The long-delayed Kamikaze plays to both sides of the fan base, presenting a fair mixture of old-school Twista style with enough formulaic stuff thrown in to keep the kids happy.

The Chicago speed rapper's managed to do well for himself in the interim, retaining a strong following among the thug-life set and accruing new listeners via judicious appearances on splashy commercial releases like Ludacris's Word of Mouf.

Obviously, Twista's not breaking down any walls with his wordplay on Kamikaze, but along the way he kicks over a few garbage cans while letting Kanye West, Toxic and the rest of his production crew move some crowds and elevate their status, one slow jam at a time.Seven years have passed since Twista's last solo joint (1997's hood classic, Adrenaline Rush), and that's about three career cycles' worth of evolution in the swiftly moving world of hip-hop. The song, laced with a beat worthy of an NBA introduction ceremony, features strong verses from Freeway, Memphis Bleek and Young Chris, until Twista swoops in to smoke to whatever's left of the ominous beat. Kamikaze ends with one last Roc-A-Fella posse cut, 'Art & Life'. Dre-impersonation you'll hear this side of Scott Storch. 'Drinks' compares fine ladies to- naturally- alcoholic beverages while Toxic, who produces nearly half the album, provides the best Dr. Good thing The Gap already raped the beauty of that song. On the strip-club anthem 'Sunshine', Twista nearly pisses all over what little respect he's gathered to date, sampling Bill Withers' luminescent 'Lovely Day'. Thankfully, Cee-Lo's shimmering chorus saves this borderline piffle. Granted, any rap song that gives a hopeful shoutout to Christopher Reeve's ability to walk is going to seem strangely off-putting. Elsewhere, the vaguely uplifting (but ultimately perfunctory) 'Hope' fills Twista's 'sensitive thug' prerequisite. Bombastic strings, heart-rattling urgency, and Twista's sharpest punchlines make it the star of the record. Topics like these have been drained of what little juice they might have had by, among others, the nefarious Nelly.ДЄside from 'Slow Jamz', Kanye's production appears twice more, on 'One Last Time', and later, on 'Overnight Celebrity', which outdoes his previous crate-digging by jacking Lenny Williams' 70s Motown hit ''Cause I Love You'. Kelly event 'So Sexy'), a sequel to a song no one's heard ('Still Feels So Good') and another about rims ('Like a 24', featuring T.I., who also has a single about rims in rotation right now- sadly, his are only 22's). And if Kamikaze isn't an absolute abomination, its scope quickly reveals itself as limited: three songs about female ass (including the hilarious 'Badunkadunk' and the R. While Twista could rely solely on his ridiculous verbal agility on posse cuts like Memphis Bleek's classic 'Is That Your Bitch?', he hasn't got it in him to sustain an entire album. Unfortunately, based on the immediately quotable couplet, 'Got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson/ Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson,' Kanye outshines him completely. This aside, Twista (formerly Tung Twista) sports perhaps the most dexterous flow since mid-90s Busta, and on 'Slow Jamz', he wraps his voice around a supremely accelerated Burt Bacharach-penned sample.

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