Two minds, two voices, one heart. These are the constant forces that have seen identical twin rappers Kane & Abel through the many trials and tribulations of their dramatic lives. And it is with shared determination and focus that the 22-year-old brothers return with their latest LP, Rise To Power, the duo’s debut on their own label, Most Wanted Records.

Back again pumping their signature "gangstified guerrilla sound", Kane & Abel embark on another sonic street mission ripe with the intensity that catapulted their last record, Am I My Brother’s Keeperu past the 750,000 units sold mark. Hitting straight to the gut, cuts like the blistering "Straight Thuggin’", produced by super hot producer Tricky, the talent behind JT Money’s club anthem "Who Dat," and the true speaker-blower "Get Cha Weight Up," demonstrate that Rise To Power is the album that is bound to elevate the street-smart siblings to the next level of the rap game.

"It was real emotional for us to do this album," says Kane. "It might sound angry to certain people, but it was just a lot of frustration in our lives and everything just came out when we was doing the record. I think this is our best album. We’re just really hungry right now. Each album we’ve grown a little. And I think that’s the key to having some sort of longevity and staying in the game."

Born in the Bronx, the cradle of hip hop, Kane & Abel underwent extremely rough childhoods. The offspring of a Puerto Rican father and African-American mother, the brothers were barely starting school when they had to deal with the murder of their dad and the disappearance of their mom. Raised mostly by foster homes and relatives, Kane & Abel were always on the move, eventually touch downing in New Orleans at the start of high school. It was in N.O. that they pursued their dream of making it in rap, a dream that had been bubbling since their days in the Bronx.

Abel maintains that "When you pick up a Kane & Abel record, you’re picking up every part of our personality. So you hear a little bit of the East Coast, you hear a lot of the down South sound, you hear some of the Hispanic feel. You hear us."

New Orleans rap fans have been hearing Kane & Abel do their thing since the mid 90’s. Under the name Double Vision, the twins recorded a 1995 independent release, Keep Your Eyes Open. Not long after, the two met the Queen of the No Limit Tank, Mia X, at a popular N.O. radio station and she looked out big time for the young group. She eventually hooked up Kane & Abel with Master P, who signed them immediately.

"It was a situation of being at the right place at the right time," admits Abel.

Their first album for No Limit, The 7 Sins, did well and quickly established Kane & Abel as a team to be reckoned with. But more importantly it was a step in the right direction for the group, which keeps growing artistically with each effort.

Says Kane, "You can hear in our music how New Orleans has really influenced us the most musically. I mean, there’s a big jazz scene here, of course, and then there’s a big reality music scene, which is really what took us in."

It was struggling to get put on and living on their own since the age of 16 that shaped Kane & Abel’s music. The friendships they established with many local talent remain today, event though the group is no longer signed with No Limit.

"It’s still nothing but love between us and them," says Abel about his former NL label mates. We all still live like five minutes away from each other. So we might all see each other passing in our cars. It’s a good feeling. We can’t say nothing bad at all to anybody about No Limit or any of the artists."

"We really learned a lot there," interjects Kane. "Our experience over there was something that we’ll never forget. And it’s still all good. But it comes a time when you realize that you have to grow. And you have to close certain chapters and open new ones."

The newest chapter for Kane & Abel is Most Wanted Records, which is being distributed through Elektra. After intense bidding from other labels, the rappers decided on their new home because, as Abel explains, "we really like their style. There’s black executives at the top of the company and they were aggressive in signing us. That meant a lot to us."

Ever the businessmen, Kane & Abel have corralled a group of aggressive young blood for their label, namely rappers Ghinn, Boss Player and Tommy Two-face and producer Lunatic, who all appear on Rise To Power.

Sticking to the home-grown New Orleans vibe that has gotten them this far, Kane & Abel let loose on joints like "Get Cha Mind Right", which utilizes a popular Southern saying as its hook. As an added bonus, the song is also performed in Spanish, the first time the two lyricists have rocked some bilingual skills on a record.

Still, the rapping kin show off some of their East Coast roots on the banging title track, "Rise To Power", whose chorus is inspired by Boogie Down Productions’ 1988 hit "Illegal Business."

Having matured considerably since their early efforts, Kane & Abel have upped their songwriting and delivered some thought-provoking material. Says Abel, "The song ‘This Life’ for us has the most meaning on the record. And that’s a song we want a lot of people to remember us for."

"We wrote that song because it was just sort of like thanking God for being with us through everything we’ve been through," states Kane. No matter what happened to us, it always turned out for the good, you know. The song also has a double meaning too, because it’s also really talking to kids and telling them, ‘You see this all and it looks glamorous and it’s cool to talk about getting your gat and slinging dope and everything else that you see,’ but at the same time you don’t want this life because there’s consequences to this. And people don’t understand that until it’s too late."

Kane & Abel know what they speak of. Having almost bypassed college because they were spending too much time on the streets, the brothers were fortunate enough to have had teachers who cared. They went on to major in mass communication and journalism at Xavier University. Kane & Abel applied their writing skills (which are influenced by brilliant outlaw authors like Donald Gaines and Iceberg Slim) and penned two short stories, "Eyes Of A Killer" and "Behind Enemy Lines," the latter which is presently being turned into a direct-to-video feature film. After selling the book over the Internet on their own, the rapper/authors approached St. Martin’s Press about major distribution and got it. Their second book, The Speed Of Darkness, is already completed and is set to be released next year.

But for now, attention is aimed at their label and their most aspiring work to date, Rise To Power. Judging by their incredible survival tactics and street know-how, it won’t be long before Most Wanted Records is, as Abel puts it, "the next ghetto empire."