Kanye West drops by again to produce "Overnight Celebrity," in which Twista seduces women with his entertainer status and invites them to join in his luxurious lifestyle. bullets could reverse and 'Pac and Biggie breathe again" aid the rapper in painting his picture of a rather utopian society. "Hope" describes the plights of our nation and features the always soulful Cee-Lo on a beautiful hook. The CD is not completely void of meaning, however. Songs like these, combined with a general lack of focus, plague Twista throughout "Kamikaze." "Drinks" compares women to different types of alcoholic beverages, but instead of displaying originality, the song exposes Twista's limited writing skills. "Badunkadunk" and "Like a 24" are both dedications to the backside of women.
Yet despite his delivery and ability to rhyme multisyllables, the majority of his songs lack depth. Plain and simple, Twista can rap very well. Since then, the Chicago native participated in less than notable compilation albums, and his continually delayed follow-up album, "Kamikaze," was entirely forgotten.Įnter Kanye West producer/collaborator of the ubiquitous "Slow Jamz," a song that has salvaged Twista's career, propelling it into an area of interest just in time for the release of "Kamikaze." In 1997, his major label debut album, "Adrenaline Rush," was released with minimal commercial success. In 1992, Twista established himself in The Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest rapper alive. Kanye West is making a name for himself as an emcee. Twista's follow-up album, "Kamikaze," was long delayed. After the genius of Kanye West, all his talk of pimps, drinks and sex feels positively prehistoric.Twista found a friend in producer Kanye West A veteran whose guest spots have paid his way thus far, Twista's verbal diarrhoea is a bit much to take over 16 tracks, no matter how impressive or dexterous his flow.
The latter, though, is somewhat overshadowed by West's outing. A laid-back seduction track 'for the ladies', venerating and exploiting classic lovers' music, it appears on both College Dropout and Twista's own debut album, Kamikaze. 'Slow Jamz', featuring Twista, is a case in point. College Dropout is no dry, worthy record, either: West's pedigree as a hitmaker means that every track sounds like a chart-topping monster. Children sing 'Drug dealing just to get by/ Stack your money 'til it gets sky high,' ('We Don't Care') where West displays pride in the resilience of the underclass, even as he lampoons its worst excesses. When West does touch on gangsta subjects, he does it with style. That, and all the knock-down classics that suggest hip-hop bosses were mad not to sign him years ago. It's this very tension between hip hop's glamour and everyday struggle that makes College Dropout (and West) so terrific. As the self-proclaimed 'first nigga with a Benz and a backpack', West straddles two radically polarised worlds, that of A-list bling, and the socially conscious underground. West is a brilliant social commentator, unafraid to tackle subjects as sensitive as the materialism in black culture ('Couldn't afford a car/ So she named her daughter Alexus'), the futility of education if racism bars black achievers from good jobs ('School Spirit') and, not least, his own position. 'Thank God I ain't too cool for the safe belt,' is just the tip of an iceberg of humour, autobiography, polemic, self-deprecation, satire and warmth that dominates College Dropout, released this week into a swell of anticipation. 'Through the Wire' - its spittle-flecked vocal recorded with West's jaw wired shut - attests to his determination to get his words out there. His album went on hold.īut rapping didn't. Word of his own witty, moving raps was just beginning to spread when a car crash put him in hospital in October 2002, his jaw broken in three places. He wrote the music to '03 Bonnie & Clyde' for Jay-Z, 'Stand Up' for Ludacris, 'You Don't Know My Name' for Alicia Keys, and last week's US No 1 single, Twista's 'Slow Jamz'. He had always rapped, but it was his instantly recognisable way of speeding up old soul records and doctoring beats for bigger stars that made his name. Best known as the young producer who had made Jay-Z's Blueprint album a musical tour de force in 2001, West finally got his own deal in 2002. 2003 should have belonged - at least in part - to 26-year-old Chicagoan Kanye West.
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