Lil Twist Breaks Down His Three Favorite Coming of Age Rappers
Since signing to Young Money at the tender age of 13, Lil Twist has been the youngest member of Lil Wayne's omnipresent rhyme family. This month, the Dallas native turned 18 years old, and with that comes a brave new world. "I'm not just a kiddie rapper anymore," Twist tells The BoomBox of his overall growth. "I've been with Young Money for five years now, and with the whole artist and development that I was going through I've gotten better with my writing skills and how I work in the studio. It feels great when people finally recognize [my maturity] and actually listen to what I'm saying."
Twist is set to drop his tentatively titled debut 'Don't Get It Twisted' later this year. The album's lead single features Wayne, who also made the transition from youthful MC to adult spitter. So we asked Twist, with a legendary list of rappers in mind -- LL Cool J, MC Lyte, Special Ed, Bow Wow and Wayne -- to breakdown three of the most successful acts that have grown up in the hip-hop biz. The kid, err ... guy, knows his stuff.
"I'm not that old, so I didn't see the transition that LL had between 'I Need Love' to his other music. But I later knew about him because my mom would always crack jokes because two of the rappers I paid attention to the most when I was really young was Tupac and LL. She loved LL and Pac, so I was brought up on those two guys."
"Bow Wow is a legend in my eyes. He really did good with the way he grew into an adult rapper. He was a little kid when he came out and he was doing a lot. To still be doing his thing today is crazy. He's with Cash Money now, which is great. He was on my first single 'Little Secrets.' Me and Bow are really cool."
"I can't explain how he did his transition. He's past legendary. He took rap to a whole other level. People were praising him as a rap God [as he got older]. I remember my cousins listening to the Big Tymers and Hot Boys and even No Limit Soldiers. That's when I became aware of Wayne. But when I was younger, I was listening to more what my mom was listening to, like Marvin Gaye and stuff like that. But Wayne has given me great advice. He tells me to stay myself and continue to work. And don't follow into anyone else's style. He also told me to get all these girls [laughs]."
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