A testament to persistence, Twista's 10-year career has hit its high point

with Kamikaze. The Windy City rapper's latest album will top

next week's Billboard albums chart.

Kamikaze sold more than 311,000 copies last week, according to

SoundScan, to derail Outkast's two-week run at the top by more than

227,000 copies. The popularity of the album's first single, "Slow

Jamz," featuring guest appearances from ultra-hot producer Kanye West

and Jamie Foxx, contributed to the impressive sales, the year's highest

single-week total.

Featuring contributions from R. Kelly, Ludacris, Cee-Lo, Too Short and

others, Kamikaze is the third album for Twista, who holds the

Guinness World Record for fastest rapper. He released albums in 1991

and 1995, and a few singles as Tung Twista, but none was anywhere near

as successful as Kamikaze.

"When you love the game, you keep going, you keep rolling," Twista

said. "So when 'Slow Jamz' came, it just let me know -- OK, bam!

-- all of this hard work, blood, sweat and tears finally paid off.

And man, I wouldn't change a thing."

Kamikaze's debut will knock each of last week's top three albums

down a notch: Outkast's Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below will move to

#2 (with more than 84,000 copies sold), The Very Best of Sheryl

Crow will slip to #3 (80,000) and Evanescence's Fallen will

slide to #4, though its 73,000 in sales is a 6 percent improvement

over last week's tally.

While no other new releases will crack the top 10, Chingy's

Jackpot will re-enter the chart's uppermost region at #9, with a

29 percent increase in sales. The St. Louis MC owes his newfound

success (the 57,000 copies he sold last week will help the album

surpass the 2 million mark) to his new single, "One Call Away," which

is getting intense radio play.

The rest of the top 10 will find Ruben Studdard's Soulful holding

at #5 (69,000) but slightly increasing its weekly sales; Britney

Spears' In the Zone continuing its ascent by moving up four

spots to #6 (62,000); Toby Keith's Shock'n Y'all dropping a

notch to #7 (59,000); the various-artists set 2004 Grammy

Nominees strangely dropping four spots, and 9,000 copies, to #8

(58,000) the week before the big awards show; and Now That's What I

Call Music! Vol. 14 falling from #7 to #10 (56,000).

Fired Up!, which features contributions from Groove Armada, Quad

City DJs, Melanie C. and Aqua, is the second-highest charting debut.

The 32-track double album will check in at #14.

While the Ying Yang Twins' Me & My Brother, up six spots to #43,

continues to climb 20 weeks after its release, B2K finally experienced

a sales spike with their soundtrack album B2K Presents ... You Got

Served. With the film coming in as last weekend's top box-office draw, the LP

sold nearly 10,000 more copies than it did a week earlier, to move from

#92 to #50.

Other notable chart debuts will include Disneymania 2, featuring

cuts from Raven, Daniel Bedingfield and Hilary and Haylie Duff, at #29;

electronic duo Air's third album, Talkie Walkie, at #61; the

Cure's box set, Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, at #106;

Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams' second solo album, Do You

Know, at #120; prog rockers Yes' commemorative Ultimate Yes:

35th Anniversary at #131; Stereolab's Margerine Eclipse at

#174; and the Fantômas' one-song album, Delirium Cordia, at #183.