Kendrick Lamar gets praise from Busta Rhymes.
Busta Rhymes has always had one of the best music videos of his time, and the rapper gives Kendrick Lamar some high regard as the top artist with the best visuals currently.
“What is the last video you saw that impressed you? And which artists do you think are taking on the mantle that you and Missy built?” he was asked in a new interview with Billboard.
“What was the name of the Kendrick joint over the Marvin Gaye sample? “The Heart Part 5.” That video was special, and they set a bar for the new generation when it came to the revolutionary visual impact that me and Missy were always successful at executing,” he said. “The balance of simplicity and complexity in it is so incredibly powerful, and that’s not an easy balance to find. I’m still looking to see who will come up with some s–t that’s gonna f–k with that. So visually, I’m giving Kendrick the crown. And that’s just one of the many things that Kendrick gets the crown for from me right now.”
In the same interview, he was asked about what it takes to make a memorable video. “It really starts with the vision and thinking outside of whatever was considered the norm, which was easy to do when you were never the norm to begin with. But then to be able to find an incredible director that knows how to help you execute that,” he said. “I’m not gonna front, let’s add the fact that the budgets were disrespectful back then as well. We was throwing money out the f**king window, million-dollar budgets left and right. And we was able to get that because we was doing our numbers. We was just killing s–t so crazy, that we started to become competitive on every level. Diddy was the only one that was spending like me and Missy. We frustrated the industry for it, because a lot of labels was getting pressure from their artists to spend like that, and they didn’t want to hear it or deal with it.”
The 50-year-old provided information on the development of music videos in addition to his wealth of experience and lifespan. “The only difference is, technology has allowed things to be done a lot more cost-effectively,” he said. “You could still pull off these magical ideas, but there’s definitely ways to be smarter about the spend. I’m fortunate enough to be able to still pull off some amazing visuals that look like million-dollar spends, but they’re no way near those spends, but I’m still able to impact sh*t in the way that people have grown to know and love me for doing.”
