No Jumper - The Twista Interview: His Come Up, Becoming a Gun Instructor, Explains TMZ Fight & More

Episode Date: April 27, 2021

Adam is rejoiced to sit down with Twista and talk about his career moves, working with Jay-Z, Kanye, Pharrell, his style, and what he's up to now. https://www.instagram.com/twistagmg/ https://twitter.com/twistagmg https://www.facebook.com/Twista/ ----- CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5tesvmDS8h50LkjnSAWMOs?si=j6sJD6DkR4mk5NZZWnlK7g FOLLOW US ON SNAPCHAT FOR THE LATEST NEWS & UPDATES https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! http://www.nojumper.com/ SUBSCRIBE for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/nastymondayz Follow us on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nojumper iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/no-jumper/id1001659715?mt=2 Follow us on Social Media: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 http://www.twitter.com/nojumper http://www.instagram.com/nojumper https://www.facebook.com/NOJUMPEROFFICIAL http://www.reddit.com/r/nojumper JOIN THE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Q3XPfBm Follow Adam22: https://www.tiktok.com/@adam22 http://www.twitter.com/adam22 http://www.instagram.com/adam22 adam22hoe on Snapchat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No Jumper. Coolest podcasts in the world. And today we have someone who is a legend above all legends, perhaps. One of the most legendary figures we ever had on here, Twista, is in the building. How you doing, man? Thank you, my brother. How you doing, Adam? Oh, I'm doing excellent, man. You're one rapper that I can honestly say that I knew about you before I ever heard you rap because I remember reading in the source about the legend that was Twista in, like, the early 90s when I was like a little kid in elementary school. Okay. You know, the Twista sales pitch is like, this guy's the fastest rapper in the world. And I had to hear it. I had to figure out what was going on.

And that was like a long-ass time ago. So it's kind of crazy when I think about how long Twista has been a thing in my brain. It's been a while, right? Even before I heard you. That's crazy, man. That's love. It's pretty wild. Yeah, you're someone who's been doing it for about as long as we can imagine.

What year would you say it was when you really started actually, like, getting into the rap game? Tell us a little bit about the early days. The early days. Like, I started rapping very early, like, probably 13, 14 years old. And then about the time I got signed on my first deal, which was with Loud Records. Right. So I was, like, the first artist on Loud Records. And at the time, I was probably, like, 18, something like that.

Right. So I remember me and Com came out around the same time. Me and Com around that same time. So these was the earliest. That's when I came out. What year did you first sign with? What year was it when you signed with Loud? Man, that was early, like, what, 90, 91 or something like that.

Okay. And, I mean, how would you characterize your life prior to that? Like, how did you grow up? What were the circumstances like? Let's hear a little bit about that. Man, just really in the hood, man. Like, you know, from the west side of Chicago. That's why I was born at on the west side of Chicago.

hood called K-town and just coming up in the neighborhood, you know, you know, me, my brother's, sister, you know what I'm saying? I mean, we hear so much about Chicago in terms of, you know, what it is to be from the hood or in the streets out there. How was it different at that time? What are the biggest differences that stand out to you? Technology, you know, around that time, your influences were more local, local, people that you could get to at school in the neighborhood,

your parents, things like that. that some stuff you will see maybe on TV. But now it's like so integrated. Everybody knows what everyone is doing and got opinions about what everyone is doing. You know, so it's a lot different. Yeah, I mean, I always end up thinking about that in terms of like, you know, the gang bang,

a thing in particular. Like, it must have been so different back in the day when like the other side of the town was a total mystery to you slash like you heard things, but you didn't get to have like a, a window into your enemy's exact thoughts on his Instagram story all day. That's a different level. And then you didn't want him to know. If you was about to get down in Chicago back then, if you had an enemy, it wasn't to be talked about. You know, you wanted to be silent about it.

You know, so that's one thing that's different like, dad, they're just going to say it. You don't let them know. Yeah, as a rap fan, you're pretty much always having that feeling. And in particular, like, when you see it, like, if you ever trying to explain a rap beef to somebody who's old, older, a lot of times they'll just be like, and they're just saying this on the internet? Like it's so mind-blowing to them if they haven't been around it. It's like, yes, no, that's really how this works. Yeah, it's crazy.

Definitely. But okay, so what about your family life? Like, what was the support system that you had as a kid? Man, I was cool. Like, you know, my mother raised us right. You know, I had a strong mother, you know, and she raised us right and, you know, came up with me and my brothers, you know.

And then my sister, you know, my sisters. And, you know, I had a typical hood upbringing. You know, nothing's coming to my mind at this particular time. But I had a typical upbringing. It was definitely hard, you know. So we had to make way. But, you know, we came out of it, like I said, around 17, 18. Once I started getting it popping, you know, I was able to help a lot and things like that.

And things started to turn around. What kind of music were you listening to when you were like a young kid? And how did hip-hop start to become a presence in your brain? Probably around the time when it started to affect me was LL Cool J, run DMC, Beastie Boys. This is the type of stuff I'm listening to at the time when I started to want to do it myself. You know, Fat Boys and Dougie Fresh was a big influence on me rapping. Right. It wouldn't be a me if it was no fat boys in Dougie Fresh, those two specifically.

Right. Definitely. And was it like everyone in your school was listening to rap, or was it still kind of smaller? Was it like the thing that everybody was listening to or at that point was it still kind of like a fringe interest since you didn't have that many like local artists and shit? Right, right. In Chicago, hip hop was like something that was, you had a lot of hip hop was on the south side. So me being from the west side, there was an extra, like an extra thing as far as it not being something that was familiar to everybody. So I was like one of the only artists that was into it at that time.

And you still have some dope ones at the time that was coming up. But definitely it was like a scarce thing when I was into hip-hop, you know, in Chicago. Definitely. And so how did your actual interest in rap come to be? Like I was saying. Doing the actual rapping. doing actual rap. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm trying to tell you. I was into it, listening to all of the rappers that's doing their thing. Mostly, like, a lot of East Coast artists. I still was listening to, like, NWA. A lot of the West Coast artists. Like, it'll be, I'm a fan of, like,

artists you wouldn't even think of. I used to listen to Def, Jeff, all type, like any, like, all type of artists. So it got to a level where I was into the beatboxing a lot, you know? I used to write rhymes for my guys, you know, my guy, uh, B in the hood, my guy, or should I say my little brother,

we had a little group and everything like that. But once I heard Dougie Fresh was rapping, it's like, man, he ain't just beatboxing. He's rapping too. You know, so that sparked my interest to actually want to be a rapper was seeing Dougie Fresh not only beatboxing, but he was rapping too.

