Busta Rhymes Recalls Duct-Taping Stomach To Film "Czar" Music Video

Busta Rhymes says he duct-taped his stomach to film the music video for "Czar," and the incident helped inspire his recent weight loss.

BYCole Blake
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Busta Rhymes says he had to duct-tape his stomach down to film the music video for “Czar” from his recent album, Extinction Level Event 2. He says the eye-opening moment inspired his recent weight-loss journey.

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“When I shot that video, there’s a scene of me wearing all white with a headwrap,” Busta explained in an interview for The Tamron Hall Show. “When I initially put that all white on, it showed how badly out of shape I was on camera. So we went into the dressing room and they duct-taped my stomach down. With electric duct tape.”

Busta shared on Instagram, just months later in October, that he was down 86 pounds 

“DON’T EVER GIVE UP ON YOURSELF!!” he wrote in all caps on Instagram. “LIFE BEGINS RIGHT NOW!!! MY DEDICATION IS DIFFERENT!! I WOULD NEVER PUT OUT AN ALBUM AND NOT BE IN THE BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE!! I RESPECT MYSELF TOO MUCH AND I RESPECT Y’ALL TOO MUCH!!! I’M ONLY HERE TO INSPIRE!!”

Busta also spoke candidly with Ebro Darden on Beats 1 Radio in November regarding his weight. The rapper explained that his oldest son feared he would see his father die prematurely as a result of poor health.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.