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Most people think 13 is an unlucky number, but for Twista, it's been a charm. Thirteen years ago, Twista — then known as Tung Twista — was little more than a rap novelty act. He debuted with the LP Runnin' Off at Da Mouth and later broke the world record for fastest rapper, but Twista struggled to gain widespread acceptance.
In 1996 he came back hard, courtesy of fellow Chicago natives Do or Die and their hit single "Po Pimp." Instead of just kicking laser-quick battle raps, Twista was more refined and came with fleet-mouthed playa talk.
Over the past few years, Twista has mastered the art of guest appearances. Jay-Z, P. Diddy, Lil' Kim and Ludacris are just a few that have called on Twista to murder their tracks. But leave it to Chi-Town to really blow Twista up. Last year he and another Windy City hit man, Kanye West, exchanged ideas and conceived the record "Slow Jamz." With the biggest song of his career and a #1 album, Kamikaze, selling faster than he can spit bars, Twista says now that the masses love him, he's not going to stop.
MTV News' Shaheem Reid sat down with Twist to get up to speed on "Slow Jamz," Jamie Foxx, his world record and the long road that got him here.
MTV: It's been a while since we got a Twista solo album. What took so long?
Twista: I'm just really trying to get some stability in the game. You know, when we first started out I was going through an independent [label] assigned to Atlantic, and when I started to come across problems and everything, you know, I was trying to leave the label. While I was out on my own, I was clicking with Puffy and things like that, and he was trying to negotiate something for me to jump down on Bad Boy for a minute. You know, just trying to get a feel for what I was trying to do. Once I really got concrete on what I wanted I was, "OK, it's time to really have a sit-down with Atlantic and talk about what I need, what I'm cool with and everything, and see if we could just iron it on out." So we ironed it out, [I'm] back on Atlantic doing my thing, no independent involved, worked on my album, and then a year passed, and another year, and I'm like, "Damn, I'm ready to put the album out." You know, we had to come up with the right single. It was better to come with the right single than to try to rush the album, so I basically just held the album and kept releasing songs until one of them caught on good enough for me to feel like it's time to release the album.
MTV: "Slow Jamz" is definitely the right single. What's it like, being a veteran who's been in the game over 10 years, to have the biggest song of your career?
Twista: It lets you know that all of that blood, sweat and tears that you put in, it wasn't for nothing. 'Cause at first you start to think, "What is it, man? Should I do this? Should I do that? Man, let me start looking into some other things after so many years."
MTV: What do you think it is about "Slow Jamz" that made it such a hit?
Twista: I think it's a collaboration of everything, like with what Kanye brought musically and his lyrics. Me, what I brought lyrically, the concept behind the song, being able to flip all of the old singles like that, but one of the things I think was the biggest help for the song was Jamie Foxx and his hook, the "Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross," and once they start singing that it was over.
MTV: In this age of ProTools and whatnot, for a lot of collaborations someone does a track here, you do a track there, and nobody's ever in the studio together. Was it like that for "Slow Jamz"?
Twista: We did a lot of work with the "Slow Jamz" record before we went to the studio. So when we actually recorded our lyrics, we weren't there together, but we sat in the car together and collaborated on it, sat on the phone together and collaborated on it, so by the time it came time to record it we were communicating. ... And even after the lyrics were laid we came back to the studio and collaborated on the mix and made sure everything was tight.
MTV: The video is funny, it's sexy, and there are a lot of things going on in there, but it's simple too.
Twista: Yeah, you know, [directors the] Fat Cats and Kanye, man, they just came together on the idea and really wanted to keep it simple. Like, instead of big mansions, the cars and all of that stuff, we wanted to focus more on the song and more on the party vibe and the fun of the song.
MTV: How was it working with Jamie Foxx?
Twista: Jamie is a fool. The Jamie you see on TV is the Jamie you're gonna get — the crazy, outrageous, "wow" acting guy ... had us dying laughing the whole time. Oh man, I hope I get to work with him again.
MTV: A lot of people who rap rapid-fire, you can't really understand everything they say, but you manage to be fast and clear at the same time. How do you do that?
Twista: I think a lot of artists that rap or want to rap in that style focus more on the speed and the style than they do the clarity. They've got it locked in their mind "I want to do it fast" or "I want to do it like this," but with me I always go about the clarity first, and if I couldn't say it [clearly] I'm not gonna write it. ... If I can't get it all the way out or make it sound crisp or it's not within my vocal range or something, I won't even mess with it.
MTV: On a couple of songs on this album you've definitely slowed down the flow a little. Why was that?
Twista: I was running across different beats that I was like, "Man, I still wanna use that beat even though I can't do my fast-paced style to it," so I just really wanted to open it up a little bit and be like, "OK, let me give you like 70 percent of the album as that original Twista Adrenaline Rush mode, but now let me bring you to a new phase of it to introduce you to the fact that look, I can bring lyrics now, we can do it with just the slow flow."
MTV: In 1992 you earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fastest rapper. Are you still the fastest?
Twista: I think there's one other person who might have beat the record, so pretty soon you're going to see me back in the studio going somewhere or doing something as far as breaking the record.
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Photo: Atlantic
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