In a long and filthy lineage that extends back to 2 Live Crew, through NWA and even Snoop Dog, Black Nasty is a despicable homophobic misogynist potty mouth rapper who loves to shock. In fact he seems like a product of all of the above who spits and intones all white boy bravado like Eminem. He’s a hip hop baby, who’s grown up with his views skewed from an early age, yet the content is heightened for now, as in 2009 you don’t just bag bitches, no, you make them eat out your anus (How’s My Shit Taste?) or hit them with the three hole punch (Three Hole Punch).
Shark Tank is overwhelming in its seedy wrongness. It’s so knowingly shocking and offensive that a nervous helpless giggle is almost the only reaction left, as Black Nasty overwhelms the listener with a seemingly unending barrage of puerile, imaginative and disgusting taboos. It’s the kind of music that after listening you feel like you need to wash. The music is pretty simple, basic beats, knowingly bare, knowingly crap. But it doesn’t matter, it’s all about Black Nasty’s dexterous potty rhymes.
I like to think that this album is parody, heightening and giving explicit voice to some of the more despicable and misogynist elements currently bouncing around not only hip hop, but even top 40 music. Yet I can’t be sure. On Eazy, cleverly using the Lionel Richie music, he comes clean, it’s all about Eazy E (NWA), perhaps the sleaziest rapper ever, who taught Black Nasty that “bitches aint shit.” At least that explains why he keeps bragging that he has HIV. Incredibly Bonnie Prince Billy appears on this track, and earlier Ariel Pink also pops up to lend a wail and a little dose of much needed credibility. But Black Nasty is having way too much fun with this, how else would you explain skits about a person pleasuring themselves whilst pretending to be a rape hotline pressing for explicit details of the assault, or the sadistic and violent tone of the final third of the album?
If you’re after juvenile, imaginative, morally questionable and very distasteful genital humour then this little hand grenade may be too much for you. It takes all of this and then raises it about 1000 percent until even your casual sex offender starts to feel a little uncomfortable. Hopefully that’s the point.
Bob Baker Fish
