PHUNK JUNKEEZ

The PHUNK JUNKEEZ? Are you serious? If I make fun of this record, are they gonna round up JIMMIE'S CHICKEN SHACK and SHOOTYZ GROOVE and come give me a funk-o-metal beatdown, 1994 b-boy style? If nothing else, you gotta hand it to these dudes for not only laboring all this time under a name more dated than Max Headroom, but steadfastly continuing to spit goofy cracker rhymes years after the whole rap-rock thing's expiration date came and went. Apparently, they're still big in Japan (Christ, who isn't?) and command a strong cult following in the States, delivering their party anthems to the same ball-caps-and-beer-bongs frat crowd whose musical evolution stopped the day the dude from SUBLIME died, the kind of people who'd want a 311 song played at their funeral.

And if you're still hankering for this kind of sound, there's no denying that PHUNK JUNKEEZ deliver it about as well as it can be delivered. There's loads of funky guitar, scratching, danceable beats, and lines like "what's the time? Time to get psycho!" and "one time just for your mind!" to tax your brain. The production is well-layered and loud, and the songs are catchy enough, if a bit formulaic. The main conversation piece is a souped-up cover of MUNGO JERRY's developmentally-disabled hippie anthem "In the Summertime", with lines added about smoking weed and the original's cornpone shuffle replaced with the sort of groove that UNCLE KRACKER fans call "funky." It may be goofy, but stacked up against originals like "The Good, The Bad, The Phunkee" and "Pimp Shit", it's positively Shakespearean.

On one hand, ya wanna give these guys credit for weathering what has to have been some lean years and still doing their thing, as defiant and unrepentant as ever. On the other hand, though, this rap-rock dog-and-pony-show was a load of crap the first time around, and time has made it sound about as with-it as a straight-to-cable "House Party" sequel. If you're among the dwindling faithful who still think the INSANE CLOWN POSSE are "deep" and that Fred Durst is just about due to rise again, PHUNK JUNKEEZ will rock your Fubu-wearing, Y2K-fearing ass off. The rest of the world will continue to do just fine without.