Busta Rhymes

Trevor George Smith Jr., known professionally as Busta Rhymes, was born on May 20, 1972, in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to Geraldine Green and Trevor Smith Sr., both immigrants from Jamaica. When Smith was twelve, his family relocated from Brooklyn to Uniondale, New York, in Nassau County on Long Island. During his early years in Brooklyn, he briefly attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School alongside future rappers Christopher Wallace and Shawn Carter, and later attended Samuel J. Tilden High School with Edward Archer and Roderick Roachford of Fu-Schnickens. He ultimately graduated from Uniondale High School in 1991. In the early 1980s, Smith also spent two summers in Morecambe, England, residing with his maternal aunt, during which he attended Skerton Community High School and, along with his younger brother, performed breakdancing in clubs as a minor.

The stage name Busta Rhymes was given to him by Chuck D of Public Enemy, who named him after NFL and CFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes. In 1986, Smith joined fellow Long Island natives Charlie Brown, Cut Monitor Milo, and Dinco D to form the East Coast hip hop group Leaders of the New School. The group released their debut album, A Future Without a Past, in June 1991 on Elektra Records, and later that year appeared on A Tribe Called Quest's posse cut "Scenario." Their second album, T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye), followed in 1993. Internal tensions stemming from Smith's growing individual popularity led to the group disbanding on the set of Yo! MTV Raps.

Also in 1993, Busta Rhymes appeared on Broadway in The Boys Choir of Harlem and Friends, a credit that connects his performing career to the stage during the same period he was establishing himself in hip hop. He was originally from Brooklyn, New York.

Following the dissolution of Leaders of the New School, Rhymes became a prominent solo artist. His 1996 debut solo album, The Coming, debuted in the top ten of the Billboard 200, received platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, and earned a Grammy Award nomination. The single "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check" drove the album to gold status. His second album, When Disaster Strikes, arrived in September 1997, followed by Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front in 1998. In 2000, he released Anarchy, his final album for Elektra Records, and in 2001 released Genesis, which sold one million domestic copies and was certified platinum by the RIAA, featuring collaborations with Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, and Kelis. His sixth studio album, It Ain't Safe No More, was released in 2002 and certified Gold by the RIAA on January 6, 2003.

His seventh studio album, The Big Bang, became the first number-one album of his career, selling over 209,000 copies in its first week on the U.S. Billboard 200. He subsequently signed with Universal Motown and released his eighth studio album, Back on My B.S., on May 19, 2009. That album was banned in the United Arab Emirates due to the song "Arab Money," which the National Media Council determined contained lyrics offensive to Arabs and to Islam for quoting the Quran. Rhymes later apologized for the controversy. He went on to release his eleventh solo album, Blockbusta, in 2023.

Throughout his career, Rhymes has accumulated twelve Grammy Award nominations. Billboard and Vibe both ranked him among the 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, and Forbes included him on their list of the 50 Top Rappers of All Time. In 2025, he received the inaugural Rock the Bells Visionary Award from the MTV Video Music Awards. Beyond recording, he founded the record label Conglomerate, formerly known as Flipmode Entertainment, and its associated hip hop collective, formerly called Flipmode Squad. His notable singles include "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See," "Dangerous," "Gimme Some More," "What's It Gonna Be?!," "Pass the Courvoisier, Part II," "I Know What You Want," and "Touch It," and he has contributed guest appearances to hits including "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls, "Rumble in the Jungle" by Fugees, and "Look at Me Now" by Chris Brown.