The 2 Live Crew set the bar pretty high for raunchy, crude, irreverent and all-around delightful rap music. The Emerald might be able to print one-third of the band’s song titles without some kind of public uproar, and even those would be questionable. The 2 Live Crew is all about being “As Nasty As They Want to Be,” and without that kind of resource for nastiness, to whom do we turn?
The name on the tip of everybody’s tongue should be Spank Rock, the emcee behind some of the dirtiest lyrics since the 2 Live Crew boys hung up their spurs. And although Spank Rock may have a slightly more refined style of wordplay, a close listen will reveal that he knows how to be blunt and truly vulgar.
There is no one more fitting than Spank Rock to put out a record devoted to the pioneering efforts of the 2 Live Crew. The emcee teamed up with New York-based Benny Blanco to create “Spank Rock and Benny Blanco Are… Bangers & Cash,” a five-song EP full of some of the dirtiest rhymes ever to enter Spank Rock’s head.
Two of the tracks have titles most newspapers would not print, and that’s part of the beauty of “Bangers & Cash.” This is a fitting tribute, one Uncle Luke would probably be proud of, and it reflects the 2 Live Crew’s vulgar sensibilities right down to the album cover, which evokes 2 Live’s “As Nasty As They Wanna Be.” Tracks like “B.O.O.T.A.Y.” see Benny Blanco mimicking the fast, hi-hat heavy beats heard on 2 Live songs like “Face Down, Ass Up,” but updating them for a public tuning in 20 years later.
It’s a work of stunningly filthy art, and although the five songs may not all shine as bright as some of Spank Rock’s earlier work, or that of the 2 Live Crew for that matter, the EP brings out all the right emotions. Booty music isn’t an exact science, and these aren’t covers, so if Spank Rock’s usual cameo Amanda Blank’s vocal on “Loose” doesn’t seem like something 2 Live would have used, it probably isn’t. Will it make your booty bounce? Blank always does.
“Loose” and the aforementioned “B.O.O.T.A.Y.” are standouts for successfully mixing the nastiness into some dynamite wordplay, all laid over a couple of Benny Blanco’s finer instrumentals. If any track on the EP falls short, it is “Shake That,” which misses only in having mostly unexciting verses to support the hook. Even so, this is a record that gets its job done, and does it with a lot of style.
“Bangers & Cash” is the EP Spank Rock has had in him all along, and bringing Benny Blanco along on production helps this EP keep the tradition of obscenity that the 2 Live Crew perfected alive. Perhaps more importantly, it helped the 2 Live Crew find its way back into the media for a moment, opening up its body of work to a new group of listeners who may have passed over classic dirty rap. Whatever the response to this EP, Spank Rock has picked up 2 Live’s vulgar torch and is running with it, and that’s a good thing for anyone who’s sick of the clean versions of everything.
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