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It took some time for you to reach this point in your
career. Do you feel like you appreciate it more since
you were bubbling under the point of mainstream success
for so long?
Twista-
Definitely. I would say yeah. More so than appreciate
it.....yeah you are right. I appreciate it because I know
what mistakes not to make. I went through a whole lot
of things and I've had something similar to this situation
and made the mistakes. So to have it this late in the
game with so much education in knowing what not to do
is a big blessing in reality.
What's the name of the new album?
Twista-The
name of the new album is The
Day After. You wanna know why?
Tell me why.
Twista-It's
called the day after because the one before that was Kamikaze,
which means I was going all out. Being a brother from
Chicago in the game for so long I was steady making those
hungry lines. I'm trying to tear you up, trying to get
in the game. The Day After represents Kamikaze
being successful and going multi-platinum and the doors
for Chicago are open now. I want people to hear a different
side of Twista. The swagger side, the mojo side, the side
that can talk about how we ride and shittin' on the other
competition in the game. The stuff the other rappers say
and that's good for Chicago.
How did you go about choosing what artists and producers
you worked with on the album?
Twista-By
using the track record of who I was already friends with
and who I had worked with and built relationships with
and also some favorites. Different people who I wanted
to work with who I had never worked with. It was like
The Neptunes, I had never worked with them before
but when I worked with them it was definitely the bomb.
Pharrell, him and Chad get their thing crackin
real hard. We came out with two tight joints and we happened
to get Jamie Foxx to sing on one of those songs.
Me and him had worked together already. One of the other
favorites of mines was Snoop Dogg. I really wanted
to get him on a song. I tried to get him on Kamikaze,
but I couldn't get it crackin quick enough so this album
I put a lot of effort into getting him on the album. And
Mariah Carey. I was on her album so she blessed
me with a song for my album. There are a few more on there.
Pit Bull, that's my man from Down South.
You and Trey Songz have had a few hit songs together.
Are there any plans for you all to record together again?
Twista-
Definitely. We got two in the bag already, one for his
album, one for my album. I think we click real well together.
When we get the time to really hang around each other
I think we are going to build on something more than just
a song.
I know you want people to cop the album but are there
any tracks people should be especially looking out for?
Twista-
Definitely. The possible next single is a song called
"Lavish" produced
by The Neptunes and it's featuring Pharrell. So that song
is really the one right now. The other one is the song
featuring Pitbull it's called "Hit
The Floor." It's a Reggaeton song, it's hitting
real hard.
On his album "Purple Haze" Cam'Ron remade the song "Adreneline
Rush." How did that come together?
Twista-That
was like, man, Cam is my man. When I was out doing my
thing I was one of the rappers who Cam'Ron respected from
a distance. So when we clicked together he let me know
I was one of his favorites, I let him know I was feeling
his rhymes. When he was working on that particular album
just me being one of the people in his classic CD collection
he said, "I want to do Adreneline Rush over." Called me
up, we came to the studio in Chicago, kicked the bo-bo,
Me, him and Young Buck from Psychodrama all sat in the
studio the same day and made the song.
The Chicago music scene is at the forefront of the
music scene for the first time with R&B and hip-hop, what
are your feelings about that?
Twista-Real
happy. You gotta think. Twista would be one of the happiest
because I was like the first artist in Chicago with a
national record deal. You have your haters but the truth
is I was like the first rapper really pushing Chicago.
Me being out there like that makes me feel like the granddaddy
or uncle like, "Finally before I get out the game, not
only do I get to see Chicago shine I get to be part of
the reason one of the highlighted people"
In your song "Hope" from the Coach Carter soundtrack you
acknowledged the E2 tragedy. Now America is dealing with
Hurricane Katrina. Do you think it's important for music
artists to acknowledge tragedy?
Twista-
Definitely. Not only acknowledge but give some of their
insight to what we can do to help make things better because
a lot of the young generation looks up to the things they
say and do. Sometimes a lot of people don't see artists
outside of the TV. They don't understand what an artist
is like as a man or a woman. I think it's good to speak
on the tragedy and not only speak on them but use the
blessings that they got and take a piece of it and give
back.
Did you ever imagine that you would finally be in heavy
rotation on MTV and BET and have multi-platinum albums?
Twista-Naw
you gotta think my career is strange because this is the
second go round for me. I was on BET back then when I
was 17-18 years old with the Mayor Ed Thomas and
Ed Lover and Dre. I was back there. I came out
when Cypress Hill and Tupac were coming out. Tupac
wasn't even out yet when I was out. It killed me a long
time ago. I had to leave that and go back to the hurt
and get a regular job then it started happening good for
me then it killed me again.
What happened in between Adreneline Rush and Kamikaze.
Twista-The
regular job. No, between Adrenaline Rush and Kamikaze
was me learning the business, dealing with different personalities
in my life that might not have been so good for me. I
was growing as a man and an artist.
Any last words for your fans?
Twista-Go
get the day after so I can sell a lot of records again
and talk shit for Chicago. It's the bomb, I got a bunch
of dope people on there. I got 15 slamming cuts on there
you can ride around and kick it with your boys or girls
and go get the Mobster album in January.
Twista official website -http://www.twista.com
May not be reprinted, copied or distributed. You may link
to this interview.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com
September 2005.
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