Saying it seems corny, but the best word to describe Busta Rhymes is the one Jay-Z used, in what some fans took (incorrectly, surely) as a dis, in the lyric to his Black Album declamation What More Can I Say. You can spend hours trying to distil the essence of this larger-than-life man-mountain, this cartoon/superhero come to life, and you're never gonna top "animated" as the perfect way to sum him up.

Today he's animated, and then some: and he has reason to be. Back on My B.S., an album that arrives at the end of probably the most tortuous period in Trevor Smith's nigh-on 37 years, is booming from the wall-sized speakers in the control room of a Manhattan studio. His audience is small - just a dozen or so journalists - but Busta pours himself into the task of introducing the album, going quickly from sitting in the low producer's chair, rocking back and forth, to standing, arms pumping the air, performing the songs and slicing his arms as if he were on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.

Between the songs he tells stories: sometimes they're the stories that inspired the songs, sometimes they're the back-story to the making of the album, and sometimes they're just reminiscences and glimpses into a life which he's lived in the public eye since Leaders of the New School became underground stars in the early '90s. Since then he's mixed innovation with success to an almost unprecedented degree, his unmistakable rasp gracing hundreds of cameos and bringing the best out of some of the most out-there producers in the game.

The industry may be in crisis, and Busta may have gone through a few of his own - criticised by police for his silence over the murder of his friend and bodyguard, Israel Ramirez, on the set of a 2006 video; splitting with Aftermath/Interscope following only one, chart-topping album; anxiety over his father's health and the resolution of a long-running custody battle over three of his four sons, both of which had happy endings for the star - but Back on My B.S. is his statement of intent. He's reunited with the executive Sylvia Rhone, who oversaw his LONS records and early solo career, and seems to have got to a place creatively where he feels at home. The record is even coming out the day before his 37th birthday, on May 20th, and he describes it as "a phenomenal birthday present." As a result, it's an album which, he is convinced, will remind fans what hip hop is all about, and which seems to have reinvigorated one of rap's most ebullient figures.

"This is the beauty of this album for me," he grins. "I'm happy, and I wanted the album to reflect that. There's a lot o' feel-good music out, that tells you to do this dance or lean with it or rock with it, but they compromise the quality of how hip hop should feel. We don't have to make a record that dumbs down the content of the music. I wanna hear lyrics and punchlines! I'm not knockin' those other things, I'm a fan of some of them myself, but we can reinstate what's been missin', which is substantial hip hop. That's why the value's dropped so much. Mo'f---ers are so focused on the hot ringtone they don't make an album any more. The value o' the content has been degraded disrespectfully, but that has a lot to do with the internet, and with the quality of the music not bein' what it should be. When I was on Elektra with Sylvia Rhone, that's when the game felt like it was supposed to feel - you didn't have 10,000 of the same artist tellin' you to do the same dance. You didn't have people copyin' you - everyone had their own lane. I'm glad I got another shot - that's why I'm happy."

After unveiling the record (for Busta's track-by-track take on the record, see Part Two of our feature), the man who was plain old Trevor Smith until Chuck D gave him his rap nickname sat down with HIPHOP.COM for a candid chat about business, music, family and the future.

HIPHOP.COM: In Shoot for the Moon you rap, "I'm back in the zone/It feels good to be back home/With Sylvia Rhone". That relationship seems hugely important to you.

Busta: It is, because, you know, my shit feels like it's supposed to feel again. I felt like my experience when I left Sylvia had ups and downs - I did OK at J Records and then bad at J Records; I did good at Aftermath then I did bad and had to go. But they say that if you love somebody you let them fly, and if they come back it was meant to be. Coming back to the nest was one of the best choices I made in my life. And even if you disagree, I don't lose sleep - the choice still feels right to me. I put my first record out when I left Interscope, and I was the biggest thing in the street with Arab Money. Everything just feels like it's supposed to feel, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm just happy, man - shit is goin' the way it's supposed to go. But it feels really good, man - really fuckin' good. And, it always felt like that when I was with Sylvia. Always, man! You know why? Because she trusts, and she's comfortable with knowing that I know what I have to do to contribute greatness to the game. And she also realises that it'll be best for all of us to just let me sit behind the wheel and control my own destiny. That's how you get the best outta people.

HIPHOP.COM: Are you saying that wasn't the case on the last few records?

Busta: Nah. It wasn't the case in the Big Bang album. The Big Bang album was 99 per cent that. It was great. It was my most proud album. But there was things goin' on, outside of the creative shit, that was... The business just wasn't right. But, again, I'm happy for that experience because I learnt a lot, I got to spend five years workin' with a genius, and Jimmy Iovine let me leave with all my music. So I'm grateful.

HIPHOP.COM: You've managed to remain at the top for an uncommonly long time. Is that because, in part, you look at the audience globally, rather than just concentrating on America?

