A clip of Busta Rhymes complaining about mask-wearing and COVID policies is going viral on social media, taken during one of the veteran rapper’s live shows last month.

Despite the pandemic continuing to hospitalise and kill millions across the US and beyond, including former Busta collaborator Fred The Godson who died from coronavirus last year, the rapper insisted that ongoing safety measures were an attempt to “take our civil liberties away”.

“In the last sixteen fucking months, COVID could suck a dick,” he said in the video, which was taken at the Seoul Tacos 10th Anniversary Block Party in St. Louis. “All these little weird ass government policies and mandates, suck a dick. They’re trying to take our civil liberties away. It feels good to be back outside, we outside for real!”

“It’s called a God-given right for freedom, right?” he continued. “No human being is supposed to tell you you can’t even breathe freely. Fuck your mask! Some of y’all might feel differently but fuck your mask! You can’t eat food with a fucking mask on. You can’t even see each other smile with a mask on.”

The rapper also complained that he was finding it harder to flirt with women while wearing a mask. “All of that energy gets blocked when your mask is on,” he told the crowd. “Energy is important and we are all conductors of good energy.”

Busta also spoke out against COVID safety protocols in an NME interview in October last year, claiming that ulterior motives for the pandemic were being hidden by “sheeple” who were following government guidelines.

“This is one of the most unfortunate times in the history of the existence of this planet. It feels like our intelligence is being insulted significantly and there’s no accountability for the suffering we have to encounter as a result. There feels like there’s a blatant inconsistency in truth for us to be able to protect our well-being in the right way,” he said.

Asked to elaborate who would stand to gain from such a conspiracy, Busta responded with the vague assertion that there was “obviously something wrong and some other agenda going on – a lot of it is political”.

He added: “We’re getting caught up in the overwhelming abundances of propaganda that’s keeping us distracted from realising that there’s some truth we need to start working towards and getting to the bottom of.”