CA&E: Why is it important to have the kind of system you have in the car. How do you use your system aside from bangin' on the street
Busta: I never bang it on the street, first of all, because I don't want to bait my vehicles for people who want to steal it. It's primarily for me and my listening pleasure. Y'know, you're in the studio, making these albums, these songs and you get a certain quality in the studio that you never get once you leave it. The closest thing you're probably going to have to a studio is your car. That's my extended studio. When you can go in the car and turn it down real low and hear all the distinct quality, the high hats piercing at the proper level, the bottom with the bass kick still thumping - even when it's not that loud - and you hear that distinct "cleanliness" in the system, then you know what you did in the studio was balanced right.
CA&E: Tell me about the engineers you work with.
Busta: That's Pat and Vinny. Tower Audio Recording. They're an independent engineering team. I've been working with them since the Leaders of the New School. I have a chemistry with them, a vibe, a comfort zone with the cats. They know what the sound is that I always love to have. So I can come into the studio when they start a mix and they'll tell me, like, if the session starts at six, they'll tell me not to show up at the studio until ten o'clock, because they know all the levels and the EQ that I want. As far as mixing is concerned they just understand so thoroughly about what I need, what I want, how I gotta' have it, what's going to make me happy, what's going to make me comfortable. So I don't have to sit in the studio for three or four hours while they're tweaking and getting the levels. I come in when they pretty much get it at that point and I'll just say the background levels are too low, tell 'em to raise it here, turn it down there, and the mix is pretty much done.
CA&E: They know your style
Busta: They know it so thoroughly they could mix whole albums for me without me having to be there.
CA&E: Where are they from. East Coast, West?
Busta: No, Pat is from Long Island. Vinny is from Brooklyn. I worked with Vinny first and Vinny brought in Pat years later.
CA&E: Now what have you been doing out in L.A.?
Busta: In L.A. I was [working] with Dre, Michaelangelo, Jellyroll, Battlecat, and rhyming with Timbaland here and there.
CA&E: So all the stuff you do with those guys is going to Pat and Vinny -
Busta: Well, nah, Dre, he is uncompromising. You don't have to tell Dre anything about how he wants his finished product. Same thing with all the rest of them. But I have a preference with my own sound that I want balanced with the rest of the album, so everybody's mix but Dre's was done by Vinny and Pat.
CA&E: So does Dre record all digital and work with ProTools and -
Busta: He still records to two-inch. He loves the analog sound. And I think that has a lot to do with the warmth in his finished product. The only thing he'll do is mix to DAT, but it's still coming straight from analog. And y'know, that's the school that I come from. Ten years ago doing digital wasn't an option on the level it is now. Basically I'm stubborn. If digital is going to take away somewhat from the analog I'm not going there. I use digital for its benefits, but as far as recording goes I'm stuck with the two-inch tape.
CA&E: Tell me about the new album. Why did you title it "Genesis"?
Busta: It's the new time frame for my whole - my career, my label, my growth as a man, my creative approaches, new money, everything. I felt like with the sequence of my albums, the way it played out after "Anarchy", "Extinction Level Event", "When Disaster Strikes" and "The Coming" - y'know the whole mass ruckus had been brought about, so the only area left to go at this point was to go and bring about a new beginning, a new direction.