Pitchfork

Burial's whole thing is about mystery, from the London dubstep artist's (oxymoronically) famous anonymity to the ambiguous gender origins of the vocals on last year's Untrue, Pitchfork's #10 album of 2007. Lyrically, at least-- and that's pretty much all we get from the Philadelphia rap outfit here-- Spank Rock is often about asses. So there's an odd disconnect at work on the Hood Internet member DJ STV SLV's mash-up of Untrue's elegaic, strings-attached standout "Archangel" and "Bump", a typically playful party-rap track off of Spank Rock's 2006 debut full-length, Yoyoyoyoyo.

At first, a rhythmic repetition of the word "bump" blends into the dubby backdrop, just another vocal-as-instrument like the Burial track's cries of "tell me I belong". Then DJ STV SLV whips out the nasty rhymes of MCs Spank Rock and Amanda Blank, their references to Gameboy and Kelly Bundy anchoring the track in a world of 80s-baby intertextuality. There's little mysterious about the rappers' goofy double entendres (might as well call 'em "single entendres"), but the ease with which their cadences flow atop the "Archangel" beats, despite their incongruous subject matter, only adds to the Burial track's enigmatic nature. An implicit assumption behind some raunchy humor is that it's just saying what everybody else thinks inwardly-- could be Burial is every bit as dirty-minded as Spank Rock's MC Naeem Juwan.

MP3:> The Hood Internet (DJ STV SLV): "Bumpangel" (Burial vs. Spank Rock)
[original tracks from Untrue and Yoyoyoyo; out now on Hyperdub and Big Dada, respectively]