Twista has released countless knockout tracks over his career, though he once came very close to losing one of his best-known joints soon after conceiving it.
The Chicago native recently sat down for an exclusive interview with HipHopDX to discuss the 20-year anniversary of his landmark album Kamikaze, which is now available to purchase on burnt orange 140g vinyl here. During the chat, he talked about his 2005 hit “Hope” and the soul-crushing story behind bringing it to fruition.
“That song was one of the first songs where I reached into my emotions a little bit,” he explained. “It also had a big place in my heart because of the way I wrote it. I remember writing it in my phone, or maybe it was a Sidekick, and I remember accidentally erasing the song. I literally got tearful because of how much work I put in it.
“So I sat back — it was good I was a rapper and decided to just reminisce through the flow a little bit — and I think I dug at least 85 percent of the song back out of my mind. I was like, ‘Okay, I said this. Okay, I said that.’ So I might have lost maybe four bars at the most, but I pretty much dug it back out.”
The record has two versions: one with CeeLo Green and another with Faith Evans. For that reason, it also resonated with a range of people.
“I remember getting a call because the song had been played by a child who wanted a new home,” the 50-year-old MC recalled. “I forget the name of the show but they were going to build these people a new home, and the little girl that was in the family said that one of the songs she used to listen to in her wishing for a new home was ‘Hope.’
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“So that’s when Faith Evans got involved with the song. That whole vibe was special to me because even though it touched a lot of people, that story touched me the most.”
Last year, Twista, a certified weapons instructor who teaches a firearms training course at a place called The Gun Camp, teamed up with YouTuber Gun Drummer and performed his classic Kamikaze track “Overnight Celebrity” over the beat of rapid gunfire.
This was the first time the internet personality teamed up with a Hip Hop artist on his channel, which has nearly 500,000 subscribers. Prior to that, Gun Drummer made a name for himself by performing heavy metal tracks, such as Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls.”
