Album Review by Mark Bayross
With a title like that, you kind of know what to expect. This album is a soundtrack to the biggest-grossing entertainment spectacle in America since the Superbowl: the muscle ballet that is the World Wrestling Federation.
Most of the WWF personalities are catered for here, each with their own theme, set to that heavy metal guitar and hip-hop beat that always seems to accompany these huge, growling hulks as they take to the stage in full air-punching mode each week. Even WWF supremo Vince McMahon gets his own song with REDMAN & ROCK’s funky ‘No Chance’.
Tracks like THE EASTSIDAZ menacing ‘BIg Red Machine’ (Kane’s theme) and DAME GREASE & MEENO’s string-laden ‘Ministry’ (The Undertaker’s theme) perfectly capture the fireworks and over-the-top showmanship of the WWF arena. Alongside some hysterically aggressive rapping (MYSTIKAL & RAS KASS’ ‘Game’, for example) is also a fairly industrial-sized dose of humour – KOOL KEITH & OL’ DIRTY BASTARD’s ‘Wreck’, with it’s account of throwing up over a state trooper: “Was that McDonald’s? I’ll sue Ronald…”
Some other big names are here, too: Method Man, Run DMC, Snoop Dogg and even ICE-T (in familiar “bitch” and “ho” mode with the funk-rap of ‘Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy’). I’m sure this album will be giving the moral majority plenty to get angry about and, given it’s pre-adult target audience, they may have a strong case – I’m not sure how many parents will be smiling contentedly at lines like “Meet me backstage and have some rubbers in your purse” (‘Big’ by MACK 10, K MAC & BOO KAPONE featuring MC EIHT).
Obviously, this is not to be taken too seriously. It’s a man-size slab of highly enjoyable testosterone, designed to provide the aural equivalent of an atomic drop to the head from a man the size of a pickup truck. In this, the album succeeds admirably.
