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September 28 - October 5, 2000

[Music Reviews]

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*** P.A. (Parental Advisory)

MY LIFE: YOUR ENTERTAINMENT

(Mother West)

For hip-hop fans tired of East Coast production styles -- both the greasy synth bounce of Swizz Beatz and the classic cut-it-and-loop-it style of DJ Premier -- nothing beats a solid serving of the distinctive knee-buckling bounce of Atlanta rap. P.A. explore every nuance of the infectious style on their third album, from laid-back pimpadelic ("Sundown") to dirty bump-and-grind ("Just Like That"). Familiar with both six-strings and samplers, P.A. offer a take on the Dirty South sound that's stocked with a battery of guitar tones: swampy tremolo chords pad the Yankee-baiting anthem "U Got We Got," gothic-metal riffage carves out spitting room on "My Time 2 Go," and faux flamenco flourishes propel the home-town shout-outs of "Down flat." The lyrics are better-than-average variations on the basic sex/money/drugs/violence themes, and the trio lace their rhymes with tricky rhythmic shifts and soulful melodic arcs that humanize the mechanical pimps-and-playas tales. But this is music designed for jeeps and house parties, where meaning takes a back seat to body moving.

-- Michael Endelman
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