Busta Rhymes

After the robotically rambunctious "Touch It" and the fluffy "I Love My Bitch," one wouldn't have expected Busta's Aftermath debut to be so melancholic. The marvelously maudlin and supposedly autobiographical "Been Through the Storm" touches on immigration and teen violence before climaxing with swelling strings, clattering gunshots and a Stevie Wonder guest appearance. "New York Sh*t," meanwhile, is forlorn rap formalism, wistfully romanticizing a time and place in hip-hop history that only exists in memory. Everything fits together nicely, and the album is greater than the sum of its parts.