Album title:
'YoYoYoYoYo'
Artist:
Spank Rock
Label:
Big Dada
Hip-hop is a commercial enterprise now, not club music. Evidently Baltimore's Spank Rock disagrees: 'YoYoYoYoYo' is fast, bass-heavy, and dirty as a motherfucker. Incoporating sounds from ghettotech, Detroit bass, electro and grime, his producer DJ xxChange has crafted an album that comes straight from the Baltimore basement parties: the tempo ratcheted up and the low end on blast. Backyard Betty recalls prime 2 Live Crew with it's tale of an "ass-shaking-competition champ," What It Look Like is a slick statement of intent. Coke and Wet is a college-MC-bashing gangsta comedy, while dancefloor cuts like Far Left and Chilly Will bump with an outrageously filthy electronic edge. Genuinely fresh, this new blueprint for hip-hop lets the jaw-dropping trickery of Spank's Dizzee-esque flow shine over some truly raw club-bangers, and has the depth and intricacy to make it a classic. Like Ultramagnetic MCs album 'Critical Beatdown' must have sounded back in '86 – fast, funny and totally revolutionary. [Bram Gieben]