Men are from Pluto and women from Jupiter. Fine. But after listening to
Bitch Betta Have My Money, one wonders if
AMG had ever actually experienced up-close and personal contact with any genuine members of the female species prior to recording his second effort. The music is -- not to put more of a fine a point on it than it deserves -- misogyny raised to the nth power. As sophomoric potty talk, offensive (tongue-in-cheek?) sexism, and blatant female-bashing goes, though, the album is fitfully amusing and more than mildly entertaining. Or rather, to be more precise, if you can bring yourself to swallow or overlook the more insulting vulgarities and self-styled roll-pimping -- not, it should be noted, an easy task at times, considering the extent of some of the nastiness --
Bitch Betta Have My Money is a far sight more diverting than the average
2 Live Crew horn-fest, partly because
AMG seems to include himself in the joke more often than not, and because
P-Funk-laced tunes like "The Vertical Joyride," "Mai Sista Izza Bitch" (on which
Boss delivers a decidedly non-dainty pimp-slap of her own), and the
DJ Quik-produced "Nu Exasize" are undeniably fonkay ear-candy. The album, on the other hand, is nowhere near as jocular or sociopolitically hard-hitting as either
N.W.A or
Ice-T -- or even
Sir Mix-A-Lot -- and it would be difficult to envision the impulse that would lead to selecting an
AMG album off the shelf before one of his musical superiors. That being said, the title track, in particular, is a classic bit of disrespectful smack-talk, and so obviously the artistic apex of
AMG's career that the rapper tried to bottle the magic once again a decade later with the far less memorable or successful
Bitch Betta Have My Money 2001. Cautiously recommended, then, if you collect locker-room gangsta rap, and so long as you also have access to a shower nearby. ~ Stanton Swihart