dog years. From the moment you get some visibility, you have eight to ten years to remain relevant. After that, you undergo one of nature's most beautiful transformations: from rapper to dad. Pretty much every rapper with a household name does very little, in terms of the content of their music, other than yell at the kids to get off the lawn.

But some older rappers, the chosen few, manage to resist the temptations of crankiness, domesticity and predictability. Dr. Dre. Bun B. DMX. And, maybe most important of all, Busta Rhymes.



He's like that kid in 28 Weeks Later whose body mysteriously resists infection by the Rage virus. There is something in Busta's genes that makes him immune to the slow creep of mediocrity. His delivery is still jaw dropping, his lyrics have always remained sophisticated without lapsing into pedantry and he is still having WAY MORE FUN THAN ANYONE. Maybe that's the secret. He actually loves making music, and pretty clearly isn't just using his talent as leverage on fame. Try to tell me that 50 Cent loves the process of writing and recording songs.

Maybe we should inject some of Busta's marrow into Eminem. It might be our only chance.