Twista "Adrenaline Rush 2007" (#10 DEBUT!)

[busyboy]

Twista kicks it off
April 4, 2007

What up, this is your homey Twista and I'm feeling good and excited about this year.

I'm steady working on my new album, "Adrenaline Rush 2007," which should be out late this summer on Atlantic Records and got four or five mix tapes out right now like "The X-Files".

I've also got a few mix tapes out with one of the Shadyville DJs out here, Sean Mac, who's doing it real big. The first single, "Whip Game Proper" with Lil Wayne is out right now and we're about to drop the second single, "Give It Up", with Pharrell in a little bit.

You'll definitely see my return this year and on the last album, "The Day After," you may have seen a lot of records for the girls but now that I've been away from the scene for a little and was seeing the hood I'm getting back to more of that original Twista for everyone again.

I'm still hard at work in the studio and have been working on the next Speedknot Mobstaz album, "Mobstability 2-Nation Business," which comes out this summer and should have the fans talking.

Don't forget to send me your questions and comments, and be sure to find me here next week.

Will Chicago ever be the Mecca of the music industry like the South is now?
-DJ Piezo in Chicago

Chicago is more of a consumer market. People in the Midwest are mostly customers while the East Coast, the West Coast, and the South are like the stores because they're supplying. You can sell records in the East, West, and South, too, but in the Midwest we're mostly the customers instead of the suppliers.

There aren't enough major labels in Chicago so a lot of artists have to go to other places. I feel proud of having stayed in Chicago but it wasn't something I thought about. I can't move easily though, I'm a Chicago boy. The Midwest is learning about the game now and we're starting to take it to where other cities have.

How do you think your rapping has changed since your Adrenaline Rush days? What part of your style did you keep from your Adrenaline Rush days?
-Lawrence in Mesa, AZ

The recording is different now because the producers come to me now and I got my own studio. When you make enough noise the producers will appreciate you enough to come out and work with you. It's like 'Man I'm in my comfort zone'. It's a lot like a quarterback coming into the league using the same playbook he used in college.

I consider that the music I'm making today represents me at this day and shows where I'm at. I might feel a certain way about this album but is it lyrically doper than "Adrenaline Rush?" It might not be. Is it as likable to the women as "Kamikaze?" It might not be. I might be going a little deeper this time and I may be trying to get new fans but I want to satisfy the original Twista fans too. People will still see the same Twista that first came out, too. I still got lyrics and I have fast parts to let people know I still got it.

You've been comin out with hot joints for over 10 years. How do you keep doin' it?
-Eric in Chicago

A lot of times artists try to think about where they're trying to go with a song or the music but I'm not like that. I used to force it when I was younger but now I hear the beat and just let a track create itself. I'm at the level where I can focus on the music and don't have to think about 'this track has to be this' or 'I need to say this on a track'. I just let it come out naturally.

I'm real versatile and can do what I want to do. I think I've been in the game long enough where I can make music like I want and put it out there for the fans.

We hear of a lot of artists here in Chicago, but the rest of the world has yet to hear them! With you having not only your foot in the door but damn near your whole body, can you make some of these artist more visible?
-Bean in Chicago

Of course. As an artist out Chicago I'm putting the Chi on. I'm working with Skooda out of the West Side and Cap.One. I'm also working on the Speedknot Mobstaz project that's coming this summer through Showtime Entertainment.

We already have a few videos out and have been on some mixtapes. I'm just a fan of their music. I'm hoping that anybody out of Chicago with hot music does well. I'm rooting for them because they're an artist like me, I'm rooting for them because they're out of my city, and sometimes I'm rooting for them because they're a black man who's found another way to make some noise in a good way.

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Spine Magazine has "Give It Up". Hot...

His MySpace page.

[busyboy]

Twista Raps For 'My People In My 'Hood' On New LP With R. Kelly, Pharrell
Chicago rapper — and part-time newspaper columnist — will drop Adrenaline Rush 2007 in August.

By Jayson Rodriguez

MIAMI BEACH, Florida — Twista is in a confusing place right now.

Physically, the rapper is in South Beach to film the video for his upcoming single "Give It Up," produced by and featuring Pharrell Williams. The clip, directed by Hype Williams, is based in part on an idea Pharrell shared with Hype about alluring women appearing next to equally alluring items.

"It's gonna be a nice, colorful joy ride for the fellas," Twista said from the set. "[Hype] heard the song and [had] a vision. He was just like, 'After all this time, we get to work together.' And I never thought he paid much attention to my career like that. But he was telling me, 'Man, I get a chance to really bring out your lyrics — I haven't seen other directors really bring them out the way it needs to be.' He got me real charged talking about his visual effects, the colors. He's really into this video."

