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Busta Rhymes Joins Janet Jackson on Stage for 'What's It Gonna Be!?' Performance

Busta Rhymes Joins Janet Jackson on Stage for 'What's It Gonna Be!?' Performance

Published Wed, May 10, 2023 at 11:02 AM EDT

Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson rekindled their dynamic chemistry when Busta hopped on stage to join the super star singer for a rendition of their 1998 hit, "What's It Gonna Be!?" during her show at NYC's Madison Square Garden.

Janet is currently on her Together Again tour, which also features Ludacris, and a fan captured the moment. Busta also heaped praise upon the icon, acknowledging her tremendous contributions to music.

“We’re going to give you your flowers…. your botanical garden while you can smell them,” Busta Rhymes said as someone rolled out a huge bouquet of flowers. “In 1998, 25 years ago, I’m on the Belt Parkway going from Long Island to Manhattan, I’m listening to Janet Jackson do an interview with Angie Martinez when she was on Hot 97. Janet Jackson was doing an interview promoting the Velvet Rope album. Angie Martinez asked her what rapper have you never worked with before that you would like to work with. She said Busta Rhymes. Excuse my language but I almost crashed my fucking car.”

He also reminded everyone about how huge the video for "What's It Gonna Be!?" was when it dropped. "To this day, our video is the most expensive Hip Hop video made in the history of Hip Hop culture," he said of the video, which he co-directed with Hype Williams.

During his set at the Friends & Lovers Festival in Las Vegas which took place over the weekend, Bust also shared a few quick thoughts about his peers and their stage prowess. Busta, who performed on the Bling Stage on Saturday, said when it comes to performing, he and his peers are “cut from a different cloth that they don’t manufacture anymore.”

“We come from a time where there was no additives, no preservatives, no unnecessary mixing, and diluting, and tampering with the holy, sacred, and pure,” he said to the crowd in a video captured by HipHopDX, before dropping his verse from Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now." “We [are] the holy, sacred and pure... We don't sing over our vocals and shit."

Check out Busta and Janet on stage together below.

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