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I am, and have always been, the
world's best audience. When I was in grade school, the class
clown would always make sure that I was witness to his cutups. I
would laugh, and get in trouble twice: once for laughing, and
once for refusing to reveal the source of my merriment. I have
never outgrown this. I ruined a First Communion one year by
chortling with laughter when one of my sons pointed out a young
lad who had seen fit to bring Garbage Pail Kid cards into
church. And I'll occasionally laugh when my four year old does
something crude at an inappropriate time, despite the
admonitions of my wife that I only encourage the bad behavior by
doing so.
So here I am, endorsing Bad
Ronald's CD full of cheerfully obscene rhyming, dissing, and
doggerel. I'm not a fan of rap; too much of it is repetitive,
full of misguided and misdirected anger and violence, like some
weird cartoon soundtrack put together by homicidal three year
olds.
Bad Ronald, however, is just
plain funny. Comprised of three MCs and one great, great d.j.,
Bad Arnold (named after a 1970s horror movie so bad it's good)
rises above the genre yet remains firmly tethered to it. Their
beats are catchy and full of hooks, and their lyrics and rhymes
have some thought behind 'em light years beyond the "smack
you, bitch" mentality so prevalent in the genre. Don't
misunderstand me; you're not gonna play Bad Ronald in front of
yo' mama, but you 'll play it for your homies over and over
again.
You'll be laughing too hard to
catch it all the first time through. Is the subject matter
crude? Sure; however, Benjamin Franklin wrote doggerel that was
just as base, and just as funny, for a lot of the same reasons.
Bad Ronald hooks the listener
every time, especially on tracks like "Let's Begin"
and "Popcorn Titties" (maybe the ultimate putdown song
of all time) with catchy, nursery rhyme-simple choruses that
likely will have the target laughing while feeling insulted.
There's a lot of dissin' going on here, sure, but violence
doesn't seem to enter into Bad Ronald's psyche. Bad Ronald will
leave them laughing --but leave, they will. On the other hand,
BR is hardly the romantic type. While "I Need Love"
might start out on the smooth tip, it's a fooler. BR gets down
to business in no time.
Love isn't exactly what is needed
here. At least it's honest. When BR begins to describe---quite
graphically---what he needs in a woman (or women) we all
understand. It's at the heart of our base desires. The raps are
only half of the story, however.
Bad Ronald has gone back to the
lesson taught by Run-DMC and Tone-Loc so long ago: if the
rapping doesn't get you, the grooves will. These guys are
influenced by funk-heavy rock such as the Chili Peps ("All
A Dream") and George Clinton ("EZ Decision")
among others. There is also "Delivery," a phone prank
track that will undoubtedly be used to harass Chinese take out
restaurants all over the country during the next several months.
They'll probably never have a clue as to the origin.
I don't think you're going to
hear much of Bad Ronald on the radio or on BET, not unless they
clean it waaay up. This could well be, however, one of those
CDs, like 2 Live Crew's efforts of over a decade ago, that sells
like crazy without any airplay. It may even introduce a new
phrase or two to the vernacular. And while I can't endorse the
language, fair is fair. This may be one of the best Rap CDs of
the past five years. You'll wake up in the middle of the night
with his beats running through your head for weeks on end. And
you'll be singing along as well.
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| Artist |
Bad Ronald |
| Title |
Bad Ronald |
| Label |
Reprise |
| Reviewer |
Joe Hartlaub |
| Rating |
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| win stuff |
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