In “Kill Us All”, Twista is so mad about this that he begins with one of the most disturbing and cinematic images I can remember in a #1 album: “I feel like / Standin’ in the midst of a hundred thousand haters / Dynamite you see full strapped around my waist / Bloody tears in my eyes / Hit the switch / Makin’ sure that every single motherfucker in the vicinity blow away and die.” The opener, the gothick 6/8 battle-rap “Get Me”, is all about how Twista and his beloved hometown of Chicago have gotten no respect in the rap game, and this theme is repeated throughout the disc.
In some ways, this threatens to be a concept album about his lack of respect. He drops in punning references to 1980s R&B groups, he insinuates, he wheedles and coaxes and flexes, he pronounces every syllable perfectly, and it’s just your ears’ fault that they cannot keep up.īut where in the past Twista has been pigeonholed as “the guy who raps really fast”, he’s aiming higher on Kamikaze. He packs more syllables into a measure than anyone, even Lyrics Born at his most mumbly or Busta in his prime: “No matter how much of a thug you see / I still spit it like it’s R&B / Come to the club with me / And with some Luther come on / I hope you’re feelin me / You’ll still-a be in love with me” takes six seconds, and six beats, for Twista. Seriously, I don’t think anyone has ever been able to rap faster and more accurately than Twista. First off, he kicks some self-deprecation, as sexy guest Aisha Tyler drops into one speaker to urge him to “do it faster, baby, do it faster!” and he protests, “Damn, baby, I can’t do it that fast, but I know someone who can… Twista!”Īt which point Twista drops in and blows the whole shit up for real. So it’s an ace single for slow-dancing already, but then West’s genius kicks it into overdrive in two ways.
“Impact on the soul” sounds nicer.)įrom the Jamie Foxx-sung hook (“I want some Marvin Gaye / Some Luther Vandross / A little Anita / Definitely set this party off right”) to the trademark sped-up sample of Luther singing “A House Is Not a Home” to West’s swaggering opening verses (“I’m-a play this Vandross / You gon’ take your pants off”), it’s already really great everyone quotes the joke about “She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson / Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson” line, but I think “My dog said you ain’t no freak / So you got to prove my man wrong” is even better.
(Actually, it’s about pop nostalgia and how to use that to get sex, but don’t tell anyone I said so. But the major part of it all is that “Slow Jamz” is one of the finest rap singles in many years, a truly amazing piece of pop magic that is ABOUT pop music and its impact on the soul.
Part of people’s fascination with this song is that Kanye West produced it and raps on it, so it’s good for Twista that The College Dropout hasn’t dropped yet. Of course, the fact that “Slow Jamz” is all over the radio and MTV right now has a lot to do with it, and rightly so, so it was inevitable that this record would blow up somewhat. But now? #1? Knocking OutKast out? Twista? I still remember him as Tung Twista, the novelty artist whose whole steez was really fast rapping, when he had that disgusting long slurping animated tongue thing going on. Twista? Hell, his last album dropped like five years ago! He’s been around for 10 years without getting even a whiff of fame like this. When this record debuted on the Billboard Album Charts at #1, I think everyone was pretty damned surprised.