Busta Rhymes Shares New Tribute Song ‘Magic’

Busta Rhymes remembers D’Angelo as a “godsend” on a new tribute track “Magic” that finds the MC rapping over the late R&B legend’s classic Voodoo track “One Mo’Gin.” 

“Magic” opens with Busta’s potent proclamation, “D’Angelo — that man is a godsend. He is truly a godsend. Not was truly, but is truly a godsend.”

The rapper goes on to recount, in rhyme, first meeting D’Angelo while working in the studio with A Tribe Called Quest, and also celebrates the power of the D’s music and life: “The man never needed a co-sign, he never needed a voucher/He touched them keys like Escobar in the Medellín/And he touched the souls of the people and everything between/We gotta feel it/And embrace all of his spirit/From the music, whenever we hear it.”

“Magic” was released via Okayplayer, the website co-founded by D’Angelo’s close friend and collaborator, Questlove. Busta also spoke with the website about his own friendship with D’Angelo and what made his music so monumental.

“That was my friend for 34 years,” Busta said. “Acknowledging him as a friend first, as a genius second, and as one of the most significant contributors to this culture. I feel like the Earth shifted when D came to do music. He was the embodiment of some shit that was a complete balance of what our ancestors created, to where he took it. There’s nothing under the sun that hasn’t already been done. But it’s a whole other thing to make it your own and combine what has already been done with what hasn’t been done yet. There have been a lot of soulful artists who played and sang that came before him and came after him. But the impact was nowhere near the level that he was able to do it on just three albums across 34 years.”

D’Angelo died earlier this month following a battle with cancer that had not been publicly disclosed. Along with Busta, tributes have poured in from Anthony Hamilton, Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Nile Rodgers, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, Barack Obama, and more.