The explosion of crunk music is obviously the cashing-in reason this compilation was put together, but thank your hedonistic, crunk juice-sipping butt it did. Collecting 15 sleazy, trashy, and horribly infectious party tunes,
Before There Was Crunk takes
Pitbull's "Crunk ain't nothing but bass music slowed down" quote to its extreme. There's very little of crunk's thuggish attitude here, but there is that out-of-control party vibe and the shouting chants crunk thrives on. Forget the album's concept, and you're left with one of the rowdier collections of bass music, one that recalls a time when booty was the thing. Highlights include
DJ Laz's strip club favorite "Get Your Ass off the Stage" ("If you ain't taking your clothes off/Get your ass off the stage!") and
Maestro's "Table Dance," which fans of
Howard Stern's radio show will instantly recognize. Despite being sourced primarily from Pandisc's back catalog and having no liner notes to draw the connection from bass music to crunk,
Before There Was Crunk is the kind of collection campy hedonists flip for and one of the better collections the iffy Pandisc has compiled.