by John Bush
Three albums into his solo career, Afu-Ra retains a large portion of the twisted genius he displayed while playing the boy wonder to Jeru the Damaja's crusader on Jeru records of the mid-'90s (in fact, even more than Jeru has). For Perverted Monks, he recruited three sidemen of his own (Solar Monk, Aqua Monk, and Caged Monk) along with some hot but anonymous producers, all done on a shoestring budget that puts the music first (and finds album design coming in dead last). Still a bit scattered with his interests, Afu-Ra and his crew try on all sorts of hats -- alternative rap, gangsta, dirty rap, ragga, digital Dirty South crunk -- but mostly stay close to home in the East Coast hardcore sound where he excels (and sounds most like his work with Jeru).