Tung Twista circa 1991 rhyming on the Westside of Chicago. Filmed by DJ Cooley.
Last night, a select group of family and friends celebrated Twista’s birthday (and hey, it was my b-day, too!) at the DragonFly, courtesy of XXL Magazine and WGCI. The highlight of the night (besides the cake GMG got me – pic after the jump) for me, was finally getting to preview Twista’s documentary Mr. Immortality: The Life & Times of Twista; a look into the humble beginnings of Carl Mitchell, and how he grew into the superstar known to the world as Twista. Chronicling his youth growing up on the Westside of Chicago, the film by Vlad Yudin explores the way the City of Wind molded and shaped Twista, and builds around the fact that T chose to stay in Chicago, rather than fleeing for the coasts.
Granted, it’s hard to capture all of Mr. Adrenaline Rush’s contributions to hip-hop (and the sound of Chicago hip-hop) within an hour and change (we only saw about 20 minutes of the film), but it does a great job of showcasing just how amazing his career has been, and how much of an influence he’s had on hip hop in general. One thing the doc touched on, that I’ve always brought up in discussions, is that just about every major player in urban music has reached out to him at some point for a feature or has tried to emulate his style. From Mariah Carey to Jay-Z to Diddy – if you want that sound of Chicago you call T, and it’s about time someone put together a visual of this. If you’re a fan of Chicago hip-hop and care about the legacy, this will be a must watch when it drops in January. You won’t be disappointed.
One clip in the film, that I thought was extremely dope, is the video above (which I’d never seen – and I’m not sure if you have either), which features an 18 year-old Twista in 1991 rapping for fans and friends on the streets of Chicago. My man was even snapping back then! Shout out to the Guardian Angel in the background, too.
As always, thanks to Twista, Rawle Stewart, The Legendary Traxster and Rohit Loomba.
Real good clip Drew, thanks for that.
The best ever!
Crazy Drew, My B-day was Nov. 10! Anyway, I saw this clip years ago… and that second song, “hocus pocus” was Tung Twista’s “first” song and that is super rare to find in cd quality format. As people who frequent the site know, I usually bash Twista for his recent contributions to the music industry, and rightfully so, I stand on that, but, I do hope this film does Twista and Chicago justice and gives a true perspective of where this shit comes from. He really needs a 2 1/2 hour documentary…I have a feeling this film will briefly touch on the past and focus more on the recent success with Kanye and his last few albums; they need to pay homage to this brother and give tribute to really show from Hocus Pocus until the Perfect Storm how T has really put it down. Chicago….
West Side
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiDhfvAPMkU
is the documentary going to mentioned about eryka kanes uglyass?