Comedy’s the C word!
You know the type of people that are always working feverously on something. The sort that has talent flowing from their pores when all I can produce is an offensive smell? Well welcome once again the hard working rapping priest Kai Motta. A man that whilst I have been whining about disrupted sleep patterns from my first born, has been through this, glowing with the happiness of fatherhood, whilst running his own successful web design company (Digicool Designs), routing around the comedy circuit for laughs and research, and writing and recording this album.
Renowned, and may I say infamous, for his outspoken rap songs, that have his distinctive nasal sneer majestically jumping around over a mixture of hard beats and stolen samples, with, ‘The C Word’ • an acoustic album • it is easy to dismiss this as being his watered-down, radio-friendly album. Of course, from the album title you can tell that this is not going to be the case, and on the title track is all too obvious that Kai has sucked us in to a warm fuzzy place, only to spit out a typhoon of expletives at us pushing us as close to being offended as he can!
‘The C Word’ starts with a gentle strumming guitar before Kai exclaims, “Well here it is ladies and gentlemen, the High Priest of Rap acoustic album! It seems that some of you didn’t like the offensive heavy rap stuff, so you wanted me to produce a little easy listening. Here it is, Radio 2 , are you ready?” And off he goes in a gentle but poetically offensive way, building to a chorus that has you shouting back ‘Cunt!’ to Kai’s ‘Fuck Off!” Here he manages to verbally abuse everyone from Jodie March to Peaches Geldof along the way. “Here comes another radio hit,” sings Kai in a gentle voice in the song of the same name quite happily poking fun at anyone in the music industry, whilst expressing his feelings in an explicit sexual way that in itself will guarantee it not being a radio hit because of this!
We have a nice little guitar riff whilst Kai tears into Jade Jagger, and comes up with a great blues-style chorus in, ‘Nothing But A Dreamer’, suggesting that despite dressed as a priest he doesn’t know what 12-tear-old kids want, and then goes on to say the classic line of, “Paedophilia • a touchy subject...!”. This takes us to the socially aware track, ‘Do You Want Fries With That?” which is an interesting insight into Kai’s politically views, and from a guy that isn’t afraid to insult and abuse, and a proud Brit, he does have a refreshingly open view to immigration and racism, whereby he calls this place the UKKK. I can see how he is split between fart and poop rhymes, and serious social problems in Britain and the world, easily suggesting that between the swear words, and his sexual preferences, he is definitely a voice that at times should be taken seriously. The chorus suggests, “England’s getting so fat // Hardly fits on the map // Tell me how do you swallow it all down? // And do you want fries with that?”
‘The Blues Blues’ is a brilliant little jig of a number that is exactly what you would expect music wise, but with probably the most explicit blues lyrics you will hear, sounding like Kai may think that John Lee Hooker should’ve been two men and a prostitute…Following on from this is the great, ‘Motta, You’ve Got No Money’ which is another that is half rap and half singing, and I can’t help think that whereas previously the obvious comparisons to Eminem have been apparent, now he sounds a little more like the strange duo Duenow. Great stuff.
Following on from, ‘So You Want To Be a Popstar’ from his 2005 album, ‘The United Kingdom Of America’, we have the part 2 version which is basically the acoustic version of the original which pokes fun at Pop Idol. ‘Everybody Wants To Be Somebody’ has some fantastic lyrics that has a go at everyone from Peter Andre, Prince Charles and Michael Jackson to Jade Goody and Sharon Osbourne. It’s a song that I could quote just about anywhere and it would make you smile • so I won’t, go out and listen to it yourself!
The en vogue fashion’s and wannabe stars are given a verbal licking in, ‘Look At Me’, however Kai gets us all a little misty-eyed in the touching, ‘Mother, I Want To Make You Proud’, and whilst there are jokes galore within each line, there is the underlining seriousness of the title line that you know is true. ‘Thirty Nothing’ is about how you are considered over-the-hill when you hit a certain age, and having just turned thirty-two myself, then I know exactly what you mean, mate! We have the album closer of, ‘Is It Me?’ whereby Kai Motta takes the opportunity to have a go at more people like, “Is it me of should Justin Timberlake have his thumb removed? // Is it me or should Harry Potter be abused?” No, I’ve thought the same, really I have.
Kai Motta has released 9 albums, an EP and a few other tracks since 2001 which is pretty impressive in itself. He has played many music gigs dressed as a priest, has fronted a band for a brief session and is now looking at doing an acoustic set around the comedy circuit. So what of this man, this myth, this legend? ‘The C Word’ once again showcases Kai’s talents, and his true ability as a showman, but it’s about honing your skill correctly. Robbie Williams is a great showman, but a talentless singer, and an egotistical timebomb…allegedly, of course. Michael Jackson, I’ve always said should have gone all Kurt Cobain back in his ‘BAD’ days, before self-destructing and finding solace in the underpants of the young. So basically, Kai Motta’s full blown rap is great, but Britain + White Rap = Failure, and that is the bottom line, however here, and with what I can imagine would be some crowd participation live, would have the comedy as an emphasis. He could always be like a young Ben Elton • but funnier.
‘The C Word’ is a bag of tricks full of laughs, but when the giggles have subsided you will notice that almost every song does have a serious message. This may be a slightly different direction for Kai, but I think that this shows his maturity, and perhaps now he is finding out exactly where in entertainment he should be. Good work, my man!