Various Artists "Loud Rocks" (2000)

 

Here's one for my youth! Loud Rocks is a Hip Hop & Metal crossover record I'm somewhat flabbergasted to have not discovered years back. Release around the peak of aggression in the millennium music scene, dictated largely by MTV, it features popular Nu Metal bands and Rap artists collaborating in varying shades of success and failure. I'd actually heard a few of these from the Napster mp3 trading days, for example Wu-Tang Clan linking up with System Of A Down and Tom Morello to perform their songs in a metallic context. How I'd not learned of the record is beyond me.

The brief 90s Rap and Nu Metal collision was a strange affair yet the holly grail of my youth... If done right, a rare occurrence. I think the crown might belong to Cypress Hill with the second, metallic, half of Skull & Bones. Most other crossovers are novel and occasionally decent but Loud Rocks mostly seems conceived to serve a niche through remixing Rap tracks, often giving the stems to an artist to re-arrange and work in metallic elements. I think Wu-Tang are the only exception, however the remix of one of their finest tracks, For Heaven's Sake, is handed over to Black Sabbath for a strange mix of two sounds that clash awkwardly with sudden eruptions of dense distortion guitars and Ozzy singing that simply cannot resolve to the mood of its rap verses.

Xzibit seems to have the most success. Something about his tone and cadence mixes well with guitars. His songs too have a meaner demeanor allowing the original samples to blend. Far from fantastic yet hearing Sevendust and Endo scream out his chorus hooks had a little gratification. Hardcore legends Sick Of It All bring an interesting touch to the Mobb Deep sound, however its sense of rhythm often looses the lyrical cadence. Everlast reworking Shook Ones Part II might be the albums one solid track, however it plays more like a moodier incarnation than anything metallic.

With the Rap Metal era being so disliked, this record will sound like trash to most. My observations on its various chemistries were simply a vent on my curiosities. I wanted this long forgotten musical movement to work out so bad, however the reality is very little of it did. Discovering another piece of the picture will always be a delight for me, even if the fruits of collaboration were far and few between. In the case of Loud Rocks, it mostly feels forced to serve an audience. A fun listen but I'll move on swiftly.

Rating: 4/10

Crazy Town "Gift Of Game" (1999)

Listening to "That's Not Metal" Nu Metal podcast special had me curious about how bad a record could be. Back in the boom period of the genre, Crazy Town's "Butterfly" was a song you couldn't get away from and I have fond, humorous memories of my friends mocking the song and band. I didn't mind the song much myself but it occurred to me I have never heard anything beyond it. That single alone carried the record to platinum sales and given the podcast duos angry musings on how awful it was I decided I could endure a little punishment. Given my fondness of the era and tolerance for Rap Metal I got a kick from of the record that Id never expect of anyone else. Even if some aspects were enjoyable in the first half of the record, the lyrical obnoxiousness and cheapness dragged it to the gutter and once you've past the single track its clear the bands ideas becoming exhausting.

Before we get to the tripe it should be said that the guitar sound, despite being generic for the time, does have some punch and bounce about it. The occasional riff is able to muster some interest and the drummer holds a reasonable beat. I quite liked some of the experimentation with various influences, synthesized vocal lines, Funk and Disco grooves, effect washed acoustics. Unfortunately these reasonable aspects are dragged down by the frankly appalling front men Binzer and Mazur.

The duo's raps are a constant bombardment of cheap, sleazy, thuggish braggadocios. They sound like sex creepers as many misogynistic lyrics show they have very little regard for anyone but themselves. There attitude says lyrical gangsters, yet all the street talk comes of sour, a lot of hot air spat between blunt tongue cursing. Its trashy, the two have passable flows but their tones are nasal, sharp and repelling, word play is cheap and stuck in the past with obvious, simplistic rhymes often arrive to at a great stretch of the path.

The last few songs start to take on a Beastie Boys persona, throwing it back a decade with a sampling of the classic PSK, deploying a faster old school flow. Unfortunately the legendary KRS-One becomes a casualty, lured into the studio to get involved in the Metal Hip Hop crossover. Seems he drew the shortest straw, his presence is by far the best thing the record has to offer. Crazy Town represent the worst of Nu Metals corporate days. If there is a passable record here, its drowned by the nauseating presences of the two "rappers" and their self centered antics.

Rating: 2/10