Twista – Slow Jamz (Atlantic, 2003)

This review originally appeared as part of The Stylus Decade, January 2010.

The track’s unwillingness to stick with Jamie Foxx’s opening brief, which positions it as a fond celebration of ladies’ choice classics, and the dynamic tension arising from Kanye’s and Twista’s increasingly lewd attempts to subvert his mission (“Imma play this Vandross, you gon’ take your pants off”), is central to its fascination. On Kanye’s album version, the balance lies more in Foxx’s favour—even if his attempts at feminine empathy eventually flounder in typically blokey list-making (“Smokey Robinson, Freddie Jackson, Ashford and Simpson….”) But on Twista’s single version, the late-to-his-own-party rapper gets the last word, his quick-fire flow obliterating all lingering traces of the original premise.

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