So I'm like, man, I'm going to start rapping too. Right. That's dope. But rapping to you at the time, I was just kind of being with your friends on the street or in school and that kind of shit, like you really thought about getting in the studio yet? Of course. No, no. Like at that time, it was more so about rocking in the neighborhood,

rocking my block, stuff like that, like a few battles and stuff like that, then at school, stuff like that. Definitely. You were battling dudes, like, people from school and stuff? Do you have any, like, that's how I came up really? Notable ones at the time? Okay. Just, uh... But before there was ever a video camera. Yeah, it wasn't a lot of videotaping back then, but it was, like, a lot of local battles in the hood, like me with a certain guy from this hood. So, certain guy from this hood. Shout out to my boy, baby John. I used to battle baby John in the hood, you know. Okay. Yeah. That's what's up. Um, okay. So then how did you start to like really get your name out there? Or actually, I want to ask even before that, like, when did you sort of

realize that you were very good at rapping? And how did your style sort of start to form? Man, really, I was rapping like, like I said, I was like spitting like rhymes that was normal, I would say. Because when you say like L.O. Cool J, run DMC, like flow-wise, pretty simple and pretty slow. Like, compared to what you do, you know, it's a completely fundamental other side of, like, what you could do flow-wise. Well, like, Raq-Him, Rakem was probably the top influence. Right.

You know, like, people like Dougie Fresh help influence me to star rapping. People like Raq-Kim helped me refine my style of rap. So if you listen to a lot of Rock Kim's lyrics, you'll hear a lot of Ked. where you'll be like, okay, I can see what Twister talking about. You know, but my rap style really just came from rapping normal and then start to put a little line or two in there, you know. And then you're doing it a little more and a little more. Then you start hearing other people doing it.

Then one day I said, man, you know what? I want to be the one that's like known for this style the most. So I said instead of doing it in little spurts, I'm going to make a whole verse like this. Right. And I wrote this rap. Look at the time of the tongue. It's the, it's the tongue twist. You know, and then I wrote a whole verse that sounded like that.

Right. And you didn't have anybody that you could have looked at at that time that was rapping fast. Was there anybody that you could have looked at and said, like, well, this guy is kind of like what I'm doing, but I'm going to go more extreme version of it? It was a few rappers that was doing their thing. Like, I liked, at that time, I liked Fushnikings. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Me and Chip, like, that's my guy right there. Like I like the way he does this thing. It's a few earlier. I liked the song originators when I had heard that with the Jay, Jazzo and Jay. Okay, yeah, yeah. That was one of the first.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, it was some out there doing their thing, definitely. Definitely. And so, like, how do you feel like people received that when you first started to do it? Like, was it kind of mind-blowing to people, or did people gravitate towards it? Some of them was amazed. Some of them was, we don't know what the fuck you're saying. You rap into.

fast. Slow this shit down. I hear you. But you always like kind of believed in it. Like was there were there times where you were like sort of going back and forth or was it always something we were like, nah, this is the shit, I'm pushing this the whole way. Never stayed

like that. I always had a writer's block. Really? Always had a writer's block. I would let what other artists were doing or what people may be saying influenced me too much. So if I saw somebody winning a certain way or doing a certain type of style, you know, because I can pretty

much rap any way I want to rap. So a lot of times my abilities were too easy, you know, and I would hear other things and dabbling this and dabble in that and do certain styles and songs that wasn't really me. You know, then it was certain times I would get into a long writer's block where I couldn't really figure myself out. It took me a while to get to that conclusion of man, just do you. Right. You know, just be twister, do you. That's dope by itself.

What you're looking for? You know, one thing that always kinds of occurs to me when I listen to you rap is that you might have a bar where you are actually saying the same number of syllables that maybe somebody else would in that bar, but what you do is you'll like wrap the beginning part of the bar like really fast and then wrap like maybe one or two of the syllables. You slow it down. And it's interesting because it's like you're considered to be rapping so fast. but really you're fitting a reasonable amount of thoughts into each bar.

It's just that your flow is completely different. Yeah, yeah. A lot of it is to do with just the cadence itself. A lot of times people just think, you're rapping fast or double time or like different phrases, but it's really just the cadence. I like to be like another instrument. You know, I find it artful to be able to say something meaningful and make sense with what you're saying and still be able to put it together in a way.

the cadence where the way you are flowing is sounding like an instrument along with the track. And what's kind of amazing when you actually look at the twist of Spotify, which I was just digging into for an hour or two yesterday, is that you have just like featured on records by so many ridiculously huge artists over the years. And I would assume that it's like, it's not really you saying like, hey, Mariah Carey, let me hop on that. No, it's like she saw something in what you're doing that she wanted to bring you in or somebody on her team. Like most of these records it's like they look at you as like a weapon that they want to bring in to add something different to a track a lot of times which is dope yeah i never heard weapon i like that you can use

that thank you thank you but yeah yeah that that was always dope and uh that was the reward to me of the the effort of working on music the way i would work on it sometimes like it would take me a half a day to write a verse back then you know as as i grew into an artist then i was able to do it faster and work faster, but there were times where it would take me hours and hours and hours to put together a verse because I was so, it was so important that these lyrics came out the way I wanted them. Really? So, yeah, yeah.

So when people like that say, yo, let me get twist on a song. And when certain artists would come, that would be the reward to me for that hard work. Yeah. Definitely. Would you, at that time, was punching in when recording a verse, a thing? Or would you do one take? A little of both, depending on what type of energy I wanted. If I wanted a natural energy where you can hear me sweating and breathing and getting that whole verse out

and you're just hearing it in the raw, then I would do that type of verse and do the whole verse or something like that. But if it's something where I want to perfect it, I'm in a studio, this is for the album. I want to make sure it sounds flawless, then I might punch it even if I don't have to just to, get certain phrases out here and there. You get a different effect in terms of having your breath be, when your breath is fresh for each individual line, then it gives a very different feeling.

Like, I've heard songs where, like, a producer told me, like, he punched in for this one and you didn't punch in for this one, and it really is interesting how the same artist can have a different feel. Yeah. Yeah. And I like to use it as a tool to, like, why not use it? Like, if you know that you can make something sound

better about just simply doing a punch and making it flow, then it's cool but what I don't like is when you cannot rap if you cannot punch. That's what I don't like if you just are not capable of rapping unless you don't

punch. I mean it's cool you can do your thing but I'm like I don't respect it as much. Sometimes when you listen to a rapper like a pop star type rapper and you can just tell that they just like coached them through each bar like 80 takes just to make it sound perfect that it's just like that's cool for you but like man

And like this is so far away from what being a rapper actually was about at one point. Yeah. You miss a lot of the rawness when you do all of that punching like that. You know, you got to let some of that rawness out. And then you don't use the punching to make it sound like you a robot and doing phrases that you know a person would have probably took a breath right there, you know, things like that. So definitely. Have you gotten into sort of like writing in the booth?

to any extent? Like, you know, the way that nowadays the kids always will just get in the booth and they just make up one line, make up the next line, make up the next line. Can you get into that at all? Are you always going in there with a written?

No, I make songs in all ways, because always are interesting to me. Even if it's, like, I don't need anybody to write a song for me, but I might have somebody help write a hook or do something just because I know this big star does it or this big star does it.

So I'm like, I want to feel that feeling too. So I'll do that. Like, sometimes I'll go to the studio and I won't have a song and I'll start listening to a beat and I might make it as I go along. You know, punch about four bars at a time and just keep doing it until the verse is finished. Sometimes I might go in the studio, listen to the beat and write the whole verse and then go in there and spit it. Sometimes I might write half a verse and then off the top the rest of it. Sometimes I might be in the car and get the whole song out and come there and I know the whole song.

