Busta Rhymes was honored with the 2,818th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a ceremony that brought out LL Cool J, Chuck D, Chris Rock, and Big Daddy Kane.
LL Cool J and Chuck D kicked off the proceedings on Aug. 1 with stirring tributes to Busta and his impact.
“When I think about Busta Rhymes, it’s awe-inspiring power, commitment to his craft, and commitment to excellence as an artist and performer,” LL said. “Busta was born to do something universal.”
Chuck D followed up by giving Busta his flowers for his uniqueness. “You can try to imitate Busta, but you can’t duplicate him,” the Public Enemy frontman said.
When Busta took the stage to give his speech, he was emotional because of what it represented — the culmination of decades of hard work.
“I worked so hard and I never asked for a shortcut, I never asked for a cheat code,” said Busta, with tears in his eyes.
“I was never raised by a support system that made it seem okay to try to go around honestly earning your rite to passage,” he added. “I want to thank those people.”
Throughout his speech, Busta reflected on everything he’d been through, including when Chuck D gave him the rap name that the world continues to call him — a pun on 1980s NFL’er George “Buster” Rhymes.
“I want to thank you Chuck for giving me my first shot and being one of the first to believe in me. I say you gave me the name, even though you say you presented it,” said Busta. “If you didn’t present it, it probably wouldn’t have been one of the greatest gifts in my life because my name before Busta Rhymes was Chill-O-Skee.”
Busta thanked a lot of people, from Epic Records CEO Sylvia Rhone to his children, but one person who received the most praise from him was his mother.
“My mom is my greatest superhero,” Busta explained. “My father, too, but the reason why I’m leaning so much on my moms is ’cause my mother and my father had two different approaches in how they wanted to do whatever they could to secure the win for me.”
Busta closed his speech by announcing the start of a new era.
“I feel complete today,” he explained. “As we completed this chapter and started giving birth to a new one. I’m no longer Daniel-San in this shit, I’m Mr. Miyagi now.”
