2 Live Crew - Move Somethin' (CD)

All Music Guide

Although the 2 Live Crew's debut album, 2 Live Is What We Are, went gold and sold more than 500,000 copies in the U.S., the LP wasn't without its detractors. Some New York hiphoppers argued that Luther Campbell and his associates were pandering to the lowest common denominator, and everyone from church groups to feminists argued that their Xrated booty rhymes were nothing more than pornography with a beat. But the Crew's fans didn't care what their critics had to say, which is why their second album, Move Somthin', was also a big seller. Anyone who found 2 Live Is What We Are offensive was unlikely to be converted by Move Somthin'; booty rhymes like "HBC," "One and One" (an Xrated interpretation of the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night") and "SM" are as crude and sexually explicit as anything on the group's previous album. "SM," as its title indicates, is an ode to kinky sex. The 2 Live Crew was hardly the first group to address the subject of bondage and sadomasochism back in 1967..., the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" was among the kinkier rock songs of its day. Some of the Ohio Players' preMercury album covers employed SM/bondage imagery, and the 1980s heavy metal band Bitch had a female lead vocalist who loved to sing about the pleasures of being a whiptoting dominatrix. But kinky sex hasn't been a prominent subject in hiphop, and "SM" is unusually kinky for rap. Of course, the Crew didn't need to rap about whips and chains to offend people; even without "SM," this LP would have been Xrated. Move Somthin' was trashed by the Crew's critics, but those who aren't offended by Xrated humor will find it to be a thoroughly entertaining sophomore effort. Alex Henderson, All Music Guide Read more Less