So I try to make songs in all different ways. Sometimes I might just mumble out the cadence of a song and then come back and feel the words out. You hear a lot of mumble. That's one thing you wouldn't really know unless you're in the studio with rappers is how often they'll just do a mumble track and then go in and turn the mumbles into actual words. A lot of the fans have no idea about that. That's pretty interesting. A lot of big artists do that. I remember doing a song with Sting.

I got lucky and did a song with Sting. Yeah. It was called Stolen Car. Wow. Yeah. So I did a song with him and I had an opportunity to ask a question and the first thing I asked him was, how does he make songs?

And he told me how he comes up with the melody a lot first. And then he may proceed and come up with the words and fill it out as he goes along. Wow. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because what you were just saying about, like, I might work with a songwriter.

Like, I remember at one point in Snoop's career, he kind of said that. He was like, you know, I've worked with all these big artists and I see them sometimes and they just, they be working with a writer and they'll have amazing results. And he's like, wow, I'm supposed to just never do that just because I'm a rapper. Like, hell no, I'm going to work with a great songwriter to put together a hit. Fuck it. Why not? Yeah, yeah.

Definitely if it fits what you're doing. Like, I think that's an art within itself to be able to choose a writer. to help you do something and then not only that, be able to deliver what, you know, what they are writing. A lot of times, though, like, I pretty much write all of my stuff, but what I dabbled into a few times was an artist writing a verse, and then I'll spit that verse and see how it sounds, and then I'll write the second verse, making sure it's matching that to make sure.

I don't know, it's something in me as a rapper that can't fully bow down to the writer thing of somebody else. So I make sure that I'm still doing my thing if I do any type of song like that. But it's very, very rare that I do it though. But you know what's interesting by this, I feel like when you're young making music, it's so much about your ego.

You know, this is about what you have to say and what you want to put out there. And then as you get older, it's kind of like, well, I'm not the greatest writer of all time. I'm the greatest hook writer of all time. Why wouldn't I get someone to help out or to assist? Because over time, it becomes more about like, I love music.

and I want to make great music. So I would like to, and once you realize, like, especially in this day and age where, you know, you'll have like, you'll hear about pop stars and they'll have eight different writers on one song and four producers and shit, like everybody's just getting in on that. The idea that every Twista song needs to be Twista and a producer, and that's it is just like, I realize that is how it's going to work most of the time,

but I respect people who are willing to go outside that box, you know? I gotta do it sometimes because I'll just destroy every, you know, I'll be in destroy mode all the times, and sometimes I need to open it up, so I need to hear some cadence from somebody else every once in a while. Right. How do you feel about the criticism?

And I'm sure that you've maybe heard a person or two say this about you over the years, but I find that mostly I hear people say it about Eminem where people basically accuse him of overwrapping and kind of like doing too much on a track. And instead of maybe being willing to slow it down a little bit or whatever, he has to go mega fast and mega technical on every song.

How do you feel about that criticism when you hear people say that about you or any artist? It's just like some of us as artists, like if we are true rappers or true MCs, we want to take it there from the perception of what a true rapper is. So I respect it. I know what an Eminem is doing. I know how Nas is thinking. I'm knowing how Jay is thinking. I'm knowing how Rakim is thinking.

There's a certain perception of what a true lyricist is, and we try to deliver that. There's a certain element to it. So I get that criticism, but I never let it stop me from doing what I'm doing. It's like, it's just there. Like when I make music, it's got to be a certain way that's going to make me catch a vibe. You know, it's got to be funky, you know. I feel you.

You know, it's interesting about it's kind of like back in the day, rappers were rapping for other rappers. and nowadays rappers are rapping for like the kids, the fans. Because- I think you hit the point right there. You know, like- That's a big point because I think I still rap for other rappers. I think a lot of the rappers that you're talking about,

we still rap for other rappers. Right. We don't just rap for a person that just wants to hear music or the average fan. We like really take it that we rap for other rappers too. So that's a good point. Yeah, and I'm sure that you've heard before, like I'll twist as your favorite rappers. Favorite rapper's favorite rapper. That's like, you know, you hear that from time to time as like a compliment.

Yeah, that's a great compliment. Yeah, that's a great comment. And that is what it is because you realize that like a lot of the double entendras and stuff. Sometimes I'll like end up reading an old issue of the source or like an old book that just like sort of breaks down like a JZ. A couple of lines and like, look how he, you know, loops these words and these words relate to these words and all that shit. And I'm like, bro, so much of that is completely lost in modern rapping because I think the fans just aren't really. really perceptive enough and the rappers have sort of all, many of them have realized that like, oh, like, you don't have to do that much. And maybe the fans, like, relate to it more when

your lyrics are simple. But a little bit of all of that, you know, but everybody has a different perception. So me, me in the space where I'm at when I'm, when I'm hearing that, I'm playfully jealous. Damn, I got to write all these damn rhymes together. And he's going there and just smooth it out like that, you know? And that's that feeling that you get to make me. go in the studio and do some dumb shit and try to do some smooth, slow thing, and want to hear that. You know, so I got to be careful with it, but I respect it all. You know, when I hear that, like to me, even though I do what I do, when I hear another artist make a song that can really take it there and they are not rapping or doing the amount of work that I'm doing,

I respect it because they didn't have to do what I had to do to achieve that goal. So I respect it too. Definitely, definitely. So you put out your first album in 91, 92, I think you said? Yeah, yeah, running off at the mouth. And so what is life like becoming a new rapper at that point? Like, are you just on tour constantly doing promo dates and stuff? Like, what was it?

And also just like how did it feel that all of a sudden just become like the first rapper who was really doing something out of your area? It was, it was a, it was, it was, it was, it was, new to me. You know, it kind of took me by surprise, like, because I just wanted to be a dope rapper and put a record out. All of the rest

of the stuff was like, ooh, you know, overwhelming to me, but it was definitely fun, you know, walking into loud records, you know, taking the first flight out here, you know, and then we went, walked in loud records. When I walked in the door, the first

poster I seen was they were a promotion company at the time. The first post I seen on the wall was Tupac. What was it? No, one of the first records, I think it was strictly for my niggas or one of his first records that he had put out. It was a DOS effects post, I think, on the wall.

So I was like, wow, you know. I think the first tour that I went on was me, ghetto boys, and Dale the Homo Sapien and ghetto boys hit at the time was my mind's playing tricks on me. Right. One of the best songs of all time. Yeah. And De La Soe.

Wow. And I got a chance to kick it with Posse and them backstage, and I was excited because this was my first time being around other rappers. I was like, wow. That's amazing. Yeah. Damn. So that was your first tour. How long was it? That I can't remember. We definitely did a few dates, though. They were all out here. It was like a week? Or was it like a month?

month because I feel like that's a huge difference in terms of like being around people for that long. Like a week or two. Something like that. Yeah. And some dates. Yeah. And that must have just not just been your first time, you know, being around other rappers. This is your first time really being around people who aren't from Chicago too. So you're just complete culture shock, right? Like just, yeah. You must have been fascinating to see like how everybody else was living and shit, right? Definitely at that time, you know, at that time, like, man, this day lost old right? I'm like, man, We're watching them doing mind playing tricks on me.