Busta: The world ain't as big as we used to believe it was, but it's a big place, man. There's a lot o' places you gotta go and see and visit and try to provide a opportunity, or create an opportunity for yourself to be able to go and visit and just experience. When you get a chance to just leave the place that you're familiar with, and see shit and experience shit, it's amazing to realise how much shit you don't know! Shit's fuckin' crazy! How much shit that you just have no idea of, no clue about; that exists, that's just as important as all o' the shit that matters to you in your country, and where you're from. And when you get a chance to experience it, you grow a whole 'nother appreciation for life and existence beyond what you have come to know, bein' trapped in the areas that you're from or are always subject to stayin' within, bein' confined in. And when you get to see it, it just broadens your whole perspective on so much shit, and it allows you to become much greater of a person and an individual. And you just get... You evolve, man - you automatically start to adjust the way your whole shit functions when you see other things that you been exposed to for the first time, especially when they're things that you know make you a better person or a greater person.

HIPHOP.COM: You're a pretty full-on character - being Busta Rhymes must be exhausting. What's life like for you when you're out of the spotlight and you're having time off at home?

Busta: Life is normal for me! You know'm sayin'? But one thing that's extremely important is that I don't deprive my children of the normalcy of life because of the celebrity activity bein' such a primary thing in our family because of me an' my job an' what I gotta do. I make a conscious effort to maintain stability as far as normalcy is concerned, and I just make sure that I participate with my kids in all o' their extra-curricular activities, from football to basketball, we go to movies, we go to restaurants, we go to the malls and we shop - I make it a very big priority for us to interact with other members of the family as far as aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. We always go and visit the family because a lot of the time I never really had the opportunity. I got a huge family. My mother got about 14, 15 brothers and sisters, my father has 11 brothers and sisters - my grandparents, they made a lot o' childen, man! And I got a lot o' cousins, a lot o' second cousins and third cousins. I got cousins that're old enough to be my parents. They're all in either Jamaica, in England, the States or in Canada. It's not customary for us to do family reunions in the West Indian culture, so a lot o' family, I never really got a chance to know 'em, and I don't want that for my kids. So once I got custody of my kids, it helped me make that much more of a conscious effort to get to know those other family members and not only build my relationship with them, but get them to know my kids, which are also their family members as well now. So there's a lot o' that goin' on, like, whenever I'm home and I get the chance to not even have to do nothin' music-relevant, I really focus on puttin' time in with my kids. They're kinda big now - my youngest son is eight years old, and my oldest is 16. I've got four kids, but my three boys live with me. I had them with my old high school girlfriend at the time.

HIPHOP.COM: You must have a pretty loud household.

Busta: No, actually, my house is really peaceful, except for the two younger ones. Those are the ones that create the most havoc in the house, because they're in each other's age group so they're always either competing with each other or they play-fightin' and tryin' to do WWF wrestlin' all the time, or... They all think they know the best karate in the world, too - like they all try to do Bruce Lee shit all the time. Harh harh! It's cool, and I have fun with them. They're very well-mannered children - that's one thing that I can say that I've been blessed to have, like... My mother does a great job with my kids when I'm on the road and I'm busy, so they never get an opportunity to act up too much because my mother's a disciplinary woman, and she makes sure that managin' respect is always primary in the house. Most o' the time, my mother, she's not really into the noisy shit, so even though there's a lot of us around the house, we still have to make sure that we keep shit cool to make sure that mom has her peace o' mind. Because my mother takes on a great deal o' responsibility, with babysittin' my kids an' makin' sure that they get their meals on time, washin' their clothes an' pickin' 'em up and takin' 'em to school when I'm not in town, pickin' 'em up an' droppin' 'em off to all o' their football an' basketball games, helpin' 'em with their homework. So when I come home, I have to relieve my mother of all of those responsibilities and do my fatherly duties as a parent and as a dad, and give my mother a chance to recuperate.

HIPHOP.COM: What's it like when you turn up at Little League to pick up your sons - are you mobbed by the other kids, or do they just look at you as another dad?

Busta: Nah, I mean, at those parent-teacher conferences and the football games, the basketball games, it's about the children, so we downplay the whole Busta Rhymes aspect because we wanna make sure that we stay focused on givin' the children all o' the attention, and makin' sure that the children feel like the superstars at the time. The football and the basketball games, most o' the time the parents are so into supporting their kids and rootin' for their kids and the teams that they're playin' for that the Busta Rhymes thing is secondary. Now, when the game is over, then it's a different thing: the kids, they wanna take pictures, they want autographs, and we do that for the kids, because we gotta make sure that the kids understand that it's all about them, and whatever they say, and whatever they want, especially after they worked so hard at the football and the basketball games, that they worked so hard at school, that we gotta make sure they feel like they're bein' rewarded for the things that they're doin'.

HIPHOP.COM: Your mother helped make sure you didn't waste your money, and got you started on investing in property. Yet you're the catastrophe guy - the hip hopper who made a string of albums about a global financial meltdown. Have you been hurt by the credit crunch?

Busta: Nothin' outside of real estate, really. I mean, you know, the real estate economy is a little different, so in that way I probably have been affected somewhat. But overall on a business level I think we've all been affected because, you know, generating revenue on a level we were accustomed to five, six, seven years ago has been a little different. Extremely different, actually. You've gotta be a lot more strategic with what you're doin' with your money when you get it, and you've got to respect the value o' the dollar that much more, or the currency, whatever it is that your currency is: you've gotta respect it and do the smart and strategic things with your currency when you do get it.