And so is Pharrell. "The beat is definitely some booty-shaking, strip-club kind of record," P told MTV News earlier in the day. "And it kind of celebrates the fun things for a young boy who admires ethnicities. I just wanted to highlight it in a very different way. So you have the girl lying by something just as tasty as she looks, like candy. And the emphasizing of the beat comes from the way we cut from angle to angle versus her shaking her ass. Because I don't know about you guys, but I'm desensitized. How do you do it? Every video the girls get prettier and prettier and prettier."

But as forward-thinking as Twista and company are with his video, when it comes to the Chicago native's forthcoming album, Adrenaline Rush 2007 — due August 7 on Atlantic Records — Twista is looking to the past for direction.

The title is a nod to his debut, the hard-charging Adrenaline Rush, which first introduced the world to Twista's rapid-fire flow, particularly the Legendary Traxter-produced "Overdose."

It's been 10 years since that album dropped, and while collaborations with Kanye West, Diddy and others have raised his profile over the years, Twista said he still makes music for his original fanbase.

"I feel like I found a niche as far as how to do music successfully, commercially and still keep my street vibe and my lyrical credibility," he said. "I feel like that's what I conquered when I did songs like 'Slow Jamz' and 'Overnight Celebrity.'

"But at the same time, too, I realized I still live in Chicago," Twista continued. "And one of the things I can't have is the people where I live feel like I'm only doing music for the masses now and I don't think about them. What drives me is when my homie in my 'hood digs my lyrics. When I go overseas and I can see this person with an accent tell me my sh-- is dope, that makes me feel equally as good. But at the same time, what I'm very passionate about is my people in my 'hood and where I'm from."

So for Rush 2007, Twista recruited Cee-Lo, Jazze Pha, R. Kelly, Lil Wayne and the Speedknot Mobstaz to join the fray. He said he was also in talks to reunite with Traxter for a sequel to "Overdose," but according to Twista, these days it's easier for him and his former mentor to kick it as friends than to do business with one another.

Even though Twista is still finishing up his upcoming project, he already has ideas for a follow-up. The rapper has been serving as a columnist for Chicago's Red Eye newspaper, writing about issues (the Virginia Tech tragedy, President Bush) that he normally wouldn't address in his raps. But during his tenure, he said he's learned to be proactive with his thoughts instead of waiting to be asked to speak on a particular subject, something he didn't do before.

"Sometimes when I do my music, I try to be so dope with the lyrics that I don't touch on a lot of topics like I do with my column," he said. "So if you want to really see what Twista is thinking about stuff, you can check out the column side. But when I get to my next album, I'mma fuse both of them together — my music with the way I write in my column — so you can really hear Twista's perspective on a musical level. I'm trying to take it there."

[busyboy]

Pharrell and Twista Discover Baltimore Club
by Tom Breihan

When it's used right, a Twista guest-verse can be a seriously powerful weapon. Twista's speed-rap style is a very specific and specialized gift, and it only works in certain contexts, but when he finds the right space for it, it dazzles. Think of his appearance on Beanie Sigel's "Gotta Have It," where he weaves his voice in and out of Chad Hamilton's off-kilter drum-shuffle, first throwing syllables all over the place in concentrated bursts of chaos and then switching up and only putting words on the downbeats. Or the original version of Jay-Z's "Is That Yo Bitch," before he gave it to Memphis Bleek, where Twista raps circles around one of Timbaland's most cluttered and intense beats. The way he raps is amazing just on a purely physical level: he clearly enunciates every single word, but he does it so quickly that it can be tough to hear what he's saying. And that's fine; Twista rarely says much. His style is more of a parlor trick than anything else; there's a reason you never hear about whoever broke his fastest-rapper Guinness Book record. His solo albums have always been a bit uneven because it's hard to hear someone rap that fast for an hour and because he always sounds a bit uncomfortable whenever he tries to slow it down. Twista went platinum a couple of years ago with Kamikaze largely because of a couple of Kanye West collaborations, but I always thought that the album itself was a perfect representation of a rapper overreaching his limitations by trying to be as well-rounded as possible. I've been thinking a lot, though, about Twista's new single, the Neptunes-produced "Give It Up," a track that I find both really frustrating and really intriguing. The song itself is just OK, but I'd really love to hear Twista do more stuff like it.