I'm watching Della Hosepian and do his thing, how he rocking. Like, the whole thing was dope, you know, and it really set me on that path to really, like, go hard at the game. Was there anything mind-blowing, like, you know, people are doing different drugs. They're smoking different shit. They're dealing with girls in different ways. Was there anything that, like, really kind of stands out to you that blew your mind about, like, just people's lifestyles that were different? Back then, I don't know. Like, like, I don't know.

What's the question again? Say that again. I'm going to tell you why I paused because when you were saying that I was thinking about another dope experience at the time. Well, just tell me that experience. I'll come back to this question. We was in the club. We were out here somewhere and EZ. He walked in the club and the Buyah tribe was with him and they was his bodyguards at the time.

And I got a chance to get on stage and freestyle with MC Search. Holy shit. This was a dope moment for me. Right. Yep. And then we went outside and the dude got into it with some dudes out there and he pulled out of salt off pump. Whoa. That must have been the craziest visual, like Easy E's little ass just coming through with an army of these fucking Samoan dudes all around them.

It was dope, man. This was dope. Just to see it, I was like, wow. You know, and I have seen Buyall Tribe a few times. So I was always amazed to see them, you know, and then got on stage and see MC Search do his thing. And he had me the mic and I got a chance to rap. I was like, oh, man. These are all like people that the average rap fan, even from that era, would not necessarily think of all being.

in the same club at the same time, like twist it easy and search all all wrapped up in the same situation. I know, right? That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it was real dope. Definitely. So, yeah, like, was it, you know, sometimes I feel with rappers that sometimes they're only, like, half in the game of actually wanting to be successful. Sometimes they still sort of, like, one foot in the street. Sometimes there's, like, part of them still kind of wants to be a regular person. Were you all in on like, I'm trying to be a superstar, I'm trying to build up my fucking career and just really do this? No, I mean, I was doing it,

but I was still living in the neighborhood, so I'm still around certain people. So definitely was still around the element, but me as a person, never into the element I was into rapping. So I might have been around certain things and seen certain things and was on a street vibe enough to do what I was doing spit the stuff I was spitting, you know, in it like that, but not so much that I would let it take me away from chasing my dream.

Yeah, if I felt like someone was going to stop the dream, I was like, you know, whoa. When we think about Chicago now, it's like usually if a rapper blows up from one side of town, there's another side of town that's pissed off about that rapper blowing up. Was there anybody who was mad that Twister was blowing up? I always had like a little hate, you know, a little hate here and there, you know, it was always somebody upset at me for some reason when it come to being, you know, in the game.

You know, I mirror it when I see other artists go through that. And like, especially once the internet era kicked off and you got to see what other artists go through and then I felt more normal, you know, but a lot of times it was a lot of hard days. People put a lot of hard pressure on my mind. I hear it. So, okay, your first album comes out. And then, like, how would you describe, like, where your career kind of goes for, like, like, basically you have this big wall of a career

in between, like, you linking up with Kanye and you have, like, all these years that you were doing your thing. Like, how, how was that time period of your career where you were really putting in that work and everything? Talk to us about that. I think that was when I felt what it really felt like to be an artist on that level. You know, that's when I really felt it. You know, that's when I realized that DJs was human too. You know, I thought they was monsters at first. I didn't realize I just had a whack record or I wasn't hot.

You know, I thought the DJ was monsters. So once I got a chance to get around a certain element, you know, I perceived things different. I had different conversations with people. and then to like walk into a record store and see a big line all the way around the corner of people waiting for you to walk into a record store

so they can sign so you can sign that autographs stuff like that. It was amazing like to walk into like to do a house of blues show and everything is packed all the walls like man that stuff was amazing. And then doing those shows like I remember when Jay looked at me he was like

he looked because we were doing a sound check and I was about to do as that's your chick. And he just said yeah that slow jam song you and connier should come out with that first that's a hit uh-huh so he was the first person that called it right yeah and from that moment forward from him from that he spoke it into existence from that moment forward that song came out and worked for us you know wow it was good yeah that's pretty crazy so when what year would you say that you became associated with rockefella and how long before the actual uh before those records started to take off

it was around that time right you know it was around the time we did uh is that's your chick slow jams those type of records was there ever a time before that era in your career because I was just like having a conversation one of my employees and I'm like

I mean I'm like I know you probably like remember Twista mostly from like that era of doing those records with Kanye but you got to realize that I knew about like 10 12 15 years before that and he had a whole leg to his career before he basically like all of a sudden boom you got a whole other leg on your career at that point was that was great was there any time where you were really feeling like

maybe shit is slowing down maybe things are not going so good maybe this is not necessarily gonna work out in that time period there or was it was it always pretty good in which time period in the time before like slow jams and all that like throughout your career was there every time where you kind of got demotivated there or was it always yeah it was always a few periods It's where I got demotivated. You know, I couldn't take advantage of an error like this. You know, we could only do things to a certain extent. Because your label had to be on board for everything you wanted to do.

Yeah, so I went through a lot of things where I was trying to be this image of what everybody thought. You know, so I went through a lot of, let me say, mental hardships. You know, I think mental health is definitely an issue that should be a, addressed a lot, a whole lot. You know, a lot of times when you see something happen, you know, it's usually some form of mental problem or trauma that causes situations anyway. So, you know, yeah, I went through a lot of stuff just coming up in the game and just being depressed about not being in this space or that space.

And I don't know. One day I just mellowed out, you know. I don't know. Once you get the legend of it, like my mom. boy, Pastor Troy said, you know, legend living. You just be, you cool. I'm comfortable in my skin. I make music the way I want to make it.

I do what I want to do. I'm happy with me. That's interesting because, yeah, that's the thing that you kind of gain over time where you're like, you know what? I am what I am. And I mean, that's certainly the place where you're in where it's like you never really probably have to make another song in your life. And you're still twist the and you still could do all these different things in the

culture and shit. And it probably probably don't matter if you put out another record. I think that is almost like the definition of, a legend is when you can kind of, your prior accolades are so notable that you can kind of chill. Yeah, I think we will always love making music, though. Like if you're a true artist, you will always make music to the day you die. Definitely. Yeah.

Yeah, I feel that. Rest in peace to DMX too. Oh, yeah, I was going to say, how much interaction with him you have throughout your life? Not a lot. I only seen them a few times. I got a beat before, maybe a couple of beats before from Swiss beats. Right. You know, I got on with Dragon on songs before.

I typed Twisted DMX into YouTube, see if you guys had ever worked together, yeah. And I saw that dragon song. I didn't get that blessing, but that's a brother that shouldn't have been taken from us. And I just want to say rest and peace to him. Yeah, that's a sad one. To me, DMX is kind of like the soundtrack to, like, eighth grade. That's one those, 1998, I think was one he had two number one albums in a year. I know.

