Audio By Carbonatix
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Oh, where art hipper-than-thou Chromeo? Servicing a talk box with Bambi Woods-like smoothness, this Canadian couplet stars Vice magazine’s rap editor Dave 1 (he’s A-Trak’s older sibling) as a Casanova MC wannabe and his gold-grilled associate, Pee Thug, who chimes in with enough synths to power a Third World country. Two years ago the duo slid across the border with “You’re So Gangsta,” a swerving breakdown of sax and sex extravagance that was later reworked for Tiga’s lauded DJ-Kicks entry. It’s included on their debut, She’s in Control, alongside eight more stealthy top-down anthems like “Needy Girl.” The album is a fun and occasionally humorous tribute to lust and dancing for the Spider-Pussy set, sleek and sticky funk that should prove impossible to tune out until it becomes a boutique fashion statement.
That said, there is scant arguing that this shit is not disposable — it’s Eighties-era, 21st-century born-again dance music with less glitter and kitsch and more hetero-appeal than Junior Senior. Those into hardcore hip-hop or busy condemning everything Eighties as passé for the fifth time will find Chromeo noxious like a permed sister’s aerosol hairspray and should avoid it at all costs.
