As mentioned, Busta Rhymes' new album Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God comes out this Friday (10/30), and it features the first Kendrick Lamar verse in a while on "Look Over Your Shoulder." That song has just arrived, and if you've been missing Kendrick's voice this year, this song should help. The song prominently samples The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There," and Kendrick kicks the song off with an extensive verse that finds him in fine form. Busta sounds pretty great too. Listen below.

Busta spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music about the Jackson 5 sample:

And the crazy sh-t is, I ended up getting my hands on the original 16-track multi two-inch tape reel of "I'll Be There" from Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. It was really going exploring many different options. It just dawned on me one day that I wanted to start pushing the envelope and going deeper than just sampling sh-t. I come from the era, to this day, I have two-inch, 24 track, multi two-inch tape reels that they're being held in temperature controlled storage facilities. Right? So I'm like, all the artists like me and before me had to do the same thing. So if I could call one of these facilities to get my two-inch tape reels sent to me so that I could digitize them to transfer them to Pro Tools sessions, why wouldn't I be able to do the same sh-t with a Jackson Five reel? Right?

Let me be clear. So it's obviously an incredible person that had a significant amount of love for me and my legacy. They also were willing to put themselves in the line of fire to look out for me in that way because that's not something that it's just okay to do. So I wasn't obviously able to keep the two-inch tape reel, but I was able to get it and get what I needed from it and give it back. And once I got it, it was just unbelievable sitting down in the studio listening to the Jackson Five brothers, because back then he obviously wasn't punching in sh-t. It was just press play and record.

Yeah, the producer in the studio was just like, A-one, two, a-one, two, three." and then they start f-king singing, and if they'd make a mistake, they're not stopping the recording, they'd tell them to start over, "Okay, y'all missed it. You got to get this one in A minor. And keep singing it, take it up to this key and this octave.", and they're explaining all of this sh-t and then you hear the Jackson Five. And moments, they joking with each other, they laughing, they giggling in the studio and you hear all of this sh-t. You're actually in their studio session with them. From a 1968 recording, just in the studio. My eyes was filling up with water, I'm tearing up in the f-king studio. I'm hearing young Michael Jackson breathing, laughing, joking with his brothers, and singing. And it was just some other new type of euphoria for me.

It was really spiritual. Like I was f-ked up when I was in that moment, just listening to this, and I'm able to solo sh-t because I got the tracks separated. So it's like-It was really was bone-chilling, man, like goosebumps, all of type of- Crazy. So you get to hear, in the album, before the song, I actually solo Michael Jackson, singing the "I'll Be There" lyrics with no music. And just to show people that I have these vocals separated because there's no acapellas of that song that exist nowhere. And I wanted the world to see that I'm not sampling this. I actually have young Michael Jackson on this song. So it was just a beautiful thing to be able to do that, man. This is how the song came together. And once it was done, bro, it was really something that really f-ked up the room, every room that I played it in, on unprecedented levels.

Busta also added, "I got to big-up Kendrick, I got a big-up Top Dawg, the whole TDE family. I got to thank all of the people that was involved with clearing this sh-t for me and giving me their blessing on being able to use this. And it just was unbelievable, and incredible, and just profound for me to be blessed with this gift."

"Look Over Your Shoulder" follows previous single "Slow Flow," featuring Anderson .Paak. Other guests on the album include Chris Rock, Rakim, Pete Rock, Rapsody, Q-Tip, Mary J Blige, Rick Ross, and more. Full tracklist below.

Kendrick recently shed some light on why he hasn't put out a new album in over three years during an interview with Baby Keem. "[Playing with new sounds is] what will take me so long to do albums," he said. "I spend the whole year just thinking about how I’m gonna execute a new sound, I can’t do the same thing over and over. I need something to get me excited."

Earlier this year, he did a spoken word Kobe Bryant tribute in a Nike commercial and he hit the streets to protest in Compton. If live music is happening by then, Kendrick will headline Poland's Open’er Festival 2021 in June/July.

Busta Rhymes – Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God Tracklist
E.L.E. 2 Intro (Feat. Chris Rock, Rakim, Pete Rock)
The Purge
Strap Yourself Down
Czar (Feat. M.O.P.)
Outta My Mind (Feat. Bell Biv Devoe)
E.L.E. 2 The Wrath of God (Feat. Minister Louis Farrakhan)
Slow Flow (Feat. Old Dirty Bastard)
Don’t Go (Feat. Q-Tip)
Boomp!
True Indeed
Master Fard Muhammad (Feat. Rick Ross)
YUUUU (Feat. Anderson .Paak)
Oh No
The Don and the Boss (Feat. Vybz Kartel)
Best I Can (Feat. Rapsody)
Where I Belong (Feat. Mariah Carey)
Deep Thought
The Young God Speaks
Look Over Your Shoulder (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
You Will Never Find Another Me (Feat. Mary J. Blige)
Freedom? (Feat. Nikki Grier)
Satanic

—

[gallery ids="503410,503402,503418,503420,503414,503407,503399,503411,503398,503417,503405,503406,503400,503416,503419,503401,503397,503413,503403,503409,503421,503412,503415,503396,503408"