"Gimme Some More" is a song by American rapper Busta Rhymes, released on October 26, 1998 by Elektra Records. The single serves as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

released from his third solo album '' E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front'' (1998). It is often considered to be the very summit of Busta's complex, breathless, high-speed rhyming delivery most prominent in his early work. The song was produced by regular Busta collaborator

DJ Scratch George Spivey (born June 21, 1968), known professionally as DJ Scratch, is an American hip hop DJ and producer from Brooklyn, New York. DJ Scratch is the 1988 New Music Seminar Battle For World Supremacy DJ champion, the 2010 Master of the ...

. The violin riffs that accompany the main beat are sampled from the opening theme to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film '' Psycho,'' composed by

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely r ...

. In 2000, it was nominated for

Best Rap Solo Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance was awarded from 1991 to 2011, alongside the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Previously, a single award was presented for Best Rap Performance. In 2003, this award was split into separate a ...

at the Grammy Awards, but it lost to Eminem's "

My Name Is "My Name Is" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his second album '' The Slim Shady LP'' (1999). It is also the opening song and lead single of the album. The song samples British singer Labi Siffre's 1975 track "I Got The..." as a bass and ...

." Rhymes first performed the song live with The Roots on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' with "Tear da Roof Off" on February 13, 1999. He also performed the song live in 1999 at

MTV Spring Break ''MTV Spring Break'' refers to MTV, the channel's annual spring break coverage, featuring numerous live performances from artists and bands on location. The annual tradition continued into the 2000s, when it became de-emphasized and handed off to ...

, the

1999 Soul Train Music Awards The 1999 Soul Train Music Awards was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and aired live in select cities on March 26, 1999 (and was later syndicated in other areas), honoring the best in R&B, soul, rap, jazz, and gospel music ...

, at the Knitting Factory

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 2008, and at

The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (BHF) is an annual celebration of Hip-Hop music and culture. It is produced The Bodega Agency a wholly owned subsidiary of Brooklyn Bodega, Inc. Overview According to the official BHF website, "Our aim is to highli ...

in 2012.

Music video

The music video for "Gimme Some More" was directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

along with Busta Rhymes himself, credited there as Busta Remo. Like many of Busta's earlier music videos, it is shot through

fisheye lens A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong visual distortion intended to create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image. Fisheye lenses achieve extremely wide angles of view, well beyond any rectilinear lens. Instead of p ...

in fast motion and is largely absurdist in nature. Opening up with a '' Looney Tunes''-like intro, the video begins with Busta Rhymes narrating in the background, recalling how he once bumped his head as a child. A little boy portraying Busta as a child acts this out. A woman runs out of house to the aid of him. Suddenly, the child turns into a hideous, little blue monster with big yellow eyes and sharp teeth, and chases the woman around and throughout the house. The story is intercut with scenes of Busta Rhymes and other members of Flip Mode Squad in various random costumes and situations. Busta is seen as a boxer, stock broker, police officer, miner, pistol-toting,

Yosemite Sam Yosemite Sam ( /joʊˈsɛmɪti/ ''yoh-SEM-ih-tee'') is a cartoon character in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of short films produced by Warner Bros. His name is taken from Yosemite National Park. He is an adversary of Bugs ...

-like

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

, body builder, pimp and a person tied up about to get run over by a train a la '' The Perils of Pauline.'' The video ends on an unresolved

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

, with the woman trapped on top of a refrigerator and the monster climbing closer and closer towards her. It was nominated for Breakthrough Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. A VHS tape of the music video came free with a purchase of the album '' E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front''.

Track listing

CD single

#"Gimme Some More" (Clean Version) #"Gimme Some More" (Dirty Version) #"Do It Like Never Before"

Chart

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 1998 singles Busta Rhymes songs Music videos directed by Hype Williams Songs written by Busta Rhymes Patter songs Psycho (franchise) Comedy rap songs