Black Eyed Peas -- Monkey Business
Artist: Black Eyed Peas
Album: Monkey Business
Genre: Hip-Hop
A special shout out to "Waffles the Magical Music Pimp" for hooking me up with this album a few days before it's release. (That's today, in case you didn't know, New albums, movies and the like are released on Tuesdays.)
Ahhh, I'm a big big fan of the Black Eyed Peas. I own the premiere album "Elephunk" and it gets some serious rotation in my "random" selections on my laptop. I love the multiculturalism embraced by the band and the funky, catchy beats that the Peas shell out like mad. (Heehee.) Monkey Business is no exception, sampling funk like mad, and including artists like James Brown, Justin Timberlake, Cee-Lo, John Legend, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Jack Johnson and surprisingly enough, Sting. (Even the sexual tantric highlord of England isn't excluded from working with this talented quartet.) This, to me is wonderful. I love the mingling of genres, I love the crossing over of generations regarding musical style. I love how Funk is being brought back into music again as a new, contemporary, hybrid genre with Hip hop. It makes Linds happy.
Monkey Business starts off with the song "Pump It" and if you want raucous funk, this is it. Viciously sampling the song "Miserlou" by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (most recognizable from the introductory Pumpkin and Hunni-bunny scene in Pulp Fiction) turning the beach inspired tune into a latin sounding funk-laden creation that my ears fucking applauded over. Seriously. Fergie just WAILS on this album, and I love her voice. (As I recall, the first time I ever heard her, I thought that it was something that Pink had produced that actually sounded GOOD. *smirks*) It had me wanting to shake my booty. They started the album with a very successful, addictive tune. Expect this song as one of my selections on my inaugural Glamazon Shoes podcast, when I figure out how the fuck to get it going. (Possibly within the next month in a half, when Apple incorporates it into the iTunes Player, so it doesn't take me 20 minutes to get applications on my G4 powerbook set up to record something each time. I'm technologically capable, but I'm still relatively new to macs, and not a genius, dammit.)
What better to follow it up with than "Don't Phunk With My Heart" which has been played ad-nauseum already on my local radio station for the past month and a half. Fergie sounds like a little baby-doll, which is perhaps why I don't really empathize with this song all that much. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but she's got phenomenal vocals, and I don't feel like she's using them to her full capability. On the other hand, if I compared her to Amy Lee from Evanescence, or Chad Kroeger from Nickelback, at least Fergie makes an attempt to sound different in different songs.
Justin Timberlake makes an appearance on this album in the song "My Style", which isn't shocking, considering how much he's contributed to the B.E.P.'s ascending fame. It starts off sounding rather like a gospel song, with the "Lawd have Mercy's" and then the Peas blast off into typical funkdom.
"Don't Lie" is another one that The Beat has been playing on the radio lately, and I love love LOVE the harmonies in the chorus. For such a lyrically dark song, the song is light and breezy. I like the line "In my book of lies I was the editor, and the author, I forged my signature" I found that very clever lyrically, evoking a nice visual in my head.
The song "My Humps" had me laughing to near tears on the bus, the beat similar to "Push it" by Salt n' Pepa, and a myriad of other early 90's hip-hop. Fergie goes on about her "humps" and her "lovely lady lumps." It's an atypical song about tits and ass, and it has me grinning like an idiot. Some of the lyrics should just be breezed over, mainly because they don't make all that much sense. I also like the line "What you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your trunk?" Fergie does indeed have a wicked body, unfortunately, she chooses to garb it in a rather... Interesting... manner. Oftentimes making her look a mixture of both far too skinny, and frumpy at the same time. (That image is courtesy of Gofugyourself.com)
"Like That" sounds like the B.E.P's went and borrowed bits and pieces of the new Mariah Carey song "It's Like That" and most likely, they did. I'm not surprised, considering that the Hip Hop and R&B community do a lot of collaboration and use a lot of the same writers for lyrics. I just think they could have made parts of it sound a little LESS like Mariah's. I enjoy how they incorporate strings into a large part of the songs they make, even if it's just subtle in the background. "Dum Diddley" is very Reggae influenced, while still very funky. "Feel It" is as close to a ballad as the B.E.P's get in this album, and even at that, it's fast paced and mildly energetic.
The immortal James Brown steps in for the song "They Don't Want Music"(They Don't Know How To Use It.) It's sassy, and has some typical James Brown "Uuuuhn!" and "HAH!"'s as well as some of his "PLAY THEM HORNS!" which I always find enjoyable.
On the all, I might seem like I'm criticizing this album a lot, but the Black Eyed Peas are a fun, funky band that is meant to play at parties. They're a band that you want to shake your booty to, and this album is light, breezy and fun, which, I would assume is the goal of the entire album. They passed with flying colours.
On a Glamazon Shoe rating of FIVE shoes, I give the Black Eyed Peas "Monkey Business" a 4.75/5 shoes. Go pick up this album because your guaranteed to go shake your booty all summer long. Fo shizzle.
Coming up in the next few installments, the new Coldplay album "X & Y", and the new White Stripes album "Get Behind Me Satan".
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