In early ’99 Smut Peddlers released their first single One by One b/w The Whole Repertoire. Now they are finally gearing up to drop their full-length album Porn Again this winter courtesy of Rawkus Records. Fans of their prior work will recognize a few of the cuts on the new album, however each of those cuts have been re-mastered and contain a couple new verses. However, the updated recordings tend to lose the flavor that made the originals fresh.
The album begins with a pointless introduction of the crew by Beetlejuice (of Howard Stern fame). For the first few songs the beats will have your head nodding even if you are not feeling the lyrical content of the MCs. The highlight of the first half of the album is Josie. Mr. Eon and Cage spit rhymes back and forth about their sexual experiences with Josie in vintage Smut Peddler fashion over a nicely composed Mighty Mi beat. Unfortunately, the album does not contain more theme-based songs like this one and begins to hit a dry spell with That’s Smut. Although it has an up-tempo beat it fails to keep your head moving. Thankfully familiar cuts such as One by One and My Rhyme Aint Done 2000 bring you out of the short lull.
Overall the album is not bad. From the title its obvious that the material isn’t going to be very deep, instead it will probably be offensive to some and uninteresting to others. While the album isn’t groundbreaking, Cage and Eon compliment each other well and Mighty Mi provides quality beats. The lyrics tend to be redundant simply supplying us with more of what we have heard in the past from Eon and Cage. If nothing else the MCs should be commended on their ability to hold down the album on their own and not falling into the trend of having a million and one guest mcs. I’d listen to this LP simply to hear the interlude Beat + Box’s. In the most creative use of porn on a record, beat boxes are laid over porno movie background sounds to create brand new beats. It would have been interesting if some of those beats were used for one of the songs.
I would give this album 3 records out of 5. If you are a fan of High and Mighty and Cage then this album should not disappoint you. Go and get Porn Again.
