Review Summary: Every year December 25th seems to come fasta/Frosty brought it up north movin' weight in Alaska/He don't holla at me no mo' but I know he's on his sh*t/Smuggling dope in through Christmas tree ornaments.
It’s that time of year again, where we bring out our jazzy Christmas classics and some of their crappy rock’n’roll remixes. But, not me, I whip out Afroman’s Jobe Bells. This sick(eningly good) album has corrupted, ghetto versions of classic Christmas songs. Most people denounce Afroman for being silly and such, but they don’t realize he’s a comedy rapper. People that hate this album are W.A.S.P’s.
Afroman’s prevailing twisted sense of humor is already impeccable, and when applied to Christmas, is hilarious. “Gotta watch where I go with this bright red suit/Damn a holiday, these fools is liable to shoot/Don’t think I’m about that merry ***, you better watch yo step, cuz I got a 45 that’ll jiggabell yo ass to death/And all these lil brats sendin’ me mail/Sh*t I ain’t givin’ up nothin’ you better catch an after-Christmas sale.” Afroman’s goofy delivery (he stifles giggles while rapping) and basic flow sync up well with tracks. The sampling the classical Christmas songs converted rap beats by throwing in bass, snares, drums, and synths. (E.G: Deck the Halls is Deck My Balls, O Christmas Tree is O Chronic Tree, etc.) isn’t a revolutionary concept but Afroman pulled it off.
But, for as silly as Afroman is, his political side comes out on this album, little pokes at police and the government here and there lead up to the full out assault on American hypocrisies on Death to the World, “Death to the world, George Bush has come/Let Earth receive nuclear war/Get drafted in the army, die by the gun/Unless you’re the senator’s son.”
This album is a (Christmas) classic, but for somebody as silly as Afroman, it’s hard to be criticized, that is, if you share his sense of humor. A thirty minute laugh bucket of an album is well worth the deviation from regular, traditional Christmas songs. That is, if you aren't a White Anglo Saxon Protestant.
