Twista’s new album is an awesome force of nature, one that can only be described in the same terms as a terrible natural disaster that causes complete destruction. Category F5 is a monolith of annihilation that threatens to shake millions of eardrums and booties across the nation.

Twista pays homage to the hustler’s most important tenets with lyrical content that seldom strays from making money, smoking kush weed and masterfully commanding the attention of women. “Fire,” “Billionaire” and “Gotta Get Me One” are tracks that exemplify Twista’s appeal to a common sensibility. “Wetter,” the first single off the album, is a track that is catchy enough to get stuck in your head while also grounding the album with its R&B leanings. The naughty-but-nice vocals of Erika Shevon soften Twista’s rough edges and leave a confident and ballin’ lyricist.

The album features tracks with a few obligatory featured artists such as Akon, Gucci Mane, R-Kelly, and Busta Rhymes. Twista is lucky to have them on board as their collaborations — especially Busta’s contribution to “Billionaire” — take otherwise lackluster songs and turn them into just bearable songs. The lesson here: a mediocre song with a proven star is not always gold.

Also notable among the collaborations is “On Top,” which, thanks to Akon’s catchy hook, transforms the song from a regular midsummer club hit to an ultra-devastating hit that could cause damage in the hundred of thousands of dollars.

These guest appearances balance out the rhythm and complement Twista’s style, which ranges from slightly fast to really fast. The listener shouldn’t have a problem when it comes to understanding the lyrics, however, as the Chicago rapper never really reaches his record of 11.2 syllables per second (probably a good thing, lest the destruction of this album increase).

This is the first album released on Twista’s own Get Money Gang label with more than a third of the songs produced by the Legendary Traxster. The beats are contrived and typical, but they do work well with Twista’s quick-fire style, and are usually catchy enough to support a good hook. “On Top” features a techno-heavy beat, showing the world one more time how well Akon and synthesizers can work together. R. Kelly’s contribution on “Yellow Light” is comprised mostly of autotuner vocals, but the title of the song and the lyrics make a guest appearance by R. Kelly ironic on several levels.

Though a category F5 tornado boasts the fastest wind speed, Twista’s rapping rarely reaches the dizzying speeds he is famous for. There are tracks that showcase his skills like “Yo Body” and “Fire,” but the self-proclaimed king of the Midwest does not fully live up to the rapid fire rapping he is famous for. Twista’s fifth solo album is not perfect, but it does play consistently throughout the approximate hour of content. Category F5 challenges the genre negligibly and innovates even less, but it should surely fill the summer hip-hop charts even without (hopefully) laying waste to everything in its path.

3 out of 5 stars.