Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Yup, I'm yet another white rockcrit getting onto the crunk bandwagon late - but bear with me, if you would. My two fave Pazz & Jop comments about crunk each say so much (if different things) about it.
Lil Jon says bend over! Lil Jon says touch your toes! Now shake ya tailfeather! Ho, Lil Jon didn't say to shake no tailfeather!
KEITH HARRIS
Bordentown, New Jersey
I actually think hip-hop is getting better nowadays, mainly because of Southern crunk pulling music from all over the place and remembering Bambaataa and Mantronix and dub space and Delta crossroads and discovering bluegrass and goth metal and oi! chants and winding up way more beautiful and sad and joyful than songs commanding women to do tricks with their vaginas have any right to be.
CHUCK EDDY
Brooklyn, New York
Listening to David Banner's "Lil' Jones" (featuring Bonecrusher) a double-digit number of times, I still hear the chorus as "Is that you, Lil' Jon?" Which makes sense, since Lil' Jon is the - what, black Elvis? - of crunk, bringing it to the (white) masses. Now, crunk ain't nothin' new; Lil' Jon's Get Crunk, Who U Wit: The Album came out back in '97. But akin to '89 being the year of gangsta thanks to N.W.A. (when Schoolly D's "P.S.K." had been released three years prior), 2003 was undoubtedly The Year Crunk Broke.
Lil' Jon I find largely useless beyond the sheer bizarreness of "Get Low" and its various remixes (especially the Merengue Mix!), but Banner's another matter. Take "We Ride Them Caddies" from his latest, MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water. It opens sounding like a cross between "Planet Rock" and "Tubular Bells," and largely keeps it up. "Gots To Go," featuring Devin the Dude and Bun B, I'm positive rips Loose Ends, and comes off as the first quiet storm hiphop to discuss nut-lickin'. Musically, Banner succeeds where some of his dirty south peers fail, because so much of his record just plain sounds weird - for pete's sake, he remixes Nelly's "Air Force Ones" by adding in huge chunks of metal guitar! And when he's not talking about bitches and hos, he's got some surprisingly astute sociopolitical commentary hiding in the corners. This album improves with each listen, ya heard? [And "Bush," from Mississippi The Album, is downright stellar.]
[An amended version of this post appears at Blogcritics.]
Lil Jon says bend over! Lil Jon says touch your toes! Now shake ya tailfeather! Ho, Lil Jon didn't say to shake no tailfeather!
KEITH HARRIS
Bordentown, New Jersey
I actually think hip-hop is getting better nowadays, mainly because of Southern crunk pulling music from all over the place and remembering Bambaataa and Mantronix and dub space and Delta crossroads and discovering bluegrass and goth metal and oi! chants and winding up way more beautiful and sad and joyful than songs commanding women to do tricks with their vaginas have any right to be.
CHUCK EDDY
Brooklyn, New York
Listening to David Banner's "Lil' Jones" (featuring Bonecrusher) a double-digit number of times, I still hear the chorus as "Is that you, Lil' Jon?" Which makes sense, since Lil' Jon is the - what, black Elvis? - of crunk, bringing it to the (white) masses. Now, crunk ain't nothin' new; Lil' Jon's Get Crunk, Who U Wit: The Album came out back in '97. But akin to '89 being the year of gangsta thanks to N.W.A. (when Schoolly D's "P.S.K." had been released three years prior), 2003 was undoubtedly The Year Crunk Broke.
Lil' Jon I find largely useless beyond the sheer bizarreness of "Get Low" and its various remixes (especially the Merengue Mix!), but Banner's another matter. Take "We Ride Them Caddies" from his latest, MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water. It opens sounding like a cross between "Planet Rock" and "Tubular Bells," and largely keeps it up. "Gots To Go," featuring Devin the Dude and Bun B, I'm positive rips Loose Ends, and comes off as the first quiet storm hiphop to discuss nut-lickin'. Musically, Banner succeeds where some of his dirty south peers fail, because so much of his record just plain sounds weird - for pete's sake, he remixes Nelly's "Air Force Ones" by adding in huge chunks of metal guitar! And when he's not talking about bitches and hos, he's got some surprisingly astute sociopolitical commentary hiding in the corners. This album improves with each listen, ya heard? [And "Bush," from Mississippi The Album, is downright stellar.]
[An amended version of this post appears at Blogcritics.]
# posted by Thomas : 2:43 PM
