Gay-Unit

If male rappers aren't boasting about their diamonds, clothes, cars or shoes, they're talking about the bitches and hos they're touching, teasing, fucking and squeezing. This has proved a successful formula for everyone from 2 Live Crew to the Ying Yang Twins, but maybe that's because the bitches they're talking about are women -- as opposed to the dudes getting fucked and sucked off by the Brooklyn-born hustler and current L.A. hard-core rapper, Twisted G the Gangsta Fag.

"I knew I was into guys at age eight, but that's not some shit you'd go around telling people in my neighborhood," says Twisted G, who has been rapping since about the same time. "At 16, my mom caught me doing some freaky-deaky shit with some cat down the block, and she threw me out. I guess you could say I was kicked out of the closet."

Now 30, six foot six and 260 pounds, Twisted G, whose deep baritone fits somewhere between KRS-One and Paul Wall at his most screwed and chopped, has gained a strong Internet cult following nearly four years after he released the five-song EP Gangsta Fag.

"It's always been more of a hobby and a dream," he says. That is, until comedian/ Fear Factor host Joe Rogan got his hands on Gangsta Fag last year and praised it as "the most hilarious and disturbing shit I have ever heard."

"People think because I'm a faggot, I'm a faggot. Gangsta Fag is more of a character, sort of like Jason, but instead of carrying an ax, I carry an aluminum baseball bat and a nine-inch cock," says Twisted G. "Like I tell people, 'Sorry, kids, no clean, wholesome message here. Just a bat upside your head and a dick in your mouth.' "

In his sordid tales of violence and sex, Twisted G comes off more like a deranged maniac than a gay man looking for a quick lay in songs like "He Wantz It" and "Run from the Faggots." (Sample lyric: "That's when I called my dawgs and we hit the street / The three craziest fags that you'd hate to meet / So we headed out to this country bar / We drove around the back and we spotted the car / So we laid low then four came out / And when they turned around we stuck the gats in their mouth / We put them on their knees now they're sucking our dicks / We nutted on their faces and we're watching it drip.")

Not unlike 50 Cent's and other rappers' tales about overcoming their struggles growing up in the ghetto and/or going to jail, many of Twisted G's stories derive from his experience as a homeless gay youth selling crack and hustling to survive.

"We decided that we'd start robbing and humiliating the other dealers," he says. "At gunpoint, I'd make them go down on me and my crew. I even butt-fucked a couple of them."

After going in and out of prison for over ten years, Twisted G isn't ready to go back. "I was locked in the booty buffet a little too long," he says. "I want to shake this world up and let this world feel that I was here."

Twisted G is in the studio working on his next album, America's Worst Nightmare. "I'm throwing everything I got into it: my heart, my passion. You can't give a fuck about what other people think; you just gotta do your thing."

It doesn't come as a surprise that some people have a beef with Twisted G. "They talk a little shit, but they back down," he says. "I'm a big guy, you know? They don't want to fuck with my crew."

As for his association with the gay community, Twisted G has this to say: "Fuck the gay community! A majority of them were offended by my lyrics," he says. "Even though my sexual preference is men, I don't represent the gay community, I represent motherfucking G-Fag. I'm the demented, sick, perverted, hard-core motherfucker. The gay community can kiss my ass." -- Travis Ritter

UNSOUND EXCHANGE

Sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. on Monday, January 19, a thief put his or her shoulder to the front door of Sound Exchange (1846 Richmond), forced it open and, as the deafening alarm blasted away, helped himself or herself to stacks of tickets for upcoming concerts by Of Montreal, Explosions in the Sky, Spoon and Smoking Popes, along with cash that had been paid for tickets previously sold. The rest of the store's stock was completely untouched: Not a CD or LP was out of place.

Sound Exchange acts as a ticket outlet for local hot-shot indie concert promoters SuperUnison, and although the record store suffered the break-in, it appears that the real target was SuperUnison.

"It coulda been way, way, way worse for us," confirms Sound Exchange co-owner Kurt Brennen. "We sorta lucked out. We put most of our money in a safe at night, but we had a ticket drawer that could have been more secure, so that's what they ended up getting. There was no vandalism or damage other than the door." The thieves "knew exactly what they were goin' for."