Fannypack

So Stylistic (Tommy Boy)

Comments (0) By Gil Kaufman Thursday, Aug 21 2003

Rick James had the Mary Jane Girls. Prince had Vanity 6. But if Luther Campbell had put together a girl group, it might sound like Brooklyn's booty bass lovin' Fannypack. Chances are you've already heard their saucy ode to the female frontal wedgie, "Cameltoe" ("Fix yourself girl/You got a cameltoe!"), a frothy concoction of nasally rapping, raunchy lyrics, and boomin' beats. Things don't get much more highbrow on So Stylistic, the group's debut.

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Fannypack is the nom de rap of three precocious Brooklyn girls, Cat, Belinda, and Jessibel, who are between the ages of 16 and 22 and who are prodded to share their fantasies and frustrations with producers Matt Goias and Fancy. Mixing the girlish vocals of '80s rappers JJ Fad, the bounce of Tom Tom Club, and retro booty-meets-electro low-end beats, these girls are in it just for fun, which is why So Stylistic may just be the throwaway party album of the summer. Songs such as the guy-bashing "Hey Mami" and the naughty nursery rhyme "Things" ("I like things that make me glad/I don't like things that make me sad") mix infantile lyrics with disses that slap and tickle but likely won't inspire rap battles of UTFO-versus-Roxanne Shante proportions.

Sometimes it's hard to know if these girls are mocking booty music or trying to beat the fellas at their own game. They ridicule each other and their producers in a few funny-then-irritating between-song vignettes (one of which features Jessibel on the phone with her mom trying to lamely explain why she can't possibly make it to first bell). Their energies, however, are better spent on moronic dance-floor anthems like "Sugar Daddy," which includes only the lyric "Sugar/Daddy."