Mr. Eon's incarnation as Dick Starbuck (porno detective) on
Hi & Mighty's debut, B-Boy Document, may have ushered in
the Smut Peddlers' (Eon, Cage, and producer Mighty Mi) regime. However, the trio's debut,
Porn Again, takes hip-hop's skinz fetish to new extremes, as it is a collection based solely on the joys of crushing.
Though outlandish, the album is not blazing any new ground conceptually --
Too Short and
Kool Keith (among many) have been doing this for years. Yet, these ill reputes are an entirely different virus. Mr. Eon and Cage are the offspring of two twisted minds, as they commingle the straight sleaze of Larry Flynt with the unpolitically correct humor of
Howard Stern. Though the two offer a slew of highly-quotable material, their lyrical exchanges are largely ephemeral. While their volatile chemistry pays dividends on "Medicated Minutes" and Eon's solo cut "Diseases," their limited topic matter becomes predictably insipid over extended listens. While Mighty Mi's sparse arrangements (thick bass grooves, and uptempo drum beats) manages to adequately highlight Eon and Cage's insatiable sexual appetite. His stark minimalist boardwork here offers few surprises, as it is largely unassuming and untypically reserved. The Smut Peddlers do deliver a few less gratuitous offerings;
RA the Rugged Man makes an impressive cameo on the cellar-dwelling "Bottom Feeders," and "One By One (Revamped)" picks up where
Hi & Mighty left off. Yet,
Porn Again is not unlike any other guilty pleasure we habitually engage in; one that supplies momentary bouts of bliss, but with the accompanying dreaded morning-after side effects. Romance truly is dead! ~ Matt Conaway