“Sex, Drugs and Rap N’ Roll”

Phunk Junkeez

Compare to: Kottonmouth Kings, Zebrahead, Limp Bizkit

** 1/2

When pinning down the pioneers of the rap/rock epidemic that has taken over music today, the bands that usually get the nod are Limp Bizkit or Rage Against the Machine. One band that doesn’t get mentioned is the Phunk Junkeez, even though they have been around just as long, releasing their first album back in 1993.Three albums and eight years later, the Junkeez are back with “Sex, Drugs and Rap N’ Roll,” still kicking the same old school rap style over funk/rock grooves.Unfortunately, the band has lost some of the creativity that was so evident in prior releases such as 1995’s “Injected.” Much of the raw feeling the band portrayed back then has vanished on this album.The Junkeez have always been known for their sense of humor, but in songs such as “Short Term Memory Loss” and “The Quest,” they sound downright ridiculous.”The Quest” is a song about a weed war between earthlings and aliens, a battle that isn’t won until the earthlings smoke the aliens to death. Continuing with the subject of marijuana, “Short Term Memory Loss” is an ’80s inspired track about being able to buy a new brain to combat memory loss. Judging by these two songs, maybe the Junkeez should leave the weed songs to proven pros like the Kottonmouth Kings.And then there are tracks like “American Pimp,” which is a diss to white, suburban, pimp impostors that sounds uninspired and as if it were written in about two minutes just because the band needed more material on the album. Plus, didn’t Offspring already do this song a couple years ago?However, things do get interesting when it becomes evident that the Junkeez are pretty pissed about not getting props for the genre they helped create. They also aren’t very fond of all of the so-called rappers fronting hard rock acts today.The group devotes what is probably the best song of the album to this subject. On “What’s Next,” lead rapper Soulman starts out with, “Could somebody please explain to me what in the hell happened/ everybody in the mother/ even Tommy Lee is rappin’/ we need to do some scrappin’/ some bitch slappin’/ hang you over the balcony like Suge Knight and do some ass cappin’.” Also featured on this track is a solid rhyme dropped by Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog.”Bounce” is a perfect example of what gained the Junkeez attention from the get go — fun party songs with heavy yet funky guitar work and smooth lyrical delivery.These songs and a few others show flashes as to how the group developed as an underground favorite. But it isn’t quite enough to save the Junkeez from the five or six uncreative and rehashed songs on this record.