Lil Twist takes his cues from ‘big brother’ Lil Wayne
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While most 17-year-olds are enjoying the last days of summer before school begins, Lil Twist is busy cementing himself in a very adult-dominated rap world.
But the Dallas teen (ne: Christopher L. Moore) undoubtedly has the best teacher any fresh-faced rookie could wish for: Lil Wayne, who gave him his first break – not easily, of course – and has taken the young’un under his tattooed wing.
‘I opened up for Wayne in Tyler [an hour away from Dallas]. ... I begged his manager [Cortez Bryant], which is my manager now,’ Twist recalled. ‘I begged him, and he put me on the stage and I ripped it.’
The chance encounter led to an on-the-spot signing with Wayne’s Young Money imprint, the same camp responsible for Drake and Nicki Minaj.
During a break from promoting his first single, ‘Little Secret,’ featuring Bow Wow, off of his upcoming debut album, ‘Don’t Get It Twisted,’ we caught up with rap’s youngest star. Here are five things you need to know about Lil Twist:
5) He’s the [temporary] voice of Lil Wayne. Before Weezy headed to Rikers Island, he wanted a way to communicate with his fans so Twist taught him Ustream and set up his Twitter. Twist takes the reins of both Wayne’s WeezyThanxYou.com and the @liltunechi Twitter page and posts messages that Wayne dictates to him, including gratitude to the fans who write him while he’s in prison.
‘That’s my brother. He really took me in. Anything he needs me to do, it’s done. He told me one day to set him up with Twitter, and I did. He started going hard tweeting every day, Ustreaming every day,’ Twist said. ‘Then he went in and he still gives me that call from jail with shout-outs to people, and I’ll write it on his Twitter and keep him updated. I look at it like, if I don’t do it, my big brother’s gonna knock me out.’
4) His BFF is a certain teen sensation. Although Twist is lucky to call Wayne, Drake and Minaj (who refers to Twist as her ‘lamb chop’) family, he spends a fair amount of time with his bestie: Justin Bieber. Once Twist met the precocious pop star in Atlanta through a mutual friend, the two were inseparable, and they plan on collaborating together frequently.
‘We got cool, started hanging out and going on vacations. We went to the Bahamas together on my birthday, and that’s where he shot the video for ‘Never Let You Go.’ We haven’t done the song for my album, but we been working on our mixtape. We’re going to come out with a mixtape together called ‘Best of Both Worlds,’ and it’s going to be the best of young rap and the best of young pop,’ he said.
3) His album boasts a dream team of superstars. Twist is still working on his debut album, but he already has guest appearances in the can. The album is going to feature the entire Young Money stable, including Wayne, Drake, Minaj, as well as Bieber, Sean Paul, Sean Kingston and Raheem Devaughn – but Twist still isn’t satisfied.
‘I have so many records with other people on them, [but] I don’t have too many records alone, so that’s why I’m still working on the album,’ he said. ‘If I wasn’t still working on it, the whole album would have somebody on the song.’
2) Prove your allegiance to #TeamTwist by joining Twitter. Twist is a social media aficionado and is just shy of an impressive 300,000 followers that crave all things Twist (his Twitter background is a collage of his fans’ avatars). Case in point: Before this interview, we asked his fans to submit questions. Although he couldn’t answer them all, we threw some at him and here are his responses:
@NADIA141414 wanted to know what’s it like being a young rapper? ‘It’s fun but ... there is a lot of hard work that comes with it.’@ for3v3r_96 asked what was the secret behind his mohawk? ‘[Laughs] There’s no secret. I just woke up one day and told my mom I wanted a mohawk and she was with it, so we went to the barber shop and got it.’ @KeiarraDraper asked – and so did dozens of other users – what kind of girls does he like? ‘Girls with good personality, smart, can’t be crazy, gotta be nice. Sense of humor.’ @TeamLilTwistLDN was curious when the album would be released and what would he being doing now if he wasn’t in Young Money? “I don’t have a set date yet, but we’re looking forward to the end of this year. If I wasn’t with Young Money, I’d probably still be in public school, getting ready to go to college.”
1) Weezy’s wisdom has paid off. In a rap world dominated by veterans like Eminem, Jay-Z and, of course, Weezy, it’s tough for a rookie to step up to plate, let alone a teenager. But Twist can clearly hold his own. Need convincing? Check out the video below.
-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
twitter.com/GerrickKennedy
