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As Clean As They Wanna Be Review
07/13/2005 4:07 AM, AMG
A year after N.W.A. and Too Short significantly raised the bar for sexually explicit rap in 1988 with Straight Outta Compton and Born to Mack, respectively, the 2 Live Crew went one step further, to outright pornography, with As Nasty as They Wanna Be. In the wake of the album's ridiculous success and unexpected controversy, the group issued As Clean as They Wanna Be to reach markets where the "nasty" version had been banned. The "clean" version is significantly briefer at 11 rather than 18 songs and understandably does away with most of the album's more explicit songs. The 2 Live Crew did remake a few of their better dirty songs, though, in clean versions. For instance, the album-opening "Funk Shop" should clue you into the approach taken, and while you're left with heavily edited versions of "Me So Horny" and "C'mon Babe," at least you get them here. Most of the album's non-sexual songs like "Coolin'" and "Mega Mixx III" are also here and get the attention they no doubt deserve. They're fine party rap songs with a noticeable Miami bass style, yet they were pushed far to the end of the extended-length nasty album and were thus often never heard. The 2 Live Crew also throw in a version of "Pretty Woman" that's fun and fairly PG-rated. As Clean as They Wanna Be certainly isn't going to supplant the audacity of As Nasty as They Wanna Be, but it's a nice concession to those curious about the 2 Live Crew but unwilling, or unpermitted, to hear the album in its infamous originally intended form. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
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