“You’re a Jerk” by New Boyz
(Warner Bros.)
“Billy” by Aeiress Ent
“Teach Me How to Jerk”
by Audio Push
“Better Than You”
by Clothesz Off Movement feat. Rome
“Nasty Girl” by F.Y.I.
“I’m Nasty”
by Kream Kidz
“Tippin’ on My Dick” by Go-Go Power Ranger$
“Pockets on My Pannies” by New Era
“I’m Tasty” by Pink Dollaz
(all MP3)
Jerkin’ is homemade hiphop produced almost entirely by L.A.
teenagers who wear post–Kanye/Pharrell skinny jeans and
ultracolorful gear, and who rap enthusiastically and often amateurishly
over oft-skinny, homemade beats. Lots of it is dross, of course. But
when it isn’t, it’s amateurism as inspired in its way as early
lo-fi, post punk, or Chicago house, the latter of which it
sometimes resembles sonically—the blunt vocals of “Nasty Girl,”
“Don’t Need No,” and “Better Than You” have the eerie feel of the
ultra-low-budget early Trax catalog. Sometimes, as with “Pockets in My
Pannies,” the sound recalls the booming early productions of Marley
Marl—though without anyone sweating the verbal skills too
hard.
It’s not music for po-faces; in fact, as Jeff Weiss’s definitive
L.A. Weekly cover story from August makes plain, the kids making
jerkin’ songs are deliberately thumbing their noses at gangsta
rap: “the music of their parents,” as critic Rodney Greene notes.
Jerkin’ is amateurish, minimalist, and porn-obsessed. The frequency and
variety of oral-sex references and metaphors alone should have
become numbing after a while, but somehow haven’t—maybe it’s
because real porn is ground out by jaded adults, and these are kids,
for whom the chance to talk dirty in public is still both
titillating and hilarious.
There are too many jerkin’ songs out there for a normal person to
track; those listed above are the tip of an iceberg. “Billy”
goes, “She can’t feel her face! I can’t feel my face!” over a bubbling
808 and not much else. “Teach Me How to Jerk” is a full sounding
crossover in the making—it’s produced by J-Hawk, the scene’s
beat-making figurehead, who’s starting to show off a bit. “Better Than
You” is by four Long Beach girls called Clothesz Off Movement who
allegedly perform topless—they’re a thesis waiting to be written,
Malcolm McLaren’s playbook gone weirdly wrong—but their
song also contains the most teenaged lyric of any of these: “Hey,
daddy, the pussy’s magic/Have you tongue-tied like Roger Rabbit.” “I’m
Nasty” is a male answer song to the female Pink Dollaz’s “I’m Tasty.”
“Nasty Girl” isn’t an answer song, but it is nasty. Where it ends up
we’ll have to wait and see. 