Words by Jesse Serwer—
To say we’ve been anticipating the arrival of Busta Rhymes and Nicki Minaj’s “Twerk It” video would be an understatement. Here’s a few reasons why:
—For the corner of the music world we tend to occupy, at the intersection of reggae/dancehall, hip-hop and pop, “Twerk It” is one of the most notable songs of the year, with Busta digging deep into his patois bag and rhyming the whole song in a Jamaican accent, while Nicki puts her own Trini spin on her part, and Pharrell brings a top-shelf Neptunes beat. We can’t forget to large up Busta’s gyal Tosh, who brings her fire to the song’s intro.
—The video is stacked with LargeUp family members, including dancers Sir Ledgen, Blacka Di Danca and Selena Watkins. Even better, Ledgen, who assisted casting director Soraya Lundy in casting dancers for the video, has an acting role. That’s him catching a smack from Busta when Bussa Buss says “Shut your mouth” at 0:55!
—It was directed by Director X (formerly Lil X). One of the top directors in the rap and R&B world for over a decade, the Trini/Swiss Canadian was behind most of Sean Paul’s most classic videos, including “Get Busy” and “Gimme the Light,” and was former mentor Hype Williams’ visual consultant on Belly. Given his background, he was definitely the right guy for the job.
—It was shot a whiiiile ago. This behind-the-scenes video has been up for a hot minute, while Busta’s been hyping it on Twitter for what’s seemed like an eternity.
—It’s a video for a song called “Twerk It” with Nicki Minaj in it. ‘Nuff said.
Well the video is finally here, with cameos from Swizz Beats, DJ Khaled and Pharrell, too. Tell us how you think it all came out.
Busta Rhymes ft. Nicki Minaj – Twerk It from Artists And Derelicts on Vimeo.