The Smut Peddlers are made up of underground New York crew High and Mighty (Mr Eon and DJ Mighty Mi) and MC Cage. Following on from underground hits like 'One By One' and 'That's Smut' (the latter of which is included here), the trio finally step up with their debut album for the respected Rawkus label.
With a name and album title like this (not to mention the artwork), you'd be forgiven for believing that 'Porn Again' is an LP riddled with mindless lyricism about ho's and hookers and shot through with bragging statements relating to how accomplished the Peddler's are in the sack. But amazingly, you'd be wrong.
While it certainly wouldn't win any awards for being the most politically correct document in the world (in some places giving a whole new meaning to the phrase Inter-lewd), any obsessions with the opposite sex are no more prevalent here than on many other albums (say The Beatnuts, Snoop, etc.) showing that the whole pornographic concept is mainly a marketing gimmick.
Which is a shame, as it's bound to put a fair few people off what is undoubtedly a pretty good hip hop album.
Cage and Eon's imaginations are far too vivid and their rhyme-making far too clever to be dwelling on one theme throughout and instead they flow in their distinctive ways about all sort from politics to gangsta life, materialism to some admittedly quite sick - and quite funny - shit.
The main attraction lies in the way that the pair's distinctive flows compliment each other Eon's gruff, Busta style voice against Cage's more high pitched and direct vocals and the cleverness with which they hook up their rhymes. Of course, the beats from Mighty Mi help make the album rock in many places too, so this is one occasion when it's perhaps best to not judge an album by it's cover.
