Album Review: The Notorious MSG – ‘Lunch Money’

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 18, 2007, 11:52 GMT

I had never heard of the Notorious MSG (a play on Notorious BIG) and when I first listened to the album I thought that they were a parody group.  How to put it kindly and politically correct?  They sound like they’re speaking in a way to make fun of Orientals. 

I guess you need to know that the trio, Hong Kong Fever (from Hong Kong), Down-Lo Mein (from Taiwan), and The Human Bomb (from South Korea), are Oriental and met while working in a restaurant called the Crazy Wok and decided that being gangsta rappers was better than working at the restaurant and the rest is MSG history. 

Actually those names are pseudonyms and they’ve made up character backstories to go along with them.  It’s been put forward that the trio are really American born and only pretend to be immigrants and hence my wonderings if their accents are real or faked.  Are they to be taken seriously? 

From the lyrics of their tunes I’d say no.  They use a lot of humorous phrases and references to Chinese food.  If they were to be taken seriously then I’d have to say the album was okay, but as comedy I was guffawing at the wacky lyrics. 

How can you not laugh at a song called “No Good Muthabitch” with its chorus of “I’m a no good muthabitch and I don’t really give a shit?” 

They do slow things down for the romantic ballad “Dim Sum Girl” but the humor was still there.  Sorry, I just couldn’t help laughing.