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Madness – Classy

I spotted a track in the SXSW 2011 collection by Madness, and thought to myself, “Oh, is the famed British 2-tone ska band, known for One Step Beyond and Our House, recording music again? How pleasant it will be to hear those charming beats and dulcet voices again.”

Then I heard the song.

This Madness ain’t that Madness. Oh, no. This Madness is the aft half of a Central Florida hip-hop duo called Critical Madness – the bow half is called, not-very-shockingly, Critical – and this song is, um, not ska. It is, however, raunchy and outrageous, and over-the-top enough to be pretty damn funny. The video adds to the hilarity, with an assortment of debauchery and a fine homage to Reservoir Dogs. Yeah, it’s crude and politically incorrect, but Madness is a clown, aware of his buffoonery, and the track is a send-up of the hip-hop glorification of excess. Or maybe he’s serious, in which case, motherfucker, he’s classy.