Review Summary: Mob rap on PCP.
Every rap region has its signature style. The west coast has its gangstas, the east coast their lyricists, the south its banging productions, and the often unloved Midwest has carved its niche for possessing Gatling gun MCs. Rapid firing rappers often find themselves home in the heartland of America. Since the 90’s Midwest rappers like Tech N9ne, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, and Rebel XD have made their names for spitting lightning fast rhymes. Arguably the King of Fast Rap, Twista is recognized widely for making hit singles like Wetter (Calling You Daddy) and Slow Jamz, and less known for being able to pronounce 11.2 syllables per second. Twista had been posted up in the rap game since 1992, but Adrenaline Rush was his first full length LP. Despite little to no airplay outside the region, it went gold.
Twista being Twista, what comes into question on this album is not his MCing ability, but the surrounding parts which encompass it. The production on the album is stout – splitting between energized G-funk beats (Nuthin’ But a G Thang is sampled on Mobster’s Anthem) and shadowy piano sample based beats – and serves as a nice, enjoyable backdrop to Twista’s mic-shredding abilities. But, Twista somewhat falters in the lyrical department. At its apex, his mobster lifestyle musings only culminate in above average decency (“Leave you swimming in blood like sea creatures”) leaving something to be desired. The occasional ode-to-sex song doesn’t help either, but they’re hardly boring because of Twista’s ace rapping ability.
The three sex songs and average lyrics can’t detriment this album as much as they would any other rap album. And the (actually) good ongoing skit and interesting interlude are indicative of an album that can’t hardly go wrong.
Adrenaline Rush is packed to the brim with speed, awesome production, and Mafioso lyrics sure to interest any rap fan and Twista shows why he was the first to sign with Loud Records, the same label that the Wu-Tang Clan was on. A near classic, only to slightly fall short of the ever-eluding title as a result of some minimal filler and only-decent lyrics.
