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Spank Rock
 "It's about saying what you need to say to get the crowd most excited." That's MC Naeem Juwan bestowing upon us the key to Spank Rock's approach to hip-hop that has seen the group become globally recognised as some of the world's best party starters. Breaking through in 2006 with the LP 'YoYoYoYoYo', Philadelphia's Spank Rock present a fresh approach to the whole rap thang.
Musically the group presents a melange of party cuts lacquered in low-end (compressed) electro, with Juwan's blurring rhymes of crass sex appeal running over the top.
"You know lately the line I've been using to get the crowd most excited is from Loose and goes 'let me get that titty fuck!' So there I am at our shows just going 'Let me get that titty fuck, let me get that titty fuck'," Juwan continues as he starts giggling with a warm nervousness.
With the world currently enraptured in crossover scenes it comes as no surprise how widely accepted Spank Rock have become, despite their crassness. Although initially embraced by hip-hop club audiences back in Philly, it didn't take long for Spank Rock to be widely recognised and taken under the wing of the Hollertronix Collective that is led by DJ/Producer Diplo (who famously worked with M.I.A, among others).
Spank Rock's latest effort is the 'Bangers & Cash' EP, which is almost a side project for Juwan as he's working with a new producer rather than the rest of the group. Musically, it's full of party-inciting rhymes and Ÿber-cool fuzzy compressed beats courtesy of DJ Benny Blanco, a 19 year old production virtuoso who earned his stripes under Detroit's genius mash-up DJ, Disco D.
Juwan's inspiration for the 'get-a-reaction-lyrics' featured on both 'Bangers & Cash' and 'YoYoYoYoYo' are the original party rappers, 2 Live Crew.
During the late 1980s, 2 Live Crew were the most banned rap group in the US thanks to their lyrics steeped in sexual imagery, which famously resulted in the group being arrested on obscenity charges in 1990.
So profound has 2 Live Crew's inspiration been that four out of the five tracks on Bangers & Cash EP feature 2 Live Crew samples (with the fifth taking a lick from NWA) and even the EP's cover is a skewed reference to the Crew's notorious 1989 album 'Nasty As They Wanna Be'.
Juwan explains his admiration for hip-hop's original crude posse. "The awesome thing about 2 Live Crew is that it comes from the original aspects of hip-hop which was all about the DJing and you've just got your MC kind of hyping up the crowd. You know Luke [Skyywalker. Manager and later MC with the group] and the rest of 2 Live stuck to the formula of 'what can we say out of our mouths that'll get the crowd most excited'. You know if you start chanting 'face down, ass up, that's the way we like to fuck' you're gonna get a reaction."
This admiration of 2 Live Crew's originality came from a disillusionment with the ego and self admiration that plague mainstream rap and hip-hop.
"I used to look up to a lot of different rap artists and think 'aw, these people are the greatest human beings on earth, I really want to be like them', but I've started realising it's a lot of bullshit."
Juwan extrapolates on this rejection of the rap-norm; "I'm not gonna pose on the front of 'Rolling Stone' dressed as Jesus Christ [which Kanye West did in January this year]. I'm just building my house and if y'all want to come in and enjoy it than you can."
This summer Juwan is bringing his house out to Australia, but how does he feel about filling it with a bunch of indie kids with fluorescent hats?
"You know when I first started making my own sound I presented it to an independent group of kids who were out partying in Philly who would go to hip-hop clubs, go to the indie rock parties and be into Sixties & Seventies stoner punk. That is an audience very similar to the scene in European and Australia indie crowd so it isn't a big crossover for me."
Dan Watt
Spank Rock play at The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on Wed 9 Jan.
Spank Rock and Benny Blanco's 'Bangers & Cash' EP will be available through Inertia in January.
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