Cued speech used in Twista video 'Go'

Cued speech, which was created 50 years ago, is a visual mode of communication using hand cues with mouth movements. It allows people who are deaf and hard of hearing to have visual access to spoken languages.

The National Cued Speech Association and Twista, the fastest rapper in the country, created a music video, "Go," using cued speech.

"It was actually an original song, but I did write the song with the intention of possibly being involved with something like this," Twista said.

"The reason I wanted to do this video was because like the song, 'Go,' it was something inspirational and I'm always one to want to give back," Twista said.

Ben Lachman, president of the National Cued Speech Association, wanted to do something visual and fun to educate the public about cued speech.

Twista and Lachman met through a friend.

"... and I asked him if I could do a cued speech video, and he said, 'Sure, let's call Twista,'" Lachman said.

"Cued speech is composed of signs '12345678,'" Lachman said. "They represent the vowels, the consonants, there are four positions around the mouth, chin, side throat."

"Once you have all of the faux names memorized, you can say anything, even jibbish," Lachman said. "We have thousands of cuers all over the country."

"What fascinated me was how much emotion can be involved with cued speech," Twista said.

To learn more about the video and cued speech, visit www.cueeverything.com.