The cover art identifies this five-song EP as a tribute to 2 Live Crew and the bass-heavy Miami hip-hop sound, and it raises some interesting questions. Does the post-modern act of appropriation somehow separate the words from their meaning? When I felt charitable toward 2 Live Crew, I could hear the over-the-top, hostile demands and boasts about sex as an extreme version of “Yo momma” jokes, but Spank Rock and Benny Blanco don’t get that kind of cultural slack. It’s hard not to see the EP as the duo enjoying being, well, nasty as they want to be, then passing it off as a goof or a pastiche.

 

And is getting moralistic about Bangers & Cash an overreaction? Nothing about the EP suggests a world view, nor really even an attempt to cash in on something (most of the songs were disseminated free via mp3 blogs and on the streets at CMJ in New York City recently). More than anything else, it seems like the product of two people who wanted to say the unsayable. Since I was never particularly impressed with 2 Live Crew’s beats, I’m more entertained by the huge grooves here, which bring the peeler bar to you. I’ll call it an awkward pleasure for now.