MySpace a place for friends

The streets love him because he discharges deadly, rapid-fire rhymes at a million miles a minute on explosive cuts like the heart-stopping “Adrenaline Rush” and “Kill Us All.” Ladies adore him because he melts paint off the walls with steamy bedroom lullabies like gold-selling singles “Overnight Celebrity” and Trey Songz-assisted “Girl Tonight.” And hip-hop just can’t live without the multi-platinum Chicago MC Twista whose career has span two decades of hit after hit after hit. Not only has Twista been able to appeal to the mainstream masses with a catalogue of gold and platinum albums and singles, but he has also kept his grassroots fan base satisfied with jagged, hard-edged lyrics and melodic, soul-drenched production. Keeping true to his hard-yet-smooth musical demeanor, Twista returns with a vengeance via the April release of Get Money Gang/ EMI album Category F5.

Fueled by the sensual strip club anthem “Wetter (Get It Wet Part 2),” Twista’s speedy tongue motions cause downpours of precipitation over a grinding, slow-moving track. “A category F5 is a super bogus tornado. It’s one of the highest categories of tornados that you can encounter; it rips the bark off trees and speaks to my rap style and how fierce and fast I’m coming,” Twista explains. “Everybody knows how I get down. I’m talking about chicks; I’m talking about kicking it in the hood. I’m talking about the game. I’m talking about partying. I’m talking about the recession… I kept the title broad because I’m not sticking to a certain subject.”

Credited with creating the swift-tongued flows of many Mid-West rappers today, Twister first burst onto the scene back in 1991 with his debut album Runnin’ Off at Da Mouth and was even dubbed the world’s fastest rapper according to the 1992 Guiness Book of World Records. It wouldn’t be until six years later would he release his hood-praised gold-certified follow-up album Adrenaline Rush. And he came back year after year with heat like the 1998 Mobstability compilation. Twista hit pay dirt with the 2004 release of double platinum album Kamikaze and quickly became a household name with chart-topping singles “Slow Jamz” featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx and Kanye West-produced “Overnight Celebrity.” And Twista blessed his audience year after year with gold-selling The Day After in 2005 and 2007’s Adrenaline Rush 2007.

This time around Get Money Gang/ EMI album
Category F5, he sticks to the script with usual production suspects Toxic and The Legendary Traxter and enlists the hit-making production prowess of Jim Jonsin (who also produced Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” and T.I.’s “Whatever You Like). In addition, Twista is backed by some of the coldest rhyme spitters in the Mid-West like Liffey Stokes, B Hype, Skooda Chose and Mello on his newly formed Get Money Gang imprint.

“I’m giving the fans the Twista that they want. I didn’t sit back and rely on myself to be the total creator of what I think is a hit. I took my time and listened to beats that I thought was a hit before I touched it,” says Twista. “When people listen to this album, they will enjoy the fact that I came with a bunch of hits, and I’m still on point with what it takes to be in this game.” Case in point is the Jim Jonsin-produced follow-up single “She Got It.” Twista will turn the clubs out with the eerie, high-pitched synthesizers and ridiculous flow. Twista even does the unexpected to show his wide musical range on the neo-soul-inspired “Read My Mind.”

He continues to keep it gutter with the savagely bloody “You Don’t Wanna See Them Buss” featuring Liffey Stokes. And on the breezy high times of “Fire,” the Windy City wordsmith rolls up witty rhymes about his favorite seed-bearing fruit atop a slow tempo.

“I got to have my street joints because that’s what made me. I would never make an album that would satisfy just radio people or just the industry,” he says. “If I put out an album that fails, I can’t go back to the streets. I will always make music for the streets.”

Whether making the ladies swoon with hot, buttered soul of time-tested hip-hop love songs or dropping heat-seeking lyrical landmines, Twista’s many modes of mood music know no boundaries. He is hip-hop past, present and future.

“I love doing what I’m doing. I never stop loving the music,” Twista explains his longevity. “And then, I’m a real MC. When you’re a real mc, you never really forget how to be an MC. There are certain rappers like Jay-Z, Eminem or Bun-B that are everlasting because it’s in them. They’re true MCs. A true MC will never die.”