It has been a busy long weekend,
and it is only half over. Today is the most hallowed day in the sports
calendar, Super Bowl Sunday, and Sheila’s team (the Carolina Panthers) has a
chance to win it all. It is pretty damned exciting.
But before we get to that
excitement let’s refocus on what this blog is all about – music! On Friday I
managed to secure my latest musical obsession on CD: Eleanor Friedberger.
Friedberger is one half of the experimental indie band “The Fiery Furnaces” but
her solo stuff is very different with a Jenny Lewis alt-pop feel to it. Check her
out if you get a chance. Now, on to the review!
Disc 828 is….Sex Packets
Artist: Digital
Underground
Year of Release: 1990
What’s up with the Cover? Rappers be stylin’. I really want
the one guy’s zebra striped hat. I could totally rock that. The glowing blue
square he’s holding is the titular “sex packet.” It’s a mythical drug that
knocks you out and gives you the experience of having sex with the person (or
persons) pictured on the package.
Interesting
factoid: one of these guys is Tupac Shakur, who was in Digital Underground at
this time. I don’t know which guy as I’m not much of a Tupac fan.
How I Came To Know It: A number of my friends own this
album. Years ago we’d sometimes go back to someone’s house after a night at the
pub and listen to music, and choice tracks from “Sex Packets” were often
selected. A couple of years ago I saw a copy on sale for cheap and bought it.
How It Stacks Up: Digital Underground made a few albums over the
nineties, but this is the only one I have, so it can’t really stack up.
Ratings: 4 stars
Rap act Digital Underground will forever be remembered
for “The Humpty Dance” but “Sex
Packets” has a lot more to offer than one hit song.
This record is an innovative record that combines
traditional rapping and scratching with jazz, pop and even brings in elements
of a concept album. Also, it is damned funky and damned funny in equal measure.
It all starts with “The Humpty Dance” which was a pretty big hit back in my clubbing days.
I once saw a whole dance floor of folks attempting to do the Humpty Dance in
lines. Given these in-song instructions…
“First I limp to the side like my
leg was broken
Shakin' and twitchin' kinda like
I was smokin'
Crazy whack funky
People say ‘ya look like M.C.
Hammer on crack, Humpty!’
That's all right 'cause my body's
in motion
It's supposed to look like a fit
or a convulsion
Anyone can play this game
This is my dance, y'all, Humpty
Hump's my name
No two people will do it the same
Ya got it down when ya appear to
be in pain.”
…you’d expect the dance floor was pretty chaotic,
but it was surprising how cohesive it all looked. Maybe it is because the
groove is so irresistible that it fills you with rhythm even while you’re
convulsing.
There are a whole series of amazing tracks on “Sex
Packets.” “The Way We Swing” and “Rhymin’ on the Funk” are both groovy
tracks that also make you want to dance. “Rhymin’
on the Funk” borrows heavily from Parliament’s “Flash Light,” paying homage to the original song while making
something totally new through very clever sampling. When anti-sampling laws
came along a couple years later they squelched this kind of innovation and it
is a damned shame.
Unfortunately the album does have some unnecessary filler.
If the late eighties curse was bad production, the early nineties gave us
albums that were too long, particularly rap albums. Artists realized they had
more time under the new format and were determined to use it. “Sex Packets” is
14 songs and 65 minutes long, but it should be about 10 songs and 45 minutes,
with the surplus left in the studio.
“The New Jazz
(One)” has samples of jazz piano and some innovative scratching but it just
didn’t appeal to me. “Gutfest ‘89” is
a Frank Zappa-like skit about an imaginary concert tour. Both songs didn’t
appeal and stripped out some of the energy the album had built up to that point.
Fortunately, the end of the record starts to recover
with the down n’ dirty “Freaks of the
Industry” which features a crazy sex scene complete with two multiple
choice quizzes, the first of which presents the following problem:
“…A'ight, here's the scene:
You're lying on your back with
your head on the edge of the bed,
The booty's two feet from your
head:
Should you: A, take the time to
find a condom,
B, you walk right over and you
pound 'em,
C, tell her that you want her
love,
Well the answer is D, (D), all of
the above.”
In the middle of “Freaks of the Industry” some jazz piano inserts itself, but it is
so cleverly done it feels totally natural. The piano gets the accompaniment of
some subtle scratching and a back beat that makes it ten times better. If only
all jazz piano got this treatment.
The last five tracks on the record combine to tell
the story of the titular “Sex Packets” and turn this part of the album into a
concept piece. It reminded me of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Secret Treaties” and the
Who’s “Who’s Next” as albums which are part concept records and part singles.
For those other two albums, it happened because one member of the band wanted
to do a concept record, and so the band relented and included part of it. I
wonder if the same thing happened on “Sex Packets” but I didn’t find anything
to prove the theory. Certainly the album’s self-proclaimed philosophy is that
you should “Doowatchalike” so maybe
this is just them practicing what they preach.
Whatever the case, “Sex Packets” is a rap album that
has stood the test of time and still sounds fresh and musically interesting 25
years after its release. If you like rap, there’s a good chance you’ll like
this.
Best
tracks: The Humpty Dance, The Way We Swing, Rhymin’ On
the Funk, Freaks of the Industry, Packet Man
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