My Gut Reaction: Baby Elephant - Turn My Teeth Up! (September 11, 2007)

In the epic Battle of 9/11 that saw so-called "underdog" Kanye Q. West and "overdog" Curtis Threepenny Jackson battle for Hip Hop supremacy in an overtly calculated attempt by the Universal Music Group to sell over one million copies of albums in the span of one week (since both artists are signed to the same basic distributor), one CD was left out in the cold. Now, I could be talking about Kenny Chesney, but anyone who's been paying attention will know I'm referring to Baby Elephant's Turn My Teeth Up!, which I finally obtained at, of all places, a Borders bookstore, but hadn't had the chance to actually listen to until now.

Baby Elephant is a side project featuring one of my favorite producers ever, Prince Paul, along with his partner in crime Don Newkirk, and Bernie Worrell, best known for his work with Parliament-Funkadelic and Talking Heads, which probably accounts for a couple of the guest spots here. Since this is my first actual listen (I hadn't heard any songs up until now; I'm at that point where I will blindly purchase anything that Prince Paul might have glanced at for longer than two seconds), I'll stop with this bullshit candor and move on.

1. THE SEARCH (SKIT)

Album intros usually suck, but since Paul is the inventor and reigning champion of the Rap Album Skit, I'll let this slide.

2. BABY ELEPHANTS N THANGS (FEAT GEORGE CLINTON)

A little more than one minute in, this sounds like the theme song to a hip-hop remake of Love Story or The Way We Were. I haven't actually seen either one of those movies, but hearing this instrumental plants those images in your mind. (I mean that in the best possible way.) George Clinton kind of sounds out of place, though.

3. PLAINFIELD (FEAT SHOCK G)

Sounds like what The Return of Dr. Octagon would have sounded like if Prince Paul handled the production work instead of no-names One Watt Sun. Sounds alright, and I love the fact that Humpty Hump still uses words that don't mean nothing, like lupid.

4. COOL RUNNINS (FEAT YELLOWMAN)

Nonplussed. That's all I got.

5. MASTER (SKIT)

Supposedly, Bernie Worrell's nephew is rapper Chino XL. Who knew? Although it's not like he appears on this album or anything, so I don't even know why I brought that up.

6. IF YOU DON'T WANNA DANCE (FEAT REGGIE WATTS)

T-Pain be damned, this song features some of the better vocoder work since Roger Troutman.

7. LANGUAGE (SKIT)

...

8. EVEN STRANGER

Sounds pretty good, but the foreground threatens the onset of a massive headache if your ears are wrapped around this song for a prolonged period of time.

9. CRACK ADDICTS IN LOVE (FEAT NONA HENDRYX)

An R&B song through the warped Prince Paul filter. Not bad, but upon first listen, not great, either. I may need to hear this one a few more times.

10. TURN MY TEETH UP!

I like this one. It has the sound of some good music to write to, with just enough punch to make you pay attention, as opposed to relegating it to the background.

11. PLUG (SKIT)

This one's just silly. Listen to it and you'll hear why.

12. HOW DOES THE BRAIN WAVE? (FEAT DAVID BYRNE)

Given the complexity of Paul's work, and his collaborative efforts with The Automator, De La Soul, Stetasonic, and Justin Warfield (currently known as part of She Wants Revenge), among others, even I couldn't have anticipated Paul Huston working with David Byrne. My guess is that "How Does The Brain Wave" is supposed to be the cornucopia in the middle of the Thanksgiving spread that is Turn My Teeth Up!, and in this regard, it sounds okay.

13. SKIPPIN STONZE (FEAT GABBY LA LA)

Not very impressed by this one.

14. 100 KEYBOARDS (SKIT)

...

15. SCRATCHINATANITCHOUTTAREACH (FEAT GEORGE CLINTON)

This one sounds pretty good. George Clinton isn't nearly as obtrusive here as he was on the second track.

16. FRED BERRY

Sounds like some authentic funk shit that would get played at house parties if anyone else knew about Baby Elephant.

17. TAKE ME TO BRAZIL (SKIT)

The ongoing storyline of Bernie training Paul finally ends here. I was kind of hoping for a bonus track here, since that seems to be the norm for a lot of Paul albums, but no luck.

THE LAST WORD: Turn My Teeth Up! is not your average Prince Paul album, mainly due to the participation of Bernie Worrell. Other than a couple of songs that I'll probably skip, this CD is pretty enjoyable, and I'll probably throw this in throughout the rest of 2007. This shouldn't come as a shock, since I'm a Prince Paul stan, but I think it's worthy of your time.

-Max