Juicy J - Stay Trippy - Music & Performance - CD

With booty, drugs, and booty as his muse combined with his crunk style of rapping (Redd Foxx meets Too $hort, or something like that), Three 6 Mafia member Juicy J was in a rut right around the time of his second song. Strip the music of the dark, horror show angle that Mafia member Project Pat brought on board and that's narrow as it gets, and with irresponsible, misogynist lyrics like -- brace yourself -- "She treat my d*ck like a pistol, I treat her face like a target" overflowing out of Juicy, anything that carries his name is certifiably trashy, and maybe even trash. Still, like Too $hort before him, Juicy can pull a ridiculous amount of inspiration out of porno and psychedelics, and while most of the grime has been wiped away on this high-definition album, Juicy's new home on Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang imprint adds new life to this brown paper bag music. First bit of evidence came in the 2012, Mike Will Made-It-produced "Bandz a Make Her Dance" ("She start twerkin' when she hear a song/Stripper pole her income"), which lands here in all its sexy, snaky glory, but when producer Dr. Luke -- also an executive producer of the album -- presents the pop side of cloud rap on the pimpalicious "Scholarship" ("You a college chick, you a college chick/Keep twerkin' baby might earn you a scholarship"), A$AP Rocky joins and connects the underground to the other world for a club track that's like no other. "Smokin' Rollin'" with the late Pimp C boasts "I'd introduce you to the fast life but I'm slow as f*ck," the math on the Yelawolf feature "Gun Plus a Mask" results in "that equals cash," while "So Much Money" confesses "that I need three hands to count it." Fans will need four or five hands to count all the other laugh-out-loud punch lines, and even if this album is redundant and overstuffed with hedonism and recklessness, that's just Juicy being Juicy and as lame as complaining about the articles in last month's Hustler. With the massive guest list rotating through and the Taylor Gang-Dr. Luke production team keeping it slick and exciting, this is the same old Juicy in fresh, fine duds. Caligula club music and nothing but, Stay Trippy is a pimp party of the highest order. [A clean version was also released.] ~ David Jeffries, Rovi