Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew’s newest release, Divide the Plunder, is both a “Best Of” and a remix album with a few new tracks as well. Featuring a couple of tracks from each of their previous releases, it showcases their career so far in addition to allowing new fans to join in on the fun. For O.P.s (Original Pirates — I have no idea if their old fans are called that, but they should be!) like me, the new tracks and live tracks (I’m honestly not a huge fan of remixes most of the time) give us a reason to pick up the new album as well.
In my recent interview with Captain Dan, he told a joke that compared gangstas (yeah, I know, my use of that word just sounds completely wrong and ridiculous) and pirates, saying that they both say, “Yo, ho!” I didn’t quite realize it at the time (probably because I was nervous doing my first Skype interview!), but comparing Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew to gangsta rap is actually quite apt. Many of the conventions of gangsta rap figure into Captain Dan’s music, but with piratical language: “wenches” and “Sallies” instead of “hos” (“Hoes”? “Ho’s”? How do you spell the plural of “ho”?), “booty” meaning both “treasure” (or money, a common theme in gangsta rap) as well as big butts (also common in gangsta rap). In fact, substitute a few words here and there and the first two tracks in particular (“Yo Ho Ho” and “From the Seas to the Streets”) could just as easily be about gangstas as about pirates.
Of course all of the tracks chosen for the “Best Of” part of the album are well chosen. “Broadside,” “Sea Monsters,” and “Flintlock Glock” are among my favorites. The latter two I specifically remember from seeing the Scurvy Crew live at Nerdapalooza back in 2010. “Broadside” is a rather bawdry rap battle between the British Royal Navy (represented by Admiralty) and the pirates (represented by Captain Dan, of course). In “Sea Monsters,” we learn that not only do sea monsters exist, but Captain Dan is the worst one of them all! And fitting in with the gangsta / pirate link is “Flintlock Glock” in which Dan raps about loving to shoot his gun.
The new tracks are also quite good. “Divide the Plunder,” the opening title track, sets up the rest of the album by