Spank Rock and Benny Blanco
Bangers & Cash: The Adventures of Spank Rock and Benny Blanco

Downtown Records 2007

By Tiffany Rainey

It’s hard to listen to MC Spank Rock’s first stab at going semi-solo (sans Xxxchange, Darko and Devlin yet maxing out on rest of the B-More fam) without images of the self-proclaimed ‘spot rocker’ thrashing and, yes, thrusting about on some dingy stage strobed out. Every hike in tempo, drop in bass and horizontal cut of electro in Bangers & Cash, a salivating homage to 2 Live Crew produced by Benny Blanco, probably already has the MC mentally choreographing how, exactly, he’ll have the hipster femmes squeezing out of their high-waisted hot shorts. This EP, in short, is a Spank Rock party on vinyl—raunchy and superfluous hype-kinetic enough to keep you listening just long enough to realize this dude might be on to something. Then you find yourself up in the mix (maybe spraying malt liquor and throwing birthday cake somewhere in Miami?) only to surface from the haze a few days later vague recalling whether he ever actually performed. Bangers & Cash is more music for the best moments you’ll probably never remember.

But the first track makes you think you stumbled into the wrong party. “Bitch!” evaporates any trace of day-glo residue still hanging around from YoYoYoYoYo. The sound is dark and swaggering—more Three 6 Mafia bravado than 2 Live Crew booty shake—with verses that could easily be excerpts from the diary of a depressed indie gangsta if such a thing could actually exist. Whispered chants of “club killer” make you want to shank the skinny fuck that keeps scuffing your shoes.

Heavy.

It’s easy to see where Spank Rock’s going with this and it’s not working. As a single it could have solid banger potential but on the EP it only rains on the Miami Bass parade. Did you bring an umbrella?

The lightweight levity of “Pu$$y” (the only track off the EP not pre-released on MySpace and assigned a vagina-accessorized WWF animal caricature) delivers in a way much easier to swallow when you’ve had one too many. Spank Rock waxes vicious about one back-stabbing cheerleader bitch while female counterpart Amanda Blank calls out dudes too lazy to come correct with their game. The “We Want Some Pussy” backbeat keeps the familiarity and momentum. This is the track that will have tanked scenesters falling all over themselves in an effort to climb on stage and sing along.

But, if anything on this EP can really fuck with the Luke legacy, it’s “BOOTAY” featuring Santogold and Illvia. Riding one of those tricky tempos for dropping and popping against everyone’s best interest, Spank Rock and Santogold work their way through the positions (including the oft-forgotten titty fuck) with quick-fire wit. Riding the line between seduction and degradation, the alternating verses feed off each other to comprise a track of dirty pillow talk worthy of a street walker or just your garden variety bottle whore. “From the club to the bed, brown bag on your head” is classic.

What remains of Bangers & Cash is exactly what you’d expect from the EP that finally concretes the cross-pollination between Bass and B-More that the current crop has been toying with since day one. Though maybe not as nasty as you wanted it to be, it’s definitely not something you’re dying to see your ‘tween sister shaking it to at a sleepover. Spank Rock and Benny Blanco take over-played classics, spike them with Sparks and spit them back with a deftness and precision almost wasted on the partiers that will pack indie venues. Fledging promoters and DJs all over should be bowing down right about now.

This discourse of Spank Rock and Benny Blanco's Bangers & Cash is written byTiffany Rainey for ignore Magazine, copyright 2007.