Although I’m amazed that spizzazzz have yet to mention ‘Shoop’ by Salt-N-Pepa. This trumps ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ despite the latter’s inclusion of the amazing “Hey Pep, I don’t think they’re going to play this on the radio” dialogue and the hilarious one they did with En Vogue about their ideal bloke. As a recent documentary pointed out, Salt-N-Pepa are the missing link between Run DMC and TLC, and one day perhaps they will in retrospect be granted the R-E-S-P-E-C-T they deserve. They had the best album titles, too – ‘Hot Cool & Vicious’, ‘Very Necessary’, and, best of all, the pun-tastic ‘A Salt With A Deadly Pepa’ – yes! The latter includes, brilliantly, the track ‘Spinderella’s Not A Fella (But A Girl DJ)’, which scores two huge points on the list necessary for cult classic status – use of brackets, and statement of the bloody obvious.

'Shoop' is best of all, though. The best pop songs about sex have always been deliberately absurd, and this one is right up there.

"I hit the skins for the hell of it, just for the yell I get
Mmm mmm mmm, for the smell of it!"

Ah-yes!

spizzazzz has always been dope, but its current in-progress feature on the 'forty spizzest singles of the nineties' is supa-dope like Kelly Osbourne, Pink and the girl with the tail in Andromeda teaming up to fight fuckin' crime. The selections sum up what's best about spizzazzz - they're so unpretentious and yet discerning - and the writing is smart, crazy, enthusiastic and frequently funny as hell. Here are some of my faves so far:

jeru the damaja - "come clean": "in the mid-nineties, when dj premier rocked the thoughtful, tastefully arranged classic-sample vibe he went to guru. when he wanted to make hardcore shit for club headz who love to shout along on the dancefloor, it was mop's turn. but when he wanted to drop his weirdest samples and his ugliest drum hits, he hooked up with proto-anti-bling moralist and owner of hiphop's greatest man-beard, jeru."

manic street preachers - "faster": "MSP were so cool during the holy bible period, first they were this army surplus glam 4-piece. dressing up in navy-boy sailor suits for their kerrang! interviews, which went beyond village people campness, and into a new realm of er..........super campness... add to the mix the super monotonus amazing open E add infinitum bassline, played by nicky wire whos bass playing skillz are gargantuan (he's like a cross between bootsy collins and that thumb dude from level 42!), and you have brit rock perfection!... this song makes me feel super agitpopitated, AGGRESSION!! pete 'wrong' tong summed it up best: "JOIN ME OR DIE!!!! CAN YOU DO ANY LESS!?!?"."

livin' joy - ''dreamer'': "of course i tell everyone i hate house music, when in fact i secretly love it..."

Help! I can't get the Clipse tune 'Young Boy' out of my head, and I barely know it. I *need* the Clipse album. And I must wait a week and a day to be able to afford it! Argh!

there are no coincidences

This doesn't really work until you've seen some of the other pages, especially page 3, but Nelson and I are currently more than a little disturbed by the *completely accidental* resemblance between his Jenny and Karen O, lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - especially given what Iast posted. It's most noticeable here:



If you squint a little the two guys in that photo look a little like the two of us, as well. Fuckin' spooksome.