Lil Jon & East Side Boyz

Crunk Juice

Crunk, Crazy and... Open Minded?

Review Score:

(8/10)
I'm so tired of hearing people hate on Lil Jon- it's always people stuck in an old school or underground hiphop timewarp. Those cat's time has come and gone, and now the South is back so DEAL WITH IT. Granted, Lil Jon is rather repetitive in his vocal work and the topics fall right in line with the dirtiest of the dirty south, but his production is some of the hottest out there.

I'm very impressed to see his open mindedness to work with other producers and experiment musically- Rick Rubin's track with a metal sample is one of the angriest to come around in a while and Lil Jon's vocals actually fit perfectly. The Neptunes track is a banger with Lil Jon showing tribute to Miami Bass classics, and a Go-Go track "Aw Skeet Skeet" adds even more variety to this rather interesting album. "The Blow" is my favorite track, as Lil Jon pays his respect to Three Six Mafia's role in the return of the south by rapping alongside Gangsta Boo about doing a whole lot of drugs, which I always enjoy in a good dirty south track.

The one flaw in this album is that Lil Jon's vocals alone are not really enough to carry the songs where he is the focus. On the Neptunes track his booty bass call and responses get a little annoying, and I could do with less Lil Jon yelling on the album as a whole. But I'm a huge fan, so I can't complain too much.

And a message for all the haters: Dirty South is not SUPPOSED to be intellectual, about NYC hiphop culture in the 80's and 90's, or include verses that talk about neutrons and vortexes like underground "science" MC's. So if you don't like crunk, don't listen to it! You obviously don't get it... me, I'm going to sip my sizzurp and keep it dirty. Keep freezing up North....

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