HIPHOP.COM: Are you at that point where people are looking at albums as less about making money than as promotion for things that do, like merchandising or live shows or whatever?

Busta: Well, yeah, I mean, that's happenin'. But me? I feel that a lot of that has come about as a result of the content being depreciated because the quality of the music was compromised for the last couple o' years with the whole ringtone success, and people just worryin' about makin' a hot ringtone instead o' makin' a quality album and a quality body o' work.

HIPHOP.COM: Some people - if you look at it a little cynically - seem to be building up the soap opera aspects of their careers as a means to keep people interested. It certainly looks like the artists that get involved in high-profile beefs seem to have been able to sell more copies than artists who don't do that. You've worked with practically everybody in the hip hop game, yet there's hardly been a sniff of an argument between you and any other high-profile rap star. How have you been able to stay close to so many people over the years without, even simply by virtue of past association, being dragged in to these squabbles?

Busta: Well, I'm a strong believer in morals, principles and codes of ethics. And I feel like I attribute that to my upbringing - my mother and my father were always ones to tell me that the difference between a man and a coward is one that stands up for something and doesn't fall for anything. A lot o' the time I look at these beefs and I feel like, you know, there's so much propaganda involved with the beef shit that I don't really respect it all the time. And I don't feel that a beef is real when it's being broadcast on television, when it's being broadcast on the internet, when it's bein' broadcast on records, because where I come from, if you really have a beef with somebody you don't incriminate yourself by promoting your beef. If you've really got a beef, you do that shit and handle your business quietly. Now, I also feel like, if you really have a beef with someone, there's many options that you can explore to resolve the beef before you actually have to resort to the beef, you know what I'm sayin'? Sometimes it's so much more productive to avoid conflict than to actually have it. Not that there's a problem with engaging in conflict, because I am also a strong believer of defending yourself to the fullest, and part of the problem with me is I'm the type of individual where, once I get to the point where I feel I have to defend myself, that's the point of no return for me. And I don't like to get to that place, because that's a very destructive place for me. So I like to be peaceful, I like to be loving, and I like to spread love and give love and receive love, because I feel like we could do a lot more with that. If you do something that's gonna make me hurt you, there's no reconciling the issues with me. Because I'm a person where, I just like to make sure that we don't even have to get to that point. We'll do everything we can to avoid getting to that point, because it's a lot smarter, safer and more productive for everybody. And, for me, I'm a man, and I don't compromise those beliefs. I don't pick sides, and I don't expect anybody to pick sides for me. So, you know, when it's a situation that needs to be dealt with, you deal with it accordingly, and hopefully, in dealing with it accordingly, it doesn't have to resort to any extremes or any violence. But if it does then so be it, and when that happens, there's gonna be a lot of regrets for everybody, because that's an extreme, and I feel like we don't need to take it to an extreme if that extreme can be avoided.

HIPHOP.COM: Do you feel it's a legitimate tactic for people to use to help promote records? I don't get the feeling a lot of these are really real, they just make artists' careers easier or more exciting for fans to buy into.

Busta: Well, I don't know neither, because I don't partake in those activities.

HIPHOP.COM: But you know a lot of these people - do they ever come to you for advice? Say, 'Oh God, I've really got myself in to something here, how do you reckon I could get out of it?'

Busta: Um... A lot of the times, you know, I talk to people that have beefs with each other, and I tell 'em, my advice to 'em is, if you've really got beef with 'em, then do something! If you ain't really beefin', then stop all this stupid shit, because ultimately, what it also does is it confuses the people that's close to you. For example, if I have friends around me and I don't make it clear to them that this beef is not real, they think it's real, and a lot o' the time serious shit can happen that you have nothing to do with - it's your friends around you that think that shit is so serious that when they see the person you're havin' beef with, or friends of the person you're in beef with, then they really start beefin'. And that's another reason why I like to tell dudes, 'Yo, if you're not really beefin', stop playin' with fire, because you can fuck around and have some shit happen that you don't have nothin' to do with but you still end up sufferin' the consequence for.' Because it's so much hype around the fact that this is your beef that even if you don't raise a finger, and something happens to the enemy or an associate of the enemy, the drama comes back to you.

HIPHOP.COM: It's been a long career, and even though you're still young, the energy you pour in must leave you feeling drained. Do you ever think about retirement?

Busta: December 12 2009 is my 20th anniversary of becoming a recording artist. I'm a little older, a little smarter... No, actually, I'm a lot smarter. Everything's about figurin' out your place in life, and I figured out mine. I know hip hop is a young culture, but the biggest celebrities are always in their mid-30s. All of em are! It take time to figure out how to be a man. I'm happy, my music feels happy, and I'm gonna make the world feel happy. I'm not goin' nowhere until I choose to bow out o' this shit gracefully. It's part of God's plan.

For Part Two of our Busta Rhymes feature, click here.