A couple weeks ago, Pharrell told MTV that "Give It Up" was going to be his take on Baltimore club music, the raunchy and hyperanimated form of dance music that developed in my hometown and only started getting noticed elsewhere a couple of years ago. Here's what Pharrell says: "I wanted to give my own interpretation of it, which is a little bit of Miami, a little bit of Baltimore house. The way I'm doing it don't sound like B-More and don't sound like Miami. It just kind of [has] a lot of the remnants of the sounds of the things that I would use ... arranged with the mentality of the B-More stuff but with the low end of Miami." Pharrell's been interested in club music for a while now, and I've read reports that both Clipse's "Grindin'" and Kelis's "Milkshake" are Neptunes versions of club music even though neither one of them actually sounds anything like club music. But "Give It Up" isn't far off. The frenetic conga loop and the insanely repetitive and deadpan Pharrell chorus both rank as pretty good approximations of club. The synths are a little cleaner and the tempo is a little slower, but this is the first time I've heard a real musical connection to club music in a Neptunes track, which is pretty exciting. But the song still falls sort of the blockbuster club-rap monster I was hoping for when I read Pharrell talking about it. There have been plenty of attempts to combine rap with Baltimore club in the past, and most of them have sounded like ass. Club music in its distilled form is extremely fast and frenetic, usually hovering around 120 beats per minute, and most rappers just can't go that fast without turning their voices into wordless mush. And when club tracks are slowed down, as on local hits like Bossman's "Oh," they sound emaciated and wrong. Labtekwon's "Sex Machine" was one of my favorite singles of last year partly because it's a rare example of a rapper technically gifted enough to keep up with club in its natural state going nuts over an undiluted club track. I've always wanted to hear what Twista could do over a club track because I can't think of another rapper more naturally suited to the sound. But on "Give It Up," Twista talks about girls dancing, and so he delivers all his lyrics in his for-the-ladies voice, which is something like what LL Cool J might've sounded like if he'd slammed five triple-espressos immediately before recording "I Need Love." We also have to deal with a typically awful Pharrell verse, and honestly, I have no idea why a rapper as ass-ugly as Twista is even bothering to record for-the-ladies tracks. He still does amazing things with his timing and his meter, and he manages to cram a couple of pretty-funny Red Hot Chili Peppers references into the first verse, but the song still strikes me more as a missed opportunity than anything else.

It's also an interesting jumping-off point. Pharrell says that he's going to try using his hybridized club-sound on a few more singles this year. That's a good look for Pharrell, since "Give It Up" comes closer to the neon synth-addled weirdness of early Neptunes tracks than almost anything he's done in the past few years. And if Twista can afford more than one Neptunes track, it could be a good look for him as well. If not, there are plenty of actual Baltimore club producers willing to work cheap. Twista's new album is called Adrenaline Rush 2007, and that style probably wouldn't work too well if he's trying to recreate the organic midwestern bounce-rap sound of the original Adrenaline Rush. And it probably also wouldn't work to well on the collaborative album he's supposedly making with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. (Imagine the syllable-count on that thing.) But I'd still love to see Twista dig a little deeper into Baltimore club. After all, he's built for it.

[busyboy]

Twista Mixes Passion With Adrenaline On New CD, Says Most Rappers Just "In It For The $"

Having paid more than his share of dues in the industry, Windy City veteran Twista is back with both a new intensity and a new album. The rapid-firing MC recently hollered at SOHH about working with former rivals Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, lessons learned in the industry, and the concept behind his new CD, Adrenaline Rush 2007.

"It's a concept I came up with because it's time," he told SOHH. "When I came out in '97 with the first Adrenaline Rush, it was new and with this one, it's just expressing that longevity and showing all of my fans that Twista ain't changed. I got into the same mindstate as the Adrenaline Rush in '97. It's just that same fierceness and energy."

The album, which follows 2005's The Day After, will feature guest spots from Lil' Wayne, R. Kelly, Cee-Lo and T-Pain, with beats from Pharrell, Kanye West and Jazze Pha among others. The disc will also see a collaboration with former rivals Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Twista explains that it was maturity that ended the feud between the two Midwest powerhouses.

"I think it was just men who make music growing up. Like Jay and Nas, it was a bunch of he say-she say and when you get a little older, pockets get a little more straight, and you can put those things behind you like men. We're at points in our careers where we understand personally what we were doing to hip-hop and to the Midwest."

Having put in well over a decade in the game, Twista has seen the industry change over the years and has learned plenty of lessons that he hopes to share with the next crop of new jacks.

"It used to be the way the industry was, trying to be better than all the competition, that made you want to do it," he said. "But it seems now that it's really my own passion for the music and for my fans. There used to be so much feeling in it, now dudes will tell you quick, 'I'm just in it for the money.'"

