VIDEO: Busy Signal Freestyles Over ’90s Rap Classics in Uganda in “All For One”

Words by Jesse Serwer, Photo by Martei Korley— While we’re on the topic of big tunes we missed, we just have to pull up and rewind back two weeks to New Year’s Day, when perennial LargeUp favorite and all-around lyrical beast Busy Signal took to Youtube to drop the Uganda-set video for his latest lyrical coup de grace.

Showing once again that he’s got bars to match any rapper north of the Caribbean, Busy tears his way through some of ’90s rap’s biggest beats on the wicked, six-minute “All In One” freestyle. The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy,” Dre and Snoop’s “Still DRE” and “The Next Episode,” Mobb Deep’s “Quiet Storm,” Nas’ “Hate Me Now,” DMX’s “Ruff Ryders Anthem” and Black Rob’s “Whoa” are all fodder on “All In One” (which first appeared in audio form in November), as “HottEd” toasts to his accomplishments (the success of “Watch Out For This” with Major Lazer; Rihanna singing his tune “Come Over”) and rhymes things like “Peabo to the Bryson” with “Rodney to the Pryce and” (and, our favorite, “ludi to the dice and.”)

It’s not the first time we’ve heard Busy go to town over hip-hop of ’90s vintage: Okayplayer editor (and Busy Signal historian) Eddie Stats just reminded us of “Busy Smalls,” a mashup of Busy’s “Too Much Gun” and Biggie’s “Dead Wrong” that dates back to his breakout year of 2006.

Watch the video—featuring Busy and a crew of Ugandan bikers cruising the streets of Kampala—below, read Siobhan Jones’ 2012 interview with Busy Signal here, and download “All in One” here.