Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

Consumer Guide:
  User's Guide
  Grades 1990-
  Grades 1969-89
  And It Don't Stop
Books:
  Book Reports
  Is It Still Good to Ya?
  Going Into the City
  Consumer Guide: 90s
  Grown Up All Wrong
  Consumer Guide: 80s
  Consumer Guide: 70s
  Any Old Way You Choose It
  Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
Xgau Sez
Writings:
  And It Don't Stop
  CG Columns
  Rock&Roll& [new]
  Rock&Roll& [old]
  Music Essays
  Music Reviews
  Book Reviews
  NAJP Blog
  Playboy
  Blender
  Rolling Stone
  Billboard
  Video Reviews
  Pazz & Jop
  Recyclables
  Newsprint
  Lists
  Miscellany
Bibliography
NPR
Web Site:
  Home
  Site Map
  Contact
  What's New?
    RSS
Carola Dibbell:
  Carola's Website
  Archive
CG Search:
Google Search:
Twitter:

Playboy Music

I can't confirm reports that the title cut of Zevon's Sentimental Hygiene is a safe-sex anthem, because as far as I can tell, the lyric doesn't come near sex with a ten-foot metaphor. But with Neil Young's guitar screaming out the solo and Zevon's keyboard grinding out the hook, I don't much care--even the weakest songs here have lines that will come back to you in the night. But for a safe-sex anthem, try flat-out bad boy Kool Moe Dee. Formerly one of the Treacherous Three, the baddest rappers never to break out of New York City, Moe Dee is so bad, he doesn't even call himself bad--prefers something clearer, such as The Best. And rarely, if ever, has a one-man rap album moved like Kool Moe Dee (Jive). The electronic percussion generates a hard, jaunty, out-of-kilter swing, and Moe Dee doesn't let it just lie there--trick rhymes, variable lengths, filters, double tracks, sung refrains and the occasional extra instrument all work to shift the beat without ever undercutting its dominance. Moe Dee has the vocabulary to match these techniques; but on the street hit Go See the Doctor, he minces no words: "The poontang was dope," he admits, but now he's "drip-drip-drippin' and pus-pus-pussin'," so all future pros--check with an M.D. before they check with Moe Dee. No "Dumb Dick" he.

Playboy, Sept. 1987


Aug. 1987 Oct. 1987