Yeah, he went crazy that year, man. Yeah. Yeah. believable. Okay, so yeah, like when you kind of link up with Rockefeller, what's your perspective on it? Because they were like the hottest label in the game at that moment. Yeah, I mean, I was on cloud nine, you know, being with them, I was still attached to Atlantic at the same time. And that's why it didn't really take off where we could have took it because, you know, you had two different companies. So, you know, that was the problem. But as far as the experience within itself, it was dope, you know, being around the guys, you know, freeway and all of them, you know, freeway.

way end up becoming one of my buddies, you know, Miff Bleak, all of those guys, you know, just being able to hang around them during the tour and stuff like that. It was real dope. Being around Dame, you know, Dame's real dope. Who kind of brought you into the fold of Rockefeller? Was that Dame or was it Jay? A little bit of both. Okay. Yeah, a little bit of both. But definitely Jay with the music from the musical perspective and Dame from the business. I mean, a little bit of both. I got a vibe with

both of them, you know? Yeah. And so for Kanye, that was just like, it wasn't because of Kanye that you came in? Like, did you know Kanye prior? Yeah, that too. Yeah, that too. And I knew him prior as well, you know? We used to see him at clubs in Chicago. I had been in his house listening to him do beats. Really? Before, yeah, before he became famous. Yeah. Because you got to think, like a lot of times I noticed that rappers, well, not a lot, but sometimes, like G-Unit, like when G-Unit blows up, 50 sort of looks at artists that he respects, but that came out way before him and he says, I'm going to try to take Mob Deep in MOP and sort of revitalize their careers at that point, you know? I feel like with Kanye, it's kind of crazy that it's super

early in his career, he was able to basically like engineer the biggest moment in the biggest Chicago Legends career. Like Kanye kind of like makes himself the most legendary producer from Chicago ever by being able to say like, you know what? Twista has been legendary as fuck for 10, 15 years. we're going to take towards his career and we're going to fucking completely like make everybody look at him like a brand new artist. That's a fucking legendary thing to be a part of. Yeah, dude is a damn genius. Yeah, he's a genius. And, you know, you know what they say about genius people, you know, they say we get a little wacky sometimes. For sure. When's the last time you talk to Kanye? It's been a while. I haven't talked to him in a while.

If I wanted to reach out to him, it wouldn't be a problem, you know. I know people that's close to him. It wouldn't be a problem, you know. Definitely. Would you say, when you were saying the thing about depression earlier, that's kind of interesting because I feel like nowadays is very normal for a rapper to be honest about being depressed. Like if you were to say, hey, like I know y'all might not have seen me for the last year. It's because I've been going through a lot of shit. I've been depressed. That would be a normal thing to say now.

Back at that time, though, it was probably like pretty taboo for you to even say that I'm depressed. What was that like? Like trying to, you know, not being able to be able to communicate that someone. I mean, it's dope when you see people like G Herbo bring light to stuff like that, you know, I'm definitely glad that we are in a place now where people can talk about it and be open. And then also to see the root of a lot of stuff, you know, you get out there and you're like, oh, do this or do that or you got to stop this or stop that. A lot of times it'll be some mental issue or trauma that that has a person acting out.

Yeah. And there's so much shit in rap that we think is normal and we act like it's. normal like you know i'll interview people you know every week i feel like i'm interviewing somebody that has a story about how they saw somebody get killed in front of them when they were 10 years old or whatever and it's like this culture just sort of acts like that's all good i mean that shit'll fuck you up yeah you know it definitely will especially coming from why i came from yeah but it's like so normal in a lot of places that people don't even really take the time to sort of examine what that might have done you're seeing something that horrible at a young age you know and then you get older

and you kind of look at it more objectively, it's like the only way that society can kind of get better is if people are willing to have conversations about these things, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's definitely about that, having conversations. Definitely. So, okay, you get around Rockefeller. How did those songs actually come about,

like Overnight Celebrity in particular? How does it come about? And, like, was it Kanye, like, really sort of being, like, twisted, we got to do these songs. Like, what were those sessions like? Slow jams. He just, he had a, vibe for that. He had

the way he wanted it to go and everything and I was just glad to be a part of it. I wanted to make sure my verse was on fire. I want to make sure I did my thing on that song and from that I started to have a mind state on where I wanted to take it. So overnight celebrity was a little bit of my idea

as far as the sample but then his idea as far as the way he put it together. Right. So that was a song I was glad to have and that turned or something. I was scared when I wrote that song because slow jams was out. I'm like what else I'm going to write? So I'm like, damn.

I'm like, what the hell I'm right? You know? So I was like, man, I went through some mental hell writing overnight celebrity. But once I got that flow pattern, it was over. Right. It's kind of crazy because, I mean, a lot of your content was very aggressive in your career

prior to that. Like, was that kind of like a big change? I know you always had like softer records and stuff, but that was like, it was kind of a whole different sound like let's let's pair the super fast rapping with these these soul samples and all the singing and shit like it created like a different aesthetic yeah it was and i think uh you know it was something new to the ear you know just and then him doing what he's doing like if you if you put people together that that got a good skill set you're gonna get something you know you're gonna get something

tight so i feel like putting us together at that time at any time you're gonna get something tight you know Definitely. Do you feel like if Kanye hadn't blown up as a rapper, that you guys might have continued to do a lot more crazy records after that? Who knows? Maybe so. Who knows? Maybe so. And we still might do some good records. This is true. Yeah. Freeway put you onto the backwards? Yeah. You said that in another song. He did. That's interesting. Because that was probably like 15. fucking years before we started smoking backwoods so you definitely had something on us yeah it was it was a while back yeah i remember smoking the backwood and then we got to a point later on and i hit a swisher and i was like uh no i got to stick with these backwoods right it feels kind of cardboardy once

you get used to the woods yeah yeah yeah yeah you know yeah oh yeah we know definitely um that's that's interesting though like uh did you ever did you ever stop smoking weed or slow down or anything or you still smoke. Yeah, like very rarely. Like, you know, I pretty much chilled out, like, since I became a firearm instructor. I don't really do it. Oh, really? Yeah. An instructor. Yeah. How'd you get into that? Man, once we got into quarantine, like I've always been into firearms a certain way, but once we got into quarantine, my buddy, his name is actually creative, too. He's a training counselor in Chicago, and he can train you to become an instructor. So I took the course, became an instructor, and started flourishing and that's why I got this hat the gun camp oh yeah know it's called a gun camp and uh yeah

i'm a u scca instructor nira instructor so you just do you have an actual gig consistently teaching classes or something like or what i try to i try to do it every week you know me and my buddy we got classes we try to do it every week but you know i'm starting to do a lot of shows a lot of other things be happening but but we try to keep it consistent and you know because i won't want my people, I had to be educated about firearms. People got misconceptions about guns and firearms and I want to teach them the right way. Right. Like I don't even know if you have fully thought about how crazy that kind of narrative is. It's like, you know, you're from one of the places has the worst reputation for gun violence. Yeah. And what's twisted do. And gun laws too.

Decides that he's going to get into the business and teach your people how to be more safe about them. Yeah. That's very interesting. Yeah. I love it. but in Chicago, like, are you able to own firearms? Yeah. Okay. So you're legally able to. Yeah. I just know that their laws are a little wacky.

All my guns legal, when I want some goddamn mo. How do you feel about it when you, you know, there's a lot of people who want to take all the guns away or at least make it like extremely difficult for anyone to possess a firearm? What do you have thoughts on that? Even though, even with that situation, like mental health. I think, you know, just as much as you want to pay attention to that kind of problem, you got to pay attention to the person. You know, any object is just an object until someone with a personality picks it up. Someone with an emotion, a mind picks it up. So I think still you get into the issue of mental health when you talk about gun violence in a lot of ways.

