Naeem Juwan is not a complicated man. He has the basic guy needs. His M.O. is simple: Rhymes are sex, his tongue is the drum, and his sweet talk will fill you up. Lock up your daughters.
Juwan named both himself and his group Spank Rock, and that's exactly what they do, except whether they're rocking a drum machine and what's being spanked is somewhat unclear. The titles on Spank Rock's debut album, Yoyoyoyoyo, give a good idea of their subject matter: "Coke & Wet," "Screwville, U.S.A.," "Bump." Lyrically, the songs deliver precisely what you'd expect from them. The title character in "Backyard Betty" could "make a star out of that behind." It's not that Spank Rock lacks subtlety, it's that--like any good pick-up artist--he sets up simple expectations and then fulfills them with flair. It's not that his rhymes don't contain multiple layers of depth; it's that he repeats his triple entendres once for each meaning.
The simplicity of Spank Rock's (the man) agenda--maybe not so much that he wants to get laid as that he just really, really needs a lap dance--doesn't get in the way of Spank Rock's (the band) musical complexity. Producer XXXChange builds a sonic backdrop that functions as less of an homage to Baltimore hip-ho/club music hybrid that ostensibly birthed their sound, and more as a search engine for fragments of the history of hip-hop--referencing epic portions of Run-DMC's catalogue before subtly dropping in the echo of say, The Dream Warriors. But these are only the music's secondary pleasures. The real joy is in hearing Spank Rock's overt come-ons play themselves against XXXChange's musical restraint. Set against Juwan's verses, the beats for "IMC" and "Chilly Will" are almost delicate.
XXXChange--a former drummer who has worked with the DFA (Check out Zero Zero's "True Zero" for evidence)--plays it so close to the vest that when the surprises come, they come with the thunder. The chirping women singing the coda of "Sweet Talk," for example, not only provide the album's catchiest moment, but also the album's centerpiece. And why not? Offsetting Spank Rock's extreme maleness with a dose of reciprocal feminine lust also lays bare the central conceit of the music: When Spank Rock says, "My tongue is the drum/My mind's the machine," he's only semi-correct; his tongue is the pummeling id, XXXChange's beats are keeping him in check, and the music they create is pure, libidinous, joyous ego.
--Marty Brown, 2006
What I dig about this record more than anything are the beats... MMmmmmmMmmmmm, tasty beats.
Posted by: cosmocto | 2006.09.05 at 10:57