By Liz Belilovskaya
Spank Rock’s new album Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar taps everything from 80’s punk, electro to industrial music at its apex. Add some high-profile collaborations incorporated with subtle pop culture reference, and the result is more than the sum of its parts. Some tracks are dangerously risqué while others linger in realms of intelligent poetry. The duo is a highly skilled at masterfully wielding sharp vocabulary over hyper speed beats.
First track “Tada” builds to an electronic rock pedigree. The tone is far from gangster rap but calling it edgeless is wrong. It’s exciting – flowing smoothly and intellectually. Naeem Juwan (MC Spank Rock) lays it down with bars:
“ A man is not a man if he don’t speak for himself, A man is not a man if he don’t shoot for the stars, A man is not a man if he ain’t writing his bars, Just a mannequin for emperor’s new clothes, Just a little pawn playing his role”
We concur.
“Nasty,” featuring Big Freedia and Tyette Hanks has an 80’s feel to it, a lot more daring with a pinch of industrial. The aggressive lyrics sound off “Slap the floor, make your booty go. Slap that ass, shake it real fast”. Not the most interesting song, but for diversity it works; underlining Spank Rock’s ability to seamlessly vacillate between elite rhymes and measured debauchery.
Santigold washes “Car Song” in her aura. The sound channels an electro pop quality with a lightly distorted, smooth synthesized sound. Rock’s solid lyrics “I took New York like Cloverfield, Now I want to go west (Like Kanye?) I was thinking more Cornell” work well with Santigold’s mellow chime, “Who’s got the keys to my car, I don’t know, I don’t know, I want to be where you are, I know, I know, I know”.
“Birfday” is possessed of a hyper kinetic rhythm with hooks and beats that carry its meh content. “The Dance” has presence, a fast tempo, and punk rock vocals over samples that marry Moby and the original Beastie Boys aesthetic. The next track is a pick up line that pop stars have likely heard while attempting to get signed, “I can make you famous, He can buy you bottles, But I can buy your billboard.”
The track “#1 Hit” has Latin vibe, a light groove morphing into club music with MIA styled beats. The duality of the vocals manifests as escalating epiphany. “Turn It Off” is a poem trapped in a song, featuring a list of worthy causes to stand for open the track. Spank Rock bluntly states “turn that fake shit off” followed by “I hate my generation, Everybody always want something for nothing, you fags ain’t got no gumption, rush for recognition ain’t got no function.”
“Race Riot on the Dance Floor” rages with undeniable yet unintelligible fury. Aside from the cool beats and surprise horn implementation the lyrics are unclear. The only thing clearly audible is “shake it till my dick turns racist.” The album shifts gears with the vulnerability of “Baby” as Spank Rock laments, “Why do you always make me feel like I’m nothing? There must be more to something than falling in love with you.” Dirty, futuristic DEVO experimentation with a splash of the “Night Rider” theme color the tale of an insatiable nympho who is passed.around like a “Hot Potato.” “Cool Shit” has a nice beat featuring some Arabic tones towards the end.
“DTF DADT” features a synthesized voice full of dark malice and menace. Spank Rock incorporates some awesome pop cultural references to his tracks so if you are not well-schooled half of the charm of the record flies out the window. “You want real shit n***a, I’m the dude. Jeff Bridges, bitches, Let’s hear it, bitches, Mogilevich flow leave n***s in ditches, Sugar Ray lyrics leave niggers in stitches”.
The final track “Energy” has more stylistic singing but unlike himself. Similar to Santigold, MC Spank can use whatever genre while still managing to keep it original. Sounding more like a Moby production with the bouncing- bleeding fashion of Oingo Boingo. “Please, charge my battery, Energy’s down to my last cc, Remove the interface replace the 9V
Electricity like AC/DC,I need a jolt I want to see revolt”.
Spank Rock is a smart, edgy duo with a taste for pop culture dissolved in relevant and applicable society. They are as refined as they are dirty and profound as they are simple. The fact that they dance between the opposites with such ease is a sign that we will see great things from them yet to come.
Out of 5
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