"[The industry] grew me up fast," Twista continued. "I basically grew up in the industry. I got my first deal at 18 and it seems that now, people don't understand the difference between the industry and the streets. I done seen people from the street get into the industry and have it run them right back to the streets. Growing up around all of these fake people, it taught me to be a man. If you can survive in the jungle that is this industry long enough, you'll come out a stronger person."

Twista's Adrenaline Rush 2007 is set to hit stores on August 14 on Atlantic Records.

[busyboy]

Twista Gives Fans A 'Rush' On New Album

Mariel Concepcion, N.Y.

Chicago rapper Twista is full of surprises on his upcoming album, "Adrenaline Rush 2007," due Aug. 24 via Atlantic. The set, titled after his debut album, 1997's "Adrenaline Rush" ("I want to let [them] know Twista is still the same," he says of the title choice), not only features guest turns by Juelz Santana, Cee-Lo, Jazze Pha, Pharrell, T-Pain and R. Kelly, but also Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

The collaborative track "We Ain't No Hoes" marks the second time Twista and Bone Thugs have joined forces since a public feud. "A lot of people thought we had some stuff going on at one point, but this track is letting peeps know we're good," Twista tells Billboard.com. "Ain't no way you could f*ck with the fantastic four," he proclaims on the track.

Twista says he's slowing things down a bit on the album, a curious development for the fast-spitting MC. "I'm not necessarily slowing down my words. I'm finding methods to still be as animated as I've always been, but blend with the times," he explains. "I have to grow with the times and be effective in other ways than just animation."

Songs like the piano-laced, R. Kelly-produced "Love Rehab" is a testament to that approach. The Middle Eastern-sounding "La Di Da," which sports a woman's voice repeating the title over a thumping bass line and sporadic gun shots, features the chopped-and-screwed sound throughout.

On tracks like "I Ain't That N*gga" ("I ain't a player, but in my city b*tches holler at me like I'm the mayor," he rhymes) and the drum-based "Charged," Twista says he "kept it more hood. There are a lot more street songs on this album that previous," he adds. "That's what 'Adrenaline Rush' was -- me in the hood full of dreams of making it. I felt like I got slightly away from that with my last album. On this album, the adrenaline rush is the same."

However, the most out-of-the-box song on "2007" is the Tight Mike-produced "Pimp Like Me," in which Twista introduces Chicago's juke music, a blend of hip-hop and double-speed house music. "It's like our version of the Bay Area hyphy movement," says Twista, who says the song may be released as a single.

The upcoming album is the follow-up to 2005's "The Day After," which has sold 495,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

[busyboy]

Twista Talks New Album, Bone Thugs N Harmony Collaboration

by Lakeia Brown and Chris Richburg

An increase in street music and a few collaborations will be the main components for the forthcoming album from Chicago-based rapper Twista, Adrenaline Rush 2007.

The release, according to the rapper, is sure to please fans.

While Twista is featured prominently on the album, he does enlist "a few friends" such as Juelz Santana and T-Pain to help round out the project.

"It's not just me," the lyricist revealed to AllHipHop.com. "I got a song on there produced by Jazzy Pha that's off the chain called 'Trappers Delight.' I got my homey Cee-Lo on there and he's doing a crazy style on the track. I definitely had to bring my man R. Kelly back – that's like my favorite song without even listening to my part, just sitting back listening to what he did to the record. That's called 'Love Rehab.' I got Pharrell on my next single that I'm about to drop called 'Give It Up.'"

One song that may have listeners talking will be "We Ain't No Hoe," a track featuring Twista's former rap rivals Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

According to Twista, the song signifies a new day for the two factions, who used to feud over who developed the rapid fire style of rhyme that defines them both.

The single "Give It Up," may crossover to the small screen as there are plans to feature the song on HBO's hit show Entourage.

"Yeah, the 'Give It Up'record is supposed to be tied into Entourage, but I'm not sure what's going on with that," Twista admitted to Allhiphop.com. "We were supposed to have the director from the show shoot the video and everything, but a lot of things got misconstrued so now we're going to have Hype Williams shoot the video."

Adrenaline Rush 2007 is slated to hit stores on Aug.24.

[reception]

Jul 30, 9:55 PM EDT
McDonald's Drops Rapper From Tour

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rapper Twista, who was tapped by McDonald's to perform during its nationwide concert series, has been dropped from the lineup because of his "controversial lyrics," the fast food giant said Monday.

The Chicago rapper is better known for his lightning-fast rap delivery than particularly raunchy content: His hits include "Slow Jamz," with Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, and "Overnight Celebrity." However, he does use explicit language and reference drugs in his some of his rhymes.

