Pedro 'DJ Complejo' HernandezBrand names are valuable. Companies spend billions to establish their brand name. Once consumers are familiar with your brand name and trust it they will purchase from your company with more frequency and with little hesitation. Rappers have tried on multiple occasions to transform themselves into a brand name. Diddy expanded from records to clothes, but has since regressed to clothing as his major income channel. Master P branded his No Limit label to darn near everything, but since has fallen into obscurity. Mac Dre’s name was turned into a brand name after his death, stamped on dozens of bay area CDs to provide a false endorsement. Twista is the latest to try the brand name approach to his rap career. It’s not the first time the tung-twisting Chi-town native has endorsed other rappers. His Speedknot Mobstaz and Legit Ballin CDs were all attempts to put on other rappers. This time around things change as any sort of quality control is completely out of the window with this latest endorsement. GMG Entertainment is a label which may or may not be associated with Twista. The lead producer is the same guy, Toxic, who produced the bulk of Twista’s sub-par “Adrenaline Rush 2007.” The rappers are mostly unknown except for a cameo by Twista and a track by Buk from Psychodrama. The websites on the CD give little information outside of the fact that Twista will sell you the industry’s hottest beats for a mere $24.95. Things don’t look good from the jump.
It pains me to go through these tracks. “Fresher Then Linen” is an exercise in improper grammar and wack metaphors. Apparently linen is fresh, and the rappers here are fresher than that. That makes them fresher than those rappers who claim to be “clean” or “crispy” – their words, not mine. Mello the Guddamann makes you “think twice like you had two heads.” “You Look Good” finds Buk wasting his deep voice and smooth flow telling girls “you look good than a motherfucker.” Next up we get the smooth ladies anthem “Who Suck Cock” where the GMG crew literally runs into the club and demands to know which ladies practice fellatio. The GMG crew does not discriminate as they have a question for all the “cute, ugly, fat, and skinny hoes.” I couldn’t make this up, these dudes give the Three 6 Mafia a run for most ignorant rap group out. The rest of the CD fails to rise above played out gangsta rap clichés. “Shawty Is A Ridah” is their T-Pain rip off complete with wack auto tune and shallow compliments to the down ass chick. “Banging Is All In Me” is B Hype’s declaration that he’s really a true gangster for real. We can skip the rest of the wack rap and go forward to the wack R&B. Apparently Twista wanted to expand his wackness to singing as he gets some stereotypical singers to do some forgettable tracks. “Body” is a sex anthem where Anya declares “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” On “Pushaman” the Green Girls compare the neighborhood man with their ideal man. Mixed in all this mess is a skit with a bad Michael Jackson impersonator – just thought I’d throw that in.
There really aren’t any redeeming moments to be found on “Who’s Got Next.” It really is quite a disappointment for this long time Twista fan. Aside from his solos, I’m the proud owner of the first “Mobstability” album as well as a few “Legit Ballin” compilations. Those CDs captured Twista’s fast flowing Midwest style while showing some promise for the emcees features. This CD contains none of that. Twista’s signature sound is completely absent and none of the emcees show anything that would make you want to peep them in the future. The production by Toxic is cookie cutter garbage at its best. The man has no style of his own and instead chooses to mimic everything you’ve heard in the last few years. The emcee’s threats and street talk get tiring quick and the R&B at the end is pedestrian. Overall, stay far far away from this unless you like to waste money.