Busta Rhymes Drops ‘Magic’ to Honor D’Angelo’s Lasting Light

Busta Rhymes is back in the booth—but this time, he’s not hyping a party or a battle. He’s paying tribute to a soul legend. The hip-hop icon released a touching new track called “Magic” in honor of his late friend D’Angelo, who passed away earlier this month at age 51 after a private battle with pancreatic cancer.

Premiered by Okayplayer, the song finds Busta rhyming over D’Angelo’s smooth “One Mo’ Gin” instrumental, delivering a spoken word-style salute to the R&B genius whose music reshaped modern soul.

Busta takes listeners back to the early 1990s, when he first met D’Angelo during a A Tribe Called Quest studio session. The energy, he says, was unforgettable.

In “Magic,” Busta pours his heart out: “The s--- he did cut deep in the soul, hit the center of your core / Oh yes, we wanted more! Damn right, we wanted more! / We could not get enough of the god, d---, he was so charismatic / Every body of work he contributed to culture ended up being a classic / Type of shit that made a n---- romantic together with his woman, climactic / Thank God He gave you to us as a gift that kept giving us this magic.”

Speaking with Okayplayer, Busta recalled their bond: “When I met him, it was just a good, beautiful energy with the bro. D’Angelo’s personality speaks volumes because of how reserved he was. When it was time for him to actually speak — when you heard him sing or play the keyboard — it magnified the polar opposite of how quiet he was.”

That contrast, Busta said, made D’Angelo’s music hit even harder.

Reflecting on their 34-year friendship, the Flipmode Squad leader shared just how deeply D’Angelo influenced him and the culture at large: “The entire 34 years of knowing D has been an incredible experience … I feel like the Earth shifted when D came to do music. He was the embodiment of some shit that was a complete balance of what our ancestors created, to where he took it.”

Busta promised that D’Angelo’s spirit would keep inspiring generations to come: “The shit that he did decide to share with us — when people discover it, now or years from now, [it] is going to still shift the way of thinking. For whoever can appreciate real music. People think that it ends because of his physical transition, but it needed to be made clear that there’s nothing about him that’s going to end anytime soon.”

D’Angelo’s family released a statement after his passing, saying:

“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life … We are saddened that he can only leave dear memories with his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind.

We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time but invite you all join us in mourning his passing while also celebrating the gift of song that he has left for the world.”

With “Magic,” Busta Rhymes reminds fans that D’Angelo’s light didn’t fade—it just shifted to another form, living on through the music that still makes souls move.