McDonald's, which initially signed the rapper to perform in Chicago for its 10-city concert series, said it could no longer support Twista for the Aug. 7 performance.

"Although we respect free speech and artistic expression, we do not condone or perpetuate derogatory language," said spokesman William Whitman in a statement. "We want to ensure these free concerts are fun as well as appropriate for all of our customers."

When asked why they booked the rapper, given his content, the company referred back to the statement.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Twista said that in some ways, he was surprised by the announcement, "especially after hearing from certain people that represented McDonald's that they were fans of the music and they were excited about the whole thing and that they backed me, and then to hear a few a days later that I was actually not on the show."

However, he blamed the increased criticism of hip-hop in the wake of the racial flap over former CBS radio and MSNBC broadcaster Don Imus for putting pressure on the corporate giant to drop him from the series.

"They started hearing things ... feeling like they were getting a little flak, and I felt like rather than stick by me and stick through it, they got scared," he said. "I've been rapping the same way for 15 years. It only became a problem when Don Imus said something negative about black women and they needed a scapegoat."

After Imus was fired for calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," some critics decried what they considered a double standard for rappers who often use derogatory terms about women. Increased pressure was put on rappers and record labels to clean up offensive content.

Twista said that typically, when he performs at events that are more mainstream and that attract kids, he cleans up his lyrics, and had intended to do so for the Chicago performance.

"I was actually going to have a school with a choir come sing the song 'Hope' with me. So now ... McDonald's have to tell the kids that they can't perform."

[Gray.]

I really liked "Blessed" featuring Jessi Malay. It was on her MySpace for awhile but she took it down. I guess it didn't make the cut for the album.

[busyboy]

Leaked. He's gonna flop, flop big time next week.

Track listing:

01. Adrenaline Rush The Saga Continues... 01:18
02. Charged 02:47
03. That T Is (Skit) 00:27
04. I Ain't That ***I'M RACIST*** 03:22
05. Say Say (feat. Cee-Lo, Jazze Pha & Big Zak) 04:29
06. Whip Game Proper (feat. Lil' Wayne) 04:19
07. No Pistols (feat. Speedknot Mobstaz) 03:57
08. Phone (Skit) 00:16
09. Love Rehab (feat. R. Kelly) 03:58
10. Seven Day Hustle 03:49
11. Creep Fast (feat. T-Pain) 03:32
12. Wrist Stay Rocky 03:42
13. What Would Twista Do If He Wasn't Rappin'? (Skit) 01:06
14. Give It Up (feat. Pharrell) 03:30
15. The Come Up 04:08
16. Ain't No Hoes (feat. Bone Thugs N Harmony) 05:15
17. Pimp Like Me 04:07
18. Ya With It Or Ya Ain't (Skit) 01:53
19. Trouble 04:23

[Linnethia Monique]

I'm really only feeling Give It Up on the album. His last album trumped this BIG TIME.

[XXIX]

I forgot all about this... I remembered last night when I saw it had leaked and I didn't even care to download it. =\

[areyoureadytojump]

Out today in the USA!!

Target: $9.98
Circuit City: $9.99

[reception]

Reviewed by Steve Jones
USA Today

Twista, Adrenaline Rush 2007: * * * (out of four) Rapper's booster shot

Twista’s latest at times recalls his gritty 1997 classic, Adrenaline Rush, with venomous, rapid-fire street rhymes, but it also reaches for the pop appeal of his more R&B-inflected recent work. His grimier songs get the blood pumping faster than the smoothed-out tracks. The many skits serve no purpose, though his musings on What Would Twista Do if He Wasn’t Rappin’? are brilliantly funny. Mostly, he succeeds in making you feel the rush.

[areyoureadytojump]

Billboard.biz:

Twista's "Adrenaline Rush 2007" debuts at No. 10 with 41,000 sold.

[busyboy]

Well, at least he went Top 10...

[SHOOTER]

His mainstream success was a fluke.

[busyboy]

He has a weird career, sales-wise. He started out selling decently in the late 90's, then virtually disappeared until he blew up in 2004. It was as if he actually debuted that year, LOL.

But yeah, his success was definitely producer-driven, without Kanye and R. Kelly and the Neptunes he would be an indie artist by now.

[areyoureadytojump]

10/20 chart

83 TWISTA ADRENALINE RUSH 2007 10,829 17,189 -37% 68,809

[sdot23]

Video for 2nd single "Pimp Like Me":

www.dailymotion.com/video/x3c2lj_twista-pimp-like-me_news