Ying Yang Twins

As kings of the club circuit, the Ying Yang Twins have ridden their zany, cartoonish personas, witty lyrics and Grade-A production to the top of the charts. The Atlanta-based duo of Kaine and D-Roc released in 2003 its acclaimed third album, the platinum Me & My Brother, which spawned the hits “Salt Shaker,” feat. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and “Whats Happnin!,” feat. Trick Daddy.
Now, the Ying Yang Twins return with My Brother & Me, a crunktastic CD/DVD combo that features 10 new songs, 3 videos and behind the scenes footage of the premier party-starters. The CD/DVD set’s lead single “Halftime (Stand Up & Get Crunk)”, sports an injected guest shot from Homebwoi backed by an all-star marching band There will also be two “Salt Shaker” remixes, one with Lil Jon, Juvenile, Murphy Lee and Fat Joe; the other version is an extended mix with additional verses from BG, Jacki-O, Pitbull and Fat Man Scoop. New songs are “In The Club,” which features Yani, and the “Get Naked” remix, which features Bonecrusher. Other songs include a “Slow Motion” remix with Juvenile, Ying Yang Twins, Wyclef and UTP; a “Georgia Dome” remix with Jacki-O; and a “Me & My Brother” remix with YoungBloodz.
The My Brother & Me DVD gives fans an intimate look into the crazed world of the Ying Yang Twins. It features the videos for “Whats Happnin!,” “Salt Shaker” and “Naggin’,” as well as a the Ying Yang Twins performances on WB’s Pepsi Smash, 2004 BET Awards, BET’s 106 & Park and their appearance on MTV’s CRIBS.

Even though the Ying Yang Twins exploded in 2003, the pair already had two hit albums (2000’s Thug Walkin and 2002’s Alley: The Return of the Ying Yang Twins) and a string of hit radio and club singles (“Whistle While You Twurk”, “Ying Yang In This Thang”, “Say I Yi Yi” and “By Myself”) to their credit. The instant success of both “Whistle While You Twurk” and “Ying Yang In This Thang” made Ying Yang Twins immediate players in the hip-hop field. Subsequent hits “Say I Yi Yi” and “By Myself” established Kaine and D-Roc as hip-hop’s premier party-starters and earned them guest spots on albums from from Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and Kizzy Rock.
The Ying Yang Twins extended their hit streak with the release of their third album, Me & My Brother, the pair’s first on independent powerhouse TVT Records (home to Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, among others), contains the type of crunktastic club bangers that have earned the pair thousands of loyal fans across the country.
“We aim to please everybody, explains Kaine of his group’s infectious sound. “All we want to do is keep smiles on everybody’s faces. We make things with a catchy vibe, so that you’ll be eager to want to get to know the song. It’s like if you want to holler at a female, you’re going to step your mouthpiece up real good before you say what you’re getting ready to say to her because you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Interestingly enough, the Ying Yang Twins get their inspiration for their mega-hits from the simplest of resources: each other. ” We just sit around and come up with something that somebody else ain’t gonna come up with,” D-Roc says. “We sit around and trip. We’re some quick-witted trash-talkers. With trash-talking comes a brain because I’ve got to talk faster than you if you’re talking trash. That’s how our songs come about. We talk trash, formulate it, put it together and then it becomes a song. We’re like two cartoon characters. Cartoon characters are always tripping. That’s how we come up with everything that we do.”
United via mutual friends at the end of 1996, D-Roc and Kane had to become a rap duo. D-Roc, a solo artist at the time, was signed to Ichiban Records. Producer Beat-In-Azz (then known as DJ Smurf) was also signed to the imprint and was solicited to do a remix for D-Roc. The two became friends and Beat-In-Azz requested that D-Roc be on his album. D-Roc brought Kaine to the recording session.
“When I heard them rhyme together, their chemistry, I had never heard anything like that before,” Beat recalls. “I told them they needed to be a group. I don’t think no one else captures that chemistry on record.”
And, as My Brother & Me proves, no one captures that energy on remixes, either.