Grammy Winning Recording Artist Twista Hits Texas Like a Kamikaze

Not to many independent records labels would ever dream of trying to take on the task of bringing a national recording artist to their city, it’s just not in their budget. Trying to cover the cost of your own artists, production, promotion, and distribution can range in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, D-Town Records did. Not only did they bring Twista to the D/FW metroplex, but D-Town also made a commitment to donate a portion of their proceeds to two charitable organizations (Red Cross “Victims of Hurricane Katrina” and Teen Summit a chapter of the “Black United Fund of Texas”), and a level four (4) sponsor out of Houston, “MoeDee Entertainment”.

The entire amount of $30,000.00 to bring the national recording artist to Dallas rest firmly on the shoulders of D-Town Records and that does not include the round trip ground transportation, the hotel accommodations, promotions, food, local ground transportation, insurance, and other accommodations for the artist. Being a small indie label, D-Town doesn’t have the resources of a major label like an Atlanta Records.

With little, or no help from Twista’s management staff, this little label could and would still go forward with this humongous endeavor, come rain or Twista, You got to love their “true Grit”. With his new album, “The Day After” hitting stores Oct. 4th and his Billboard charted single “Girl Tonite”, Twista truly had a beautiful day after. However, D-Town Records, Texas Teen Summit, and the Victims of Hurricane Katrina found themselves trying to survive the kamikaze attack of Twista management team. When does an artist get so big that he or she forgets that it was the fans that got them there in the first place? D-Town Records, went above and beyond the call of duty to make this event a success, “our little record company reminds me of another little record label (Motown)”, says Nate Edwards, CEO of D-Town Records. Even though the event did not go as planned, D-Town Records still honored their commitment by providing cloths, money, and school supplies, we just wanted to do more to aide the effort.


Even though many efforts went into trying to work with Twista’s management staff to get itineraries, call-ins and radio drops from Twista to help promote ticket sales and to let his fans know that he would be in the metroplex, we always seem to have been put on the back burner. The radio call-in came the night of the benefit concert @ 8:30 pm, strictly generic, no mention of the event, the city or the organization responsible for bringing the artist to Dallas.

D-Town Records, the charities and the sponsors certainly got “chopped and screwed” on this deal.

The count, Twista $21,000, Black United fund of Texas $0