(hed) pe: Broke : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The missing element in too many rap-metal bands is hip-hop's sense of bravado and celebration. (Hed) PE -- like Kid Rock -- are the rare rap-metal act willing to admit that good times actually exist. There is no lack of pumped-up aggro and despondency on Broke, the Orange County sextet's second album; "You're so deceiving," sings frontman Jahred grimly on "Pac Bell," "I feel my spirit leaving." But on the G-Funk-meets-Limp Bizkit monster "Bartender," the band gets past its insecurities and plots a boozy night of hitting on girls. "Crazy Legs" features thunderous boasts and (Hed) PE's own take on the chorus from Biggie Smalls' "Hypnotize" (originally from Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh's "La Di Da Di"); on "Boom (How You Like That)," Jahred sings, "Wake up, light up, watching BET/Fuckin' babies' mothers from Jersey to Cali." Rap metal has found its Motley Crue. (RS 852)

ROB KEMP