Pop-punk is some funny shit. Some kid with electrolysis, trying to shove himself into his girlfriends pants and then taking a Myspace flick of himself crying when the jeans are too tight. It’s absolutely hilarious. It should make any warm-blooded human laugh, so quit complaining about how bad it is, punk-purist. The actual problem with the sub-genre is rooted in the fact that each band has an identical sound, style and band name. With an overabundance of indistinguishable whiny bands, it becomes harder for us all to laugh at each cookie cutter group. We need a new hysterical angle from punk teeny-boppers.
Fearless Records has met this demand. The people at the Westminster, California record label asked themselves “what ’s funnier than a pop-punk singer going through a rough break-up?” and the answer was “a pop-punk singer picking up mic and rapping”. And with that, Punk Goes Crunk was born. The album consists of 15 tracks of androgynous bands doing covers of rap and r&b. The dyed-hair sextet, Scary Kids Scaring Kids amputate everything thugly out of Notorious BIG’s “Notorious Thugs”. New Found Glory search through hip-hop history to find the only group as soft as they are and choose to cover Arrested Development’s “Tennessee”. The Maine figured out that emo is essentially r&b for white teenagers and steal the compilation with their rendition of Akon’s “I Wanna Love You”.
Although it’s doubtful that anyone involved in the project knows what crunk actually is–the only real crunk song on the album is “Put Yo Hood Up” originally by Lil Jon–the record nonetheless provides a new silo of ammunition for jokes on pop-punk aficionados. The Devil Wears Prada’s performance of the Big Tymer’s “Still Fly” may even give a pop-punk kid the confidence needed after being dumped by his ex-girlfriend. This just goes to show, Punk Goes Crunk has the capability to make everybody happy, whether you choose to let the emo-mane drop across your face or poke fun at people who make such a bad decision. -Idris Intifada
