Busta Rhymes The Big Bang Turns 20: Aftermath, Dilla, #1 - Custom Creative

June 13, 2026. Twenty years ago today, Busta Rhymes dropped The Big Bang on Aftermath / Flipmode / Interscope — and for the first and only time in a thirteen-album career that started with Leaders of the New School, the man debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. 209,000 copies the first week. Dr. Dre as co-executive producer. A guest list that read like a Source Awards seating chart. And buried in the middle of the tracklist, a J Dilla beat that arrived four months after Jay Dee had already left us.

The Aftermath gamble

By 2005 Busta had run out his J Records deal and the run that gave us Genesis and It Ain’t Safe No More… was over. He could’ve coasted into legacy mode. Instead he signed to Aftermath — the same year Dre was supposedly finishing Detox — and turned in a record that didn’t sound like a Dre album, didn’t sound like a Flipmode album, and didn’t quite sound like anyone else’s record either.

The production credits read like a roll call of mid-2000s heat: Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, will.i.am, Mark Batson, DJ Scratch, DJ Green Lantern, Mr. Porter, Sha Money XL, Nisan Stewart, JellyRoll. The lead single “Touch It” had been moving since December 2005 — that Daft Punk-flipping Swizz Beatz beat ran for six months before the album even hit shelves and pulled #16 on the Hot 100. By the time “I Love My Bitch” with Kelis and will.i.am, “New York Sh*t,” and “In the Ghetto” with Rick James rolled out across the summer, Busta had the loudest commercial moment of his career.

The Dilla credit nobody talks about

Here’s the receipt most album-rollup pieces skip: J Dilla produced “You Can’t Hold the Torch” with Q-Tip and Chauncey Black on vocals. Jay Dee died February 10, 2006 from complications related to lupus and TTP. The Big Bang shipped June 13, 2006 — four months and three days later. That track is one of a handful of Dilla productions that reached major-label retail after his passing, and pairing it with Q-Tip (the Tribe MC who’d championed Dilla’s beats since the Beats, Rhymes and Life sessions in 1996) makes the placement land even heavier. Donuts had dropped February 7, three days before Dilla’s death. “You Can’t Hold the Torch” landed in summer rotation while the dust on Donuts was still settling.

Add Stevie Wonder turning up on the closer, Nas and Raekwon trading verses on “Don’t Get Carried Away,” Missy Elliott riding the Timbaland beat on “How We Do It Over Here,” and Marsha Ambrosius on the hook of “I’ll Do It All” — this wasn’t a Dre album with Busta vocals. This was Busta using Aftermath’s leverage to cash in every favor he had. The RIAA went on to certify it Gold (823,000 sold by November 2011). The Aftermath relationship would unravel inside two years. But on June 13, 2006, Busta Rhymes was the #1 rapper in America.

Why we made the Madvillain tee

Same day, different lane: The Unseen by Quasimoto also dropped June 13 — six years before Big Bang, in 2000 — and Madlib’s pitched-up Lord Quas alter ego basically launched the Stones Throw underground that would later give us Madvillainy. We made the MF Doom Madvillain T-Shirt for the heads who know that thread — Madlib’s beats, DOOM’s pen, and a whole indie ecosystem that ran parallel to the Aftermath majors. Two June 13 anniversaries, two sides of the same year in hip-hop.

Also today in hip-hop

Quasimoto — The Unseen turns 26. Madlib’s debut as Lord Quas on Stones Throw, mixed with Peanut Butter Wolf and Kut Masta Kurt. AllMusic called it “one of the most imaginative albums of the new West Coast underground.” Spin had it #17 best album of 2000. “Low Class Conspiracy” landed on the Tony Hawk’s Underground soundtrack the year that game ate every teenage living room.
Three 6 Mafia — When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 turns 26. Their fourth album, peaked #6 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop. The record that set up the Oscar run five years later — DJ Paul and Juicy J’s Memphis-horror sound finally crossing over to commercial radio.
Lil Snupe would have been 31. Born June 13, 1995, signed by Meek Mill to Dream Chasers in 2012. The R.N.I.C. mixtape pulled features from DJ Khaled, Curren$y, and Trae tha Truth. Killed in Winnfield, Louisiana on June 20, 2013 — eighteen years old.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team