The second cuming!
My good friend Mr Motta is back with another album, in fact this is the 5th that I have reviewed in the past three years (his 11th overall), proving once again that he is more than capable of writing and recording great albums one after the other. This one is the first since the birth of his second daughter, and with the title of the album being, ‘Family Man’, does this mean that Kai has mellowed? Fuck no! In fact this is possibly his most obscene yet, which takes some doing seeing as his previous offering (released spring 2008) was called ‘The C-Word’…
Kai is not a stranger to controversy which you wouldn’t expect what with him dressing as a priest and spitting out rhymes like Eminem with torrets. He has a teenage obsession with sex, and an adult view on politics, with a great ability to arrange, sample, and string a good song together. Previously with the aforementioned, ‘The C-Word’ we had an acoustic album that showcased Mr Motta’s stand up show that he had been peddling around the country, however here with ‘Family Man’ we have an album so thick with samples that Kai himself admits he wouldn’t be able to profit from it. A few years back American rappers, Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Marz and others from the Psychopathic Records label got together and made an album similarly loaded with samples (one song entitled ‘Slim Anus’ was a direct dig at fellow rapper Eminem which was his song, ‘My Name Is…’ with the lyrics changed to question his ‘friendship’ with Dr Dre, sparking a feud between him and ICP), this had to be given away so as not to break any sampling clearance laws. Kai has successfully managed an equally entertaining parody album…
The start of the album sees Kai’s usual first song that updates us, the listener, with what he has been doing, in a rampant spout of obscene meanderings. This leads to the first sampled song that has Jimi Hendrix’s classic riff off of, ‘Foxy Lady’, in his song, ‘An Open Letter To You All’. Kai has an ability of being able to talk about oral sex in a different way each time! Then with the first few bars of Band Aid’s one-hit-wonder in the background we have a skit of Kai talking about his childhood to a psychiatrist in, ‘Psy-Kai-Atree’ which is classic Kai Motta in his stand up best. We then have the angst ridden spit lyrics of the angry, ‘Something’s Happening’ that shows Kai at his best, before a skit that finishes with Jim Morrison singing with Jimi Henrix, in ‘Culture Corner’…
‘It’s Time To Party’ will put a smile on your face as it’s a party song that’s more jollier than a guy name Roger, packed with dance and pop samples. Great stuff! Then Kai talks us through a tale of the similarities between pornography and politics in the song of the same name over the first few looped bars of one of the Grease songs…Then we have the chilled and laid back tune of, ‘I Love Drugs’ which if I’m not mistaken is over the music to LL Cool J’s song, ‘I Need Love. Then we have another jaunty joint in ‘Feel The Vibe’ that is another upbeat tune, before Kai has a go at Justin Timberlake in the song of that title, suggesting that he “looks like somebody that needs to be raped?”, before the great version of the Pussycat Dolls song, in Kai’s version of, ‘A Boyfriend Like Me’, which really has to be heard to be believed!
Cleverly sampling in responses from the former PM, in ‘An Interview With Tony Blair’ Kai flexes his political muscle again penetrating him with the questions we’d all want answers to. Another comical skit. ‘I Can’t Stay’ is a short song of half talking and half rap surrounding Kai’s previous and current employment, whereas Kai pushes the buttons of controversy again in, ‘The Abortion Issue’, where he says, “Where do I stand? Usually on the foetus’s head!”, before another party track in, ‘House Of Fun’ that has the obvious Madness sample and a Run DMC sample in the chorus. The next song is a great big marching band & Monty Python-esque mix that leaves you opened mouthed before, ‘Ain’t Nobody Like Agent 0069’ that is a pornographic James Bond story over the sample of the classic Chaka Khan track.
One of the best songs here is, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, as aside from the classic sample which is the chorus too, the verses are a bit like The Streets as Kai details a night on the town with the lads. It’s great, especially as Kai calls Mike Skinner a C*nt, whilst copying him. In the next song ‘The Real Thing’ Kai explains that he wants Britney Spears, Madonna and Christina Aguilera to give up singing and be the pornstars that God intended. Then we have a parody of De La Soul’s hit, ‘Me, Myself & I’ as ‘Me, Myself & Kai’ which is very good before the last song, ‘Anyone Offended’ whereby Kai tries to tick off a few more people that he has yet to offend. Good work, fella!
Kai Motta is entertaining. He’s foul-mouthed, rude, obnoxious and offensive, but he’s also bright and cunningly skilled. He can quite successfully parody almost anyone, and has a wit and charm that makes you forgiving of his toilet musings. The stand out songs here are, ‘An Open Letter…’, ‘House Of Fun’, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, ‘A Boyfriend Like Me’, ‘It’s Time To Party’ and ‘Feel The Vibe’, and whilst the skits are amusing you can grow bored of them after a few listens. For me Kai Motta always just underachieves, and whilst there are some good tracks here, he needs to concentrate on having an album of his original style with no parody, and dare I say less sexual content. He has a political voice that deserves to be heard, however between songs of anal sex, blow jobs and dwarf fucking (I made the last one up), the messages are lost.
On the whole good, but around the corner will be a corker I’m sure!