Bang Showbiz (via Reuters)

American rap icon Busta Rhymes has credited hip-hop and becoming a father in helping him become a man.

During an interview with Men’s Health, the 51-year-old rapper opened up about how hip-hop, as well as becoming a father, “forced” him into “becoming a man”.

“I was the youngest in Leaders to have a child,” the rapper said, referring to the New York-based hip-hop group Leaders of the New School, which he joined in 1986. “That forced me to understand the seriousness of what becoming a man was.”

The musician welcomed his first son, T’Ziah, now 30, in 1993 with his ex-girlfriend Joanne Wood. Since then, he has had four more children; Mariah, 25, T’Khi, 24, Cacie, 24, and Trillian, 22.

“Hip-hop provided the means for me to be a man, a father. The bittersweet part was that hip-hop demanded time away from my baby,” Rhymes, real name Trevor Smith Jr., continued. “In order to be a good provider, I had to miss magical moments with my baby.”

The Touch It artist noted that he did not have the skills to get a 9-5 job to support his child.

“My skill set wouldn’t allow me to be home with my child and still be able to provide in the way that they needed to be provided for, right?” he explained. “I didn’t have a nine-to-five skill set. Being able to wake my son up, give him breakfast, dress him, take him to school, go to work, come home at five, help with his homework, read him a bedtime story – I didn’t have a skill set that allowed me to deliver in that way.”

Leaders of the New School split up in 1994.