Busta Rhymes Calls Out Crowd at Essence Fest for Phone Use: "F**k Your Phone"

Busta Rhymes isn’t a fan of the way people today enjoy live performances, and he made sure everyone in the crowd during his show at the 2024 Essence Fest knew about it. Last week, a clip of the New York MC went viral, showing him getting frustrated with the crowd at the popular festival in New Orleans after he noticed that many of them were sitting and scrolling through their phones.

Rhymes can be heard saying, “New Orleans y’all look like y’all tired? You mothaf*ers ain’t ready. I don’t give a f*k how many seats are empty in this bh. Everybody that’s here get the fk up!” He later added, “Ay yo f k them camera phones too. Let’s get back to interacting like humans. Put them weird a devices down. I ain’t from that era. Them sts don’t control a soul. F**k your phone.”

He ended his rant by saying, “Thirty-three years of doing this st, I ain’t used to ngas sittin’ down at my show. The reason there will be zero tolerance for bullst energy in here is because this is my first time in New Orleans at the fking 30-year anniversary of the ESSENCE Festival…Make me feel like we home!”

To no surprise, this led to some pushback from people on social media. Despite the pushback, the veteran MC responded to all the hate in a lengthy Instagram post on Saturday, writing, “When the truth is undisputed, you don’t gotta ever be concerned with the s**t talk and the false narratives!! We are blessed to be mad about anything that we love to do!! Every platform, we appreciate [and] love y’all but when you talk, make sure you know what you talking about, or silence is the better option.”

Rhymes’ delivery to get the crowd paying attention to him isn’t uncommon. Many other artists have publicly voiced frustration when they see fans at their live performances on their phones instead of just being in the moment. Tyler, the Creator has arguably been the loudest artist when it comes to this topic. Just this past April, to promote his performance at Coachella, the Los Angeles artist bought a billboard that read, “I would love to see y’all faces and not your phone lights.”

While it may have seemed aggressive, Busta just wanted people to appreciate and enjoy his art.