Simply look at the cover and it's hard to figure out if
Travis Barker
(drummer for
blink-182
and a rap-rock producer with punk rock style) and
Yelawolf
(rapid-fire rapper, signed to
Eminem
's label) have formed a band or a project dubbed
Psycho White
, or maybe it is an apt title for the style of their collaborative EP. Any which way you use it, it works, as
Barker
(producing) and
(rapping) have created a unified, band-like sound, but at five tracks and out, this is as suitably sloppy as a project EP should be. It comes on strong with the frantic, punk-rap blast of "Push Em" before messing with reggae ("6 Feet Under" with
Rancid
-man
Tim Armstrong
), grinding trunk music (drop "Funky Shit" in the tattoo parlor parking lot and watch the sleeved ones roll out), and
Flo Rida
tricks ("Whistle Dixie" is just
Flo
's "Whistle" amped-up and roughed-up for the Fox Racing hoodie crowd), before landing on the movie-loving "Director's Cut," which comes off as the Marvel Comics version of
50 Cent
's "Ski Mask Way."
Mix Master Mike
is on the turntables, dropping clever scratches under these beastly boy's rebel yells, and whenever
Armstrong
shows up, he's a welcome
Kris Kristofferson
-type figure, all low-voiced and gravel throated while blessing this generation with some vintage jackbooted and tattooed credibility. With no fronting or filler, this party gets not only a pass, but some praise, since rap-rock often sounds forced. This one sounds like it stepped right out of the back room, flying high on energy drinks with some new tribal art on its shoulder, and anxious to prove that rap-rock can sound vital and necessary, at least for the length of an EP. ~ David Jeffries