Yeah, because if there wasn't the mental health crisis, that we seemingly are having in this country, then the guns wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, nobody has a problem with people having a pistol for safety. People have a problem with the fact that now somebody can decide that they want to make a big splash on the internet and they can go shoot up a Walmart and then they're going to be the most talked about person for a week and they'll be able to broadcast it on Instagram live and have everybody see it. I mean, that's the fucked up part.

I personally, I'm super pro-gun as well. But, yeah, I mean, it's interesting because from my perspective, like, I remember when I had G Herbo in here one time and he got caught up like he's driving around with a bunch of guns with his friends the cops pull him over and when the cops are arresting him and his friends they didn't say you shouldn't have a gun

they said you should have paid security the cops are not in the dark about the fact that if you're G Herbo driving around in the city is with no gun is just suicide but they want you to have to fucking pay a security guard to do it for you and I mean that that right there

shows like how dishonest the anti-gun gun position is, is that everybody knows that you need this to protect yourself, but you're going to go throw this guy in jail for it. Yeah. And that's where we, you know, people like me coming to play to educate people with not only how to use a firearm, but your Second Amendment right, you know, and the proper way to own a firearm. Because a lot of them, they got a firearm for the same reason. A person that's legal has one, you know, and a lot of them get a bad rap for having one who only wanted to simply protect themselves. So I think, you know, you've got different perspectives when you come with, you know,

when you're talking about guns, like it's too broad. You've got families that eat from this, from generation to generation. So I think we need to deal with specifics, you know, a little more in-depth, you know, like security and mental health and other things like that. I hear it. Okay, one thing that I wanted to ask you about is personally, Purple Hays is one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time. How did Cameron end up basically utilizing a song that you already had for, I think, the first track or is the second track on the album? How did that happen?

Man, Cameron is just, he just fly with his brain, man. Cameron just has a fly brain. And luckily that fly brain was a twist of fun. fan. He came to Chicago. He knew who was on the song. He got my man Buck from Psycho Drama on the song. He got me on the song. He had this whole vision put together on how he wanted to sound. And we got in the studio and we made that happen, man. So he had already heard the song and was just like, I want to do my own version of this with you guys. Yeah, he came to Chicago. He was in a Chicago studio and called us down to get with him. And we came up with that whole concept in Chicago.

That's crazy. I was going to ask you what was up with psychodrama because I was trying to Google it and like figure out what I could figure out from that. And it's not that much online about it. They actually about to put out a new project. Really? Yeah, I saw Dion Cole like it, everything. I was like, oh, man, they about to drop another one. What was your relationship with them at the time that you were, that you already had that

song with them? That was just a random song to you that you had done with them? Which one? Or was that your artist, the adrenaline rush? No, no. Buck, he was doing his own thing, but I always was a fan of him. Okay. And I knew that I had this light, shrieky voice, and I knew he had this deep dark.

voice. And so we had this darkness light type of vibe and we was thinking all deep with it at the time and we wanted to just combine this sound and filling together. And man, it came out like I wanted it. It was dope. Like we made that song in a dark house carpet, no furniture. I think he was laying on the floor writing his verse in the living room part. I was laying on the floor writing my verse in the dining room part. And we had to beat playing loud and it was dark in the house and we was writing the song. Well, you had already been a rapper for a long-ass time at that point, right? Yeah. But you were just still in the trenches? It was just, the house just didn't have furniture. A lot of rap houses are like that, yeah. Yeah, it just was good, clean carpet on the floor,

and it didn't have furniture at the time. But we were still chilling in it doing our thing, writing songs, and kicking it. Respect. That's dope. Yeah, what was Cameron in Chicago, though, like, how was the vibe, like from that studio session? I just, I'm so fascinated by him, in particular in that era of his life. Like he just seemed like such a crazy, creative person. They was really in it, man. Like, that's when I saw them dipset and hard doing their thing. Like, that was when they was getting the crack

and moving around to different towns and stuff like that. And when they was in Shot Town, they was cool, man. Yeah, it was real cool. On that song, you say, Murdering the Enemy is the ultimate adrenaline rush. Did I say that on that? That's some dark shit. I was like, man, that sounds like some shit

that some kids from Chicago would say these days. Man, I see. said something on what I say I murder me to murder you I said that on the song before like kill yourself to kill them yeah when you get in that music zone man you just you know I got to be careful because I might say anything once I get in that music zone yeah I mean that is interesting though like nowadays like if a rapper says some crazy I shit on a song it's kind of like people expect that to be a real thing but like it's like you come from a generation where it was more like, I'm going to murder you, but you really mean I'm going to rap really good and

better than you. And that's what that's about. Yeah. It's understood once you realize, like, I listen to Wu-Tang Gravediggers. So I listen to Grave-Diggers. So leave me to fuck alone when I say my gory shit. Definitely. Yeah, no, I think about that sometimes for sure. Okay. I wanted to ask you about this thing. that I saw popping off on YouTube at one point. Basically, there's a clip that came out. I'm not sure if you ever commented on this, but it's basically a clip of Bump J making a claim saying that at one point,

one of his friends had had an altercation with you. Do you have any recollection of this? No. What happened now? What did he say? He said that one of his friends robbed you back in the day. Well, damn. Do you recall that?

Have any comment? Hmm. I can't recall. Respect. It'd be like that sometimes. Okay. I guess another thing I could ask you about was when you did the song with Lil John and Trick Daddy back in the day over the Ozzy Osbourne beat. I can recall.

Oh, music? Yeah, we could talk about some music. Okay. What's your recollection of how that song came together? Um, little John's energy, man, being in his house, he had that big-ass mix board in his house in that room, playing all these different tracks. I'm mad I didn't rap on half the tracks he gave me, so he gave me some dope-ass tracks. I didn't rap on them because I didn't like them. They were too fucking colossal for my brain at the time.

I wasn't at the place that I should have been mentally to conquer those tracks the way I should have. That's interesting. Certain, certain errors in your life where you end up basically like kind of, kind of. not realizing the greatness that you're around in that moment? Yeah, I was scared of a lot of tracks, man. It was a lot of music I was like I would get a dope-ass beat. And my fucking confidence wasn't up enough to think that I could kill his beat the way I thought this artist would kill it or that artist would kill it.

And I would end up passing on a dope beat because I couldn't get that mentally. Yeah, that's interesting because a lot of times now artists come out who really can only wrap over one type of beat and you never really hear them rap. on different types of production, but your catalog is full of you just basically hopping on almost any kind of song. Yeah, I actually will rap on anything I like. I don't really

think about money first when it comes to stuff like that. Like, if I like a song, I'll rap on it. It don't matter how big you are or nothing. If that beat hits me a certain way and a certain conversation or something strike up where you know, it turns

out where I'm, you know, in a position to rap on a song, I'll do it. Yeah, no fear. What about that Mariah Carey link up from the back day? Back in the day, were you actually around her? It's actually two songs I got with her, I think. Yeah, yeah. One on your song and one on her song?

No, both of them are hers. Which one of was mine? Yeah. So which one are you referring to? I can't actually remember, but I would love to hear about either of them. It's so lonely. That's my joint right there. One was a little more slow.

I think Mariah had told me that she got an idea from the brat. The brat told her to get a song or a beat from my guy from Chicago at the time and a trackster. And when she got the beat, she called to get me on the beat. And so I was like, wow, you know, it still all worked out for the best.

