SPANK ROCK & BENNY BLANCO are Bangers & Cash

WARNING: Explicit Material Following!!!
(Written as an album review for Rave Magazine Online)

(Downtown)
Hitting it fast and filthy

When an album opens with gongs and someone shouting “Welcome to the Fuck Shop”, followed by a dirty bass drop, you’d think you were in for a booty smacking, hoe tapping 2 Live Crew treat. But this is the start of Bangers & Cash, Spank Rock and producer Benny Blanco’s enthusiastic tribute to Miami ghetto bass and the spirit of old school nasty. Bangers & Cash is an E.P. that should be played full volume in the club, obnoxiously on your car stereo, or in the privacy of your bedroom if you’re too embarrassed for other people to hear Spank Rock spout you got “sweat drip from your cooch to your doodie hole”.

Bangers & Cash visits the sexually graphic genre pioneered by Miami’s 2 Live Crew, whose 1989 As Nasty As They Wanna Be
was banned straight off for being too explicit for U.S. citizens. For those too young to remember “Me So Horny”, Bangers & Cash provides enough potty-mouthed ghetto slang and gregarious sexuality to relive the forgotten forms of the early 90s “dirty rap” era.

The album stays true to the old style: the beats are bumping and Spank Rock’s use of “bitch”, “hoe” and “pussy” is certainly entertaining. But the EP lacks the effortless in yo’ face slap, the six-strong group mentality and the cultural significance of the 2 Live Crew’s mission to obscenity. Spank Rock’s geeky image doesn’t really work with Bangers & Cash; the songs call for a bit more muscle, and also a maturity that’s beyond the 21-year-old producer Benny Blanco.

We had a good taste of Spank Rock’s ingenuity and clever raps with YoYoYoYoYo, but Bangers & Cash falls short on originality. Whether this is a result of mimicking the 2 Live Crew or of following the signature formulas too closely, it means there are only two decent songs: the aptly named “B-O-O-T-A-Y” and “Loose”.

“B-O-O-T-A-Y” opens with a warning siren that gets the blood pumping. The driving RPM and Spank Rock’s rapid-fire delivery is reminiscent of YoYoYoYoYo’s “Rick Rubin” and Blanco slams in the bass with a synthesiser. Contrary to the rest of the E.P., Spank Rock spits some clever lyrics and is followed up with xxx rated feats from Black Betty and Santigold. The sexy guest raps from these two hip-hop ladies are a welcome respite from Spank Rock’s dirty mouthing and give “B-O-O-T-A-Y” a polish that’s lacking from other songs.

The bass hits even harder in “Loose”, which incorporates some classic hip-hop samples, an appropriately sassy rap from Amanda Blank and the dirty synthesiser that is Blanco’s love child for the rest of the E.P. In “Loose” Spank Rock lets us know he serves phallic for the most important meal of the day and makes it pretty clear what Bangers & Cash is all about: money, sex, booze, cocaine, the club and hoochie mamas.

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