LIVE: Turquoise Jeep @ U Street Music Hall - 11/20/12
Their origins are mysterious. They are record label. They are a collective. Their musical styling’s are often over the top ridiculous, yet they may be the model for how to be a musician in the modern era. But most of all, they are super sexed up pimp machines from some infinitely cool alternate universe and last week their ride pulled up to U Street Music Hall where they proceeded to smash, bang and possibly fertilize the nearly sold out crowd.
On the surface, what artists Flynt Flossy, Whatchyamacallit, Pretty Raheem, Yung Humma, Slick Mahony (who is not on tour) and Tummiscratch Beats offer is a lewd and often hilarious trip back to a time when the music was simple, the sentiment straight from the heart and absolutely EVERYTHING was sexy. If you’ve seen any of the band’s videos – the most famous of which features Yung Humma introducing the word “smang” (to smash and bang) into the greater lexicon, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect at a Turquoise Jeep show. But a funny thing happens on the way from the small screen to the stage. Not only do the members of Da Jeep take this stuff very seriously, but they very seriously kill it.
Keeping the jeep riding at U Street Music Hall
Kicking off their set with the song “Cavities,” Flynt Flossy and Pretty Raheem bumped and grinded their way across the stage asking what the audience what they were going to do “with all this chocolate in your mouth.” If you were expecting subtlety, it went out the door in the first thirty seconds, and as more members of the Jeep were welcomed to the stage, the point was quickly made that this was not a night for the shy or even those not ready to become with child.
And while the set may have been relatively short, it was nothing if not unadulteratingly entertaining. The track “Licky Sticky” featured four lucky ladies who were invited on stage to promptly and apparently thankfully, be grinded upon. “Put Your Hands On It,” featured a sexed up, full crowd call and response – Ladies: “Yes I Do” Fellas: “Put your hands on it then” - to Flossy’s question of “Do You Want To Touch It?”
Whether Turquoise Jeep succeeds by appealing to the lowest common denominator or because they are simply giving the audience exactly what they want is up to you to decide, but succeed they do. By the time the group launched into “Lemme Smang It,” a track whose video has over TEN MILLION hits on YouTube, they had U Street Music Hall bouncing up and down, high fiving and interacting with the rappers on stage like they were family, which is exactly the point. Turquoise Jeep don’t just make music for the masses, they make the music that very clearly makes them feel good. And trying to break down the merits for or against a track like “Did I Mention I Like To Dance” is endlessly futile in the face of the pure joy that can be found in every pop, lock and pelvic thrust that these purveyors of sexcellence deliver.