And I was happy to get on that song. And then we did the other song so lonely. She came again. I was like, dope, you know. Yeah. When you did that with Mariah Carey, though, like how did you approach it or how big a deal did it seem like because we think of her as being so massive was this super early on where maybe she wasn't as massive no it felt the same way the first

song the first song came easy to me because it was a tracks the beat and we got that magic together yeah so so once me and him make something it ain't nothing it's going down the next beat wasn't a tracks the beat. So I'm stuck with the Mariah thought. And even though the song came out, cool, my lyrics were not what they would probably be if I was in a different mind state. I was too in, damn, it's Mariah. Mind state. And it had me trying to write what I thought was a hit. And it's cool. I don't like it that much. Yeah. Do you look at songs that you wrote where you were trying to make a hit? Do you often sort of end up looking back at them and being like, it's not my best work.

Yeah, yeah. It's when I did give it up with Farrell, he had another damn song I wish I'd done before I did give it up. Right. I like the other song better than I like give it up. And it haunted me in my brain. I was like, damn, I should have did the other song. Wow.

Even though I like Give It Up too. That's interesting. Do you find that your favorite songs from yourself end up being the super technical lyrical stuff? Like I was listening to, you know, songs that you've done with Tech Nine and stuff. And I'm like, man, this is a completely different version of Twister. This is Twister when he doesn't have to tone himself down at all and just gets to go full crazy-ass beast-mode rapper.

Yeah. Yeah, what about it? Which one? Do you feel like you end up appreciating that stuff more? Or like compare that experience to doing a song with Tech Nine to doing a song with a pop star? The song with the pop star, you feel like you're getting an opportunity. The song with Tech Nine.

I'm on that with my buddy and we're gonna test some shit up. Yeah. Just going crazy on it. Yeah. Much respect. I saw also when I was just doing my deep twisted dive on YouTube,

I saw this footage of, there's like a legendary chief keef, Lil Dirk, et cetera, show from back in the day that you were on as well. And it was like super viral at the time because they just had 5 million fucking people on stage during the show

and it just looked absolutely. insane. Damn, do I remember this show? I don't know if I remember the show. You can't remember because it's been so long. I'm trying to remember. Was it a stage? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Where was it? I have no idea.

We were out here one time on a stage. It was dope. Yeah, we kicked it hard out here one time. We were on stage going nuts. Right. So it probably was that. When you look at that new generation of Chicago rappers and stuff, what is your overall thoughts? Do you feel like you usually get the amount of respect

that you feel like you deserve, how do you feel about seeing them just have so many of these rappers blown up from your city? Yeah, maybe for a moment, I think I wasn't going to get a certain type of respect from the young rappers because they were young. But I think the more they became artist,

they probably realized some of the shit that I was going through and they related and then, you know, I became a certain, you know, I became cool. Like to some of them, I'm big unk, like Snoop out here. You know what I'm saying? A lot of the artists in Chicago look at me like big bro or something like that. So it's always a cool vibe.

I always been a fan of all of the young guys coming out of the city. Like when I see him, I was one of the first Chief Key fans. I was out there trying to get in the video, the old man out there with the young bull. Definitely. No, yeah. I mean, I can't say that without also having to say, rest in peace, King Vaughn, rest of piece of FBG Duck. There's just been so many talented Chicago artists lost over the past couple of years.

Yeah, yeah, it's been crazy. Yeah, 100%. How much of your time goes into looking at new talent or wanting to work with new talent? I love listening to New Talent. You know, I used to want to work with new talent a lot more than these days. But lately, in saying that, It's kind of opposite of what's going on because there's a new project coming out on 420 with my guy from Chicago called Relo to Dreamer. And this project is called News at 9, and I think people are going to love the project because it's dope and there's some music that it's music that you want to hear.

It's music. You hear the young bull talking about going for his dreams. You know, he got his label put together. He comes to work in my studio all the time. I'm like, you know what, we're going to do this. He wanted to do a project. I'm like, I want to be on something hot like this. You know, I'm like, you know, at my stage, I'm like, okay, young

you're going to keep me in the game, you know what I'm saying? We're going to do this project, you know, so definitely the project is dope called News and Nine coming out 420, Rello to Dreamer. But what was it that made you decide that you actually wanted to work with him on that? Because I know that. Man, smooth voice, picking dope beats, walking in the studio every day, hearing songs that I wanted to be mine, this type of stuff, you know, so it was an easy decision to want to get on with them and an easy thought process when I realized this gonna come out everybody

gonna love this they're gonna they gonna like this vibe from Twister this oh I did this verse to this because it's sound like you know so just the the project being put together with the with the great musical mind state people gonna really like it that's dope hell yeah that's awesome um I wanted to ask you about this one too is that you were actually on acid rap with chance the rapper and Vic Menzel like super early in his career. What's your memory of working on that? That was dope. He came to an in-store we had. We was at a store up north, and he came there,

and we had to just chill with the fans and do a little something. And me and him got a chance to vibe out and exchange numbers. But you already knew who it was? He had a wave going in the city? Yeah, I already knew who he was. Okay. I knew he was coming up, you know. So I was excited about getting that opportunity, too.

You know, so when I heard that song, though, too, I was like, ooh, I'm about to kill this. Right. You know, yeah, him and Vic was killing it on that. I was like, you know, I was in my mind state that time, though. So I was like, I know what I'm going to do to this one. So that song right there, Cocoa Butter Kisses is one of my favorite songs. That's interesting.

Is chancellor rapper, did he ever tell you that you were, like, very influential on his style of rapping? Around that time. Yeah, yeah. He definitely shared that with me. You know, I got a good vibe in relationship with him. His brother's cool, parents cool, and everything. Because that's one thing I was thinking is that. if you listen to a lot of the Chicago rappers,

you can't really, they respect you for sure, but you can't really hear a lot of your style and a lot of the drill rappers, you know, like they basically just ended up going their whole, their own way, direction-wise. But when you hear Chance rap,

I could definitely imagine that he was listening to you and that he took things from what you were doing style-wise. Yeah, like, if I hear something like that, like I'm always happy about it at this stage. You know, if it's like your peer, you younger, it's a certain thought process,

but at this stage of my career, I want to be influential with the sound that I've put into the game, the years I've put into the game. So to hear any artists that will come out emulating me in any fashion is always looked at by me as a compliment. So I'm like, damn, sound like a young version of me. You know what I'm saying? So I'm always into it. That's fire. I also wanted to ask, are you going to do a versus battle?

I don't know. If the right one come up, you know. Right. You know, I hear stuff get thrown around, but, you know. They were throwing around Buster rhymes. Yeah, I hear that a lot. I think Buster got his mind, like, set on other people and other thought, you know, a different type of thought process. Yeah.

So. Yeah, when you think about Buster, there's a lot of big hits that you got to contend with there. I mean, you got a lot of big hits, too. So it would be interesting. But, damn, he's had some big-ass records over the years. Yeah, it don't matter who I do something like that with, though. We're going to rock out. He's like, I ain't scared about nobody.

