Neither thug nor softy, he is instead the hyperactive class clown you forgive in advance for going too far, a guy who retains a fundamental cuddliness despite the over-the-top skits about oral sex and violence that pepper his albums. Being a from-the-streets rapper, he can fulminate and bluster with the best of the hard corps. But how many rappers would have the stones to appear before millions of viewers, clad in what at first glance looked to be a dress, goofing and mugging with white-bread homemaker Martha Stewart (as Rhymes did at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards)?
Where'd he get such chutzpah? Rhymes came out of the progressive hip-hop scene that bubbled up from Long Island (where his West Indian family of four moved from Brooklyn when he was 13) in the late '80s. Busta's all-consuming love of hip-hop caused him to drop out of high school in 11th grade, to the initial chagrin of his mom, Geraldine, a former legal secretary, and his dad, Trevor Sr., an electrical contractor. ''My mother was never with the fact that I didn't graduate'' says Rhymes. ''But when she saw a letterhead come from Warner Communications with a six-figure contract, she knew it was serious for me to be doing this at 17.''
He was given his nom de rap by ''Strong Island'' homeboy Chuck D of Public Enemy (in the hip-hop world, the equivalent of a papal benediction). D, who early on spotted that Rhymes was ''an innovator,'' is proud of his erstwhile protege: ''I always encouraged him to stay focused, never let the crowd not sweat, always take chances. That's exactly what Busta does. He's adventurous.''
It's not simply a matter of loving his job (which he does). He has a 5-year-old son, T'ziah, by his ex-girlfriend Joanne (their first son, Tahiem, died two hours after birth in 1993), and he says he's working overtime to ensure his scion ''an extremely lavish future.'' He proudly reports that young T'ziah ''already feels hip-hop,'' though he has no plans to push him into the family business: ''I'm not gonna spoil him, but I am going to properly groom him toward working to fulfill whatever's within him.''
Rhymes readily admits that ''this music s--- has been my salvation. I didn't graduate from high school, I don't know no trade, and I didn't go to college. None of that. So I try to give everything I've got to my music.''
The hydra-dreaded rapper spends some of his remaining energy on transforming himself into a walking art show. Rhymes' wardrobe of custom-designed capes, robes, and multicolored, fur-covered Timberland boots makes him resemble nothing so much as hip-hop's version of a glitter-rock star. His distinctive image has been burned into the MTV generation's collective id, thanks to his flashy, fish-eyed, frenetically paced videos (directed by either Hype Williams or Williams' stand-in, Paul Hunter). And in the grand if-you-can-rap-you-can-act tradition, he's already appeared in the films Strapped, Who's the Man?, and Higher Learning, as well as on episodes of Cosby, The Steve Harvey Show, and The Wayans Bros.
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