Rap legend Twista is facing jail time after he entered a guilty plea, admitting to five counts of willfully failing to pay income tax.
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According to TMZ, federal prosecutors initially accused Twista, whose real name is Carl Mitchell, of failing to pay income taxes from 2019 through 2023. It was further revealed that while the IRS and his accountants repeatedly warned him about the tax debt, Twista seemed to shrug off the issue. That was, until it all caught up with him.
“Mitchell entered into agreements with a third-party company to pay him advances on future royalties, knowing that the IRS would not be able to levy these funds,” the IRS shared in a statement.
Court records further reported that prosecutors conducted an additional review and found that the rapper’s tax obligations date back to 2011. He now owes more than $440,000 in back taxes.
He now faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for each of the five counts.
Reacting to Twista’s guilty plea, Adam Jobes, with IRS-CI’s Chicago field office, stated, “IRS Criminal Investigation doesn’t care how famous you are or what you’ve accomplished. If you willfully refuse to pay your taxes, we’ll follow the money and bring you to justice.”
Jobes then added, “Too many honest Americans work hard, pay their taxes, and do the right thing to tolerate someone who believes the rules don’t apply to them.”
Twista Previously Reflected About His Career as a Chopped Rapper
Twista has been in the music industry for more than 30 years. He once held the Guinness World Record for fastest English-speaking rapper.
During a 2020 interview, Twista spoke about how he became a chopped pioneer.
“I think chopping is a title that, depending on where you’re from, will be used as [shorthand] for rapping fast,” he said. “I never put a title on it.”
The rapper noted, “I let other people call it what they wanted to call it, but to me, I always knew it was a faster cadence of rap than normal.”
Twista also pointed out that he didn’t notice the chopped “cadence” until he started his music career.
“I wouldn’t really hear a whole song [back then]. You might hear somebody do a cadence or a phase or something like that,” he explained. “I took those little bits and pieces that people would so-called ‘rap fast’ over, and I would do whole songs and verses like that.”