Yeah, I ain't scared of it. You know, nobody, but, and then we're going to rock out, too. You know, the whole vibe of it is going to be dope. I think I got enough in the tank to be on there and create a great-ass versus with somebody anyway. What about common? You guys came out together. That would be huge for Chicago. Two different sounds.

Very different, this is true. Very different sounds. There's nobody on your agenda, though. Nobody really just don't like that you'd love to just fuck up. Because you could do the Gucci-Gizi model. You just basically do it with your biggest op, you know? But that's what I'm saying. You got different versions of a versus battle.

You got versus battles where you, you know, I think early on it was a maybe a little bit of a negative tone in that. And I think right around now, everybody is trying to be in a space of good energy and shit like that. So I think a versus battle right now should be more of a celebrated party by two dope artists doing their thing together. Like, wow, this person, they're going to be going back and forth playing their hits. Like, you know, that in itself should be appreciated. We shouldn't have to take it to another level all the time just to be appreciate. Or should I say for people to be appreciated or artists to be appreciated. Yeah, 100%.

Because, I mean, I think Gucci and Gizi made the versus thing bigger than it'll probably ever be again. Because that's like, you know, it's just them. You know what I'm saying? But everybody is not Gucci and Gizi. And there can only be so many of those. That was a rare situation. Because realistically, if there's somebody who, you know, was responsible for someone in your life losing their life, you probably don't want to get on the same stage with them. Yeah.

The fact that they did is pretty amazing. That's, you know, man, it's Gucci and Jeasy, you know. Still kind of can't believe it happened. I remember it was on live and I was driving home watching it, just laughing and freaking out in the car. Like, couldn't believe what I was viewing. I was rocking out to them songs, maybe. Yeah. I'm like, damn, he's playing this one.

Damn, he playing this one. Facts. I did, before we wrap this up, I just really wanted to at least try and ask you about the video that went sort of viral and ended up on TMZ of you and your homie beating some guy's ass outside of a bus. Can we hear that? What happened? Twister with a motherfucker and a headlock.

Never thought I would see it. My manager was there. And your homie was throwing those body shots. It's like you could hear his fucking ribs breaking when he was. punching him, dude. See, see, see, I'm gonna tell you, I had no intentions in being in anything like that. I didn't think so, because you've gone like your whole career with it. I don't know if I ever heard about Twista beating somebody up really. Like, that's never been the thing we heard about with you. This dude was, he was, he was going pretty hard. And when the whole situation

kicked off between him and my guy, man, it was crazy. I just know how me and my brother used to fight when we was little. And so that's what my mind state was, was, was, catch him in his blind spot, get him in a headlock, and let my brother beat the shit out of it. That's the way me and my brother used to fight. So dude couldn't, he was going nuts trying to get an angle. He was a beast, though. He was a bear, you know, so he was,

but he couldn't get a good angle or position and watch both of us at the same time. Because I was going to be on the opposite side. He slipped one time. And that's all it took. And then you never had to hear about this afterwards. you never got a lawsuit or you never got arrested or anything like that? Nah, no, man, don't even bring that what you're talking about.

I was years ago. I keep my head up, though. I keep my head up, number one, number two, he started it, you know. So I think my brother knew he was in the wrong, but definitely I wish that that situation wouldn't have happened, and I hope he didn't end up hurt or anything like that, but don't drink that much, man. Watch your mouth.

Oh, it was one of them. He was wasted. Man, I don't know. I don't know what was wrong, but he got itself into, a situation. I can imagine. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so anything else that we should update ourselves on here? Anything else that we need to know about in terms of a twisted? Man, I would love to introduce Relo, man. I was right with me, man. I was going to say, yeah, can we pull up another mic so we can get

an introduction to your artist over here? Look at that. Seamless. Boom. Uri comes in, throws the mic up, and we're in business. Yo, yeah, what's up, man? I'm all good, I'm all good. How you feeling? Great. So our guy here, Twista, speaks very, very favorably about you. From your perspective, how did you guys meet? And where did you think of him going into it? I was working in the studio right with Sonny, one of the other producers, you know. It took like two years of working in that motherfucker for him to hit my shit and like, okay, this nigga nice.

So I was in that motherfucker, you know, when he come in that bitch and sit down and chill, I'll make sure I record some dope-ass shit. He downstairs listening to it. So one day, his homie came up to like, man. this shit cold, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, all right, this nigga rocking out with me, you feel me? Right. So, and then I'm like, okay, let's do an EP. We made this shit happen locked in 420. Damn. Lose that 9. That's dope. So what's the chemistry

like? How would you say your styles complement each other? Oh man, it's great. Because like, like I say, everybody knows he's a legend, you feel me? So when I go in the studio and make anything with him, I got to make sure the boss, A1, everything got to be, everything got to be, everything got to be in oil. You know what I'm saying? So and we go back and forth with each other, you know what I'm saying? Perfectly.

Uh huh. How would you, uh, do you ever get close to the level of like speed and technicality that he does? Or is your style different? Because I haven't actually heard you guys. We got a song. We did something like that on the project like, but I ain't going as fast as he'd be going, you know what I'm saying? But I tried to keep up with him a little bit, you know, its track on the project.

He did his thing, though. It's called, it's called 2021 originated, you know what I'm saying? So trying to keep up with him, but, you know, can't do that. fat too damn fast that's what's up you're from chicago south side okay that's what's up um damn that's dope um yeah anything anything else that you have out there or anything we need to know about your label you know i got a whole label creative minds and goals you know i got artists producers you know work under me we all work together so it's not just me that i'm trying to put on got a whole click of creatives and we all coming you know coming soon fire no yeah definitely i got to

hear this project i'm trying to check that out for sure yeah definitely it's one of the those I think the world gonna love it on the those like he said it's gonna give another little start to some new shit for everybody you know for sure I have to hear it man that's a serious co-sign right there damn I just realized this weed has a QR code

on it we get digitally high we can't get you a smoking blunt with us no damn no I'm chilling different mind state right now we got some edibles um all right uh twist uh it was a good it was a good time you didn't have a conversation i knows you haven't done a ton of interviews over the years

every once and i do i do i do them yeah not a whole lot right i do them i don't be trying to hide in the cut of nothing you know i just been on my on my thing i've been i've been you know shooting targets i just uh think it's kind of like rare you know like like a good twist interview like there's not that if you go to youtube and type in twist interview you really i try to tell you you some stuff that I ain't really told in the interview. Like, I ain't really broke down the de la soul. And I, like, so I'm trying to tell you, I was, you know, let me hit on a few things that I hadn't hit on nowhere else, you know. Definitely. No, I appreciate it. And I'm definitely looking forward to checking out the project. Yeah, appreciate that. Yeah, it's dope.

What's your social media, just for anyone who wants to check it out? All right. Social media, Twitter, Rello Dremmer. That's R-E-L-O-Dreamer. Instagram, Rello Dremmer underscore. Definitely give me a follow, for sure. That's true, man. Appreciate it. Thurista, thank you so much. You dig, no jumper, baby. You did it.

You did it. There it is. Thank you, my brother. Twista, No Jumper. Coolest podcast in the world. Check us on YouTube, SoundCloud, iTunes, like, comment, and subscribe, and nojumber.com if you want to support. We will see y'all streaming your music on Fridays. Appreciate you, man.

Yes, sir.