Afroman: The Good Times : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Equal parts Bootsy Collins, Blowfly and Too Short, Afroman delivered the late-summer novelty hit of 2001 with his lowriding, singsongy "Because I Got High," a cautionary joke song that hit a nerve with frat boys and B-boys alike. The unfailingly good-natured Mississippi rapper makes a strong case for unabashedly songful hip-hop on his major-label debut album, The Good Times. Bawdy, good-time-y tunes such as "Palmdale" throw gospel cadences against an electro backdrop; Afroman evokes a potty-mouthed Clarence Carter on shaggy-dog stories such as "She Won't Let Me . . ." He's so charming, clever, melodic and relatively ego-free that you can't help but root for him. Let's hope that he avoids the fate of, say, Lou Bega.

Like The Good Times, Bad Ronald's debut album begins with the sound of blunt-sucking. But where Afroman approaches his dissipation with style and a little dread, this New York University foursome goes for very generic party songs. Bad Ronald is a mishmash of unsyncopated rhyming about buds, booze, bitches and being a badass. Finally - someone for the Bloodhound Gang to look down their noses at.

ROB KEMP
(RS 879 - October 11, 2001)