Twiztid Man's Myth Vol. 1 CD

This set includes 2 hours of concert footage, band interviews, over 250 new and never-before-seen pictures, and instrumental versions of all 15 tracks on the album. This set carries a parental advisory.

Additional personnel: ABK, Shaggy 2 Dope, Violent J, Lavel , Blaze Ya Dead Homie (vocals).
Twiztid's Man's Myth is the first of two releases from the Insane Clown Posse-associated duo that focus on the myths America's youth are force-fed. The concluding album, Mutant, concerns itself with how all these myths mutate kids into adult freaks, but here the duo are all about the angst of growing up in a world where religious leaders, government leaders, and drug dealers all lie to you -- at least that's the way Twiztid see it. Their comic book understanding of deep issues isn't all that different than ICP's, but while those juggaloos bog down their records with convoluted mythology that leads to nowhere, Twiztid just ask snide questions and express frustration, making them all the more in tune with teenage rebellion and are all the less ponderous. They've got fatter beats than ICP too, some of them shockingly original. The tight loop of Southern-fried guitar heard on "Off the Chain" is just one of the fresh ideas longtime producer and associate Lavel brings to the record. All of Lavel's tracks are tight, but you can't ignore Fritz the Cat's work on "Story of Our Lives" as he lays an infectious, robotic beat under Twiztid's Eminem-flavored verse and chorus. Minus the makeup and bombastic, theatrical intro, Man's Myth seems much more inspired by Slim Shady than ICP, and while the album doesn't have E-40 or Bushwick Bill guest shots like 2003's Green Book did, it reaches farther outside the suburban trash world of Psychopathic Records than anything the label has released previously. Twiztid keep growing lyrically too and the album is edited tightly with little filler. Faygo-swilling juggaloos should appreciate the solid effort, and if they play it loud enough, the Psychopathic-unfriendly will have to begrudgingly give it up to Twiztid. ~ David Jeffries
The fifth album by Detroit hip-hop duo Twiztid--who are sort of the combination farm team and cheerleading squad for the better-known Insane Clown Posse--is a concept record about the lies that underpin American society. (MUTANT, VOLUME 2, released a month later, continues the themes laid out on this album.) Very much in the mold of that other white MC from the Motor City, Eminem, the lyrical content of MAN'S MYTH, VOLUME 1 is occasionally very funny, almost always seethingly angry ("Introduction" takes direct aim at the Bush Administration's motivations and plans for the Iraq War through the use of a satiric sound-alike), and occasionally plain tasteless (the sex-obsessed "Off the Chain"). These words and concepts are set to a compelling mix of minimal electronics, inventive samples, and organic beats. More outward-looking and openly political than Twiztid's earlier, generally self-absorbed records, there's a sense of passion to MAN'S MYTH VOLUME 1 that belies the duo's cartoonish visual image.