Pop Cult – May 10th, 2012 (Feat. Iggy Azalea, M-Flo, A Pink, and Unicorn Kid)

Pop Cult: Better Bizness Bureau

Photo Credit: Press

Iggy Azalea ft T.I. – Murda Bizness : D

Awful. Absolutely awful.

“But Allen,” yells one of the ten people who are reading this remembers my Top 100 songs of 2011 article, “how is this any different from Kreayshawn? Are you flip-flopping?”

Maybe. It’s unfortunate that Kreayshawn has collapsed under the weight of her own insolence. But while both are white rappers, Kreayshawn’s schtick is to imitate rappers that are actually interesting. If Kreayshawn and Iggy were dudes, Kreayshawn would still be a weird one-hit wonder while Iggy Azalea would still be utterly rote and unmemorable. “Murda Bizness” is not a reforming of a cliché, it’s simply a dull appropriation.

A Pink – BuBiBu : B-

Who’s got a column on SSGMusic and is a huge A Pink fan? This guy. The rookie K-Pop group of 2011 has finally released their latest comeback and so far it’s… ok. They’re using EunJi a little better while giving the other girls more personality, which is excellent. But there’s no huge banger like “I Don’t Know” or “Boo” or “Prince” to be seen. A Pink is the only group that can get away with doing that aegyo thing while remaining irresistibly charming. The first single “Hush” comes close, but I don’t want close, I want a bull’s-eye.

That being said, “BuBiBu” is the standout song on the album, perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Even though I speak only a smidgen of Korean, I can already tell that these might be the most childish lyrics in K-Pop. The hook is irresistibly saccharine and yet it’s like half onomatopoeia. But those strings! Those wonderful, swelling strings. They get me every time.

M-Flo – All I Want Is You : B+

J-Pop/Hip-Hop veterans M-Flo return with SQUARE ONE, their first full, non-collaboration album in 5 years, and it’s a doozy. This isn’t a return to form; this is M-Flo like you’ve never heard them before. Taka and Verbal have learned a lot in their time off, drawing from the Otaku Music movement, keying in on J-Pop’s tapping into techno and house. It’s nice to see them throwing their hat in the ring regarding the J-Pop/K-Pop battle for musical dominance. Though the occasional collusion is also nice.

Unicorn Kid – Pure Space : A-

Edinburgh producer Oliver Sabin has been lumped in with many a dying micro-genre. First it was chiptune, but that got too scenester and insularly geeky to be tolerable. Then it was seapunk, if only for a short moment before that world descended into meaningless Twitter battles. “Pure Space” finally finds the post-rave magician finding his own aesthetic, and he’s all the better for it.

Spacey, bouncy, shimmery magic all abound, as the kids take drugz and zone out to the magical fantasy of the urban zoo. This is the magical sound of being a chemically-enhanced, hormonally stimulated kid.