With three songs based around clips from the Chris Elliott sitcom "Get A Life," a phone call where Biz Markie sings part of the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" and a rambling testimonial from Father Guido Sard ucci, many will be tempted to write off Handsome Boy Modeling School as a joke. And it is a joke, but not in the way you might think. The brainchild of Chest Rockwell (Prince Paul) and Nathaniel Merriwether (Dan the Automator), the Handsome Boy Modeling School promises to teach applicants "to be a model - or just live like one!" After they're finished with you, "even your toes will be handsome!" It's an offer too good to pass up and Mike D, De La Soul, Sean Lennon, Brand Nubian, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, DJ Shadow and a host of others have enrolled in the program. Handsome Boy Modeling School reclaim the creative frontier of hip-hop, one satisfied customer at a time.
Prince Paul and the Automator combine their considerable production skills to create a series of wildly inventive soundscapes for their students to sing and rap over. They take bits of rock, noise and R&B and refract them all through the prism of hip-hop. It's Prince Paul and the Automator's genius that this music doesn't just signify, it conjugates - turning hip-hop into a verb on the opening track. "Rock n' Roll could never hip-hop like this!" a voice exclaims over a fuzzed out organ riff, hi- hat drum break and scratching.
In their universe, hip-hop encompasses popular music, not the other way around. The songs constantly shift between styles and moods. The sinister and atmospheric hip-hop of "Once Again" leads into "The Truth" , a lovely trip-hop torch song with seductively smoky vocals from Roison (of Moloko). This is immediately followed by the cut-up madness and in-your-face attitude of "Holy Calamity," featuring turntablist pyrotechnics from DJ Shadow and DJ Quest. In the spaced out "Metaphysical," Mike D grunts and stutters while Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto spouts an endless stream of non-sequitars about "inter-dimensional transglobal marketing schemes." And it works!
But the illest track is "Megaton B-Boy 2000" , where El-P and Alec Empire rage over a beat that sounds as though it was created by setting a drum machine on fire and allowing it to melt down. Bracingly abrasive. And these are just a few of the highlights. By making the guest stars serve the music (and not the other way around), Handsome Boy Modeling School keep the quality remarkably high throughout. Hot on the heels of his outstanding "hip-hopera," Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul is proving to be hip-hop's premier producer. And while I miss the single-minded insanity of Psychoanalysis (What Is It?) and the coherence that a story-line gave to Prince Among Thieves, So ... How's Your Girl? is more than just a good compilation. Paul and the Automator take the beautiful stars of today and transform them into specimens that are sometimes ugly, sometimes ridiculous, but always interesting.
Handsome Boy Modeling School reclaim the creative frontier of hip-hop, one satisfied customer at a time.
SONG LIST..From Yahoo!
1. Rock N' Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)
2. Magnetizing - (featuring Def Tha Funkee Homosapien)
3. Metaphysical (A Good Day) - (featuring Miho Hatori/Mike D)
4. Look At This Face (Oh My God They're Gorgeous)
5. Waterworld - (featuring Encore)
6. Once Again (Here To Kick One For You) - (featuring Grand Puba/Sadat X)
7. Truth, The - (featuring Roisin/J-Live)
8. Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II) - (featuring DJ Shadow/DJ Quest)
9. Calling The Biz
10. Projects (P Jays), The - (featuring Dave/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien)
11. Sunshine - (featuring Sean Lennon/Money Mark/Father Guido Sarducci/Josh Hayden/Paula Frazer)
12. Modeling Sucks
13. Torch Song Trilogy - (featuring Sensational)
14. Runaway Song, The - (featuring DJ Kid Koala)
15. Megaton B-Boy 2000 - (featuring Alec Empire/El-P)
16. Father Speaks - Father Guido Sarducci
Yahoo User rating: (5.0 out of 5)