Broke
(Jive Records)
Grade: D
When Hed PE released its first album in 1997 - before Limp Bizkit had really entered the scene - all 15 of the band's fans probably really enjoyed it.
Now, with its new album Broke, Hed PE, after being really pissed off that the whole rock-rap scene has been so exploited by far more talented artists, gives off a rather disgusting, patriarchal and boring vibe.
A Tourette Syndrome sufferer with a poor vocabulary is probably more clean than this band. Every song on the CD has to do with drinking whiskey, illegal sexual encounters, pornography ("Lemme check out some of that porno, dog") and horribly vulgar lyrics - "I strap on the jimmy cause I don't want a disease/I come into your house and take your daughter for a ride." Also see tracks one through 12 for more of this crud.
With only two somewhat decent songs on the entire CD, - "Killing Time" and "Feel Good" - Broke is a waste of money. "Killing Time" is only decent because the chorus sounds just like 311. For the most part this song is filled with stupid, empty lyrics meant to allude to something along the lines of "You don't understand my art." "Feel Good," featuring Serj Tankian from System of a Down and Morgan Lander from Kittie, sounds like a stolen Limp Bizkit track - and whoever it is singing the chorus sounds almost like Maynard (rad!) from Tool after a night of drinking wood alcohol and a tracheotomy performed by a blind man in Nogales.
Hed PE may want to rethink its musical future, because unless its fans have never heard its music before, the group may have a little difficulty selling CDs with all this crap on them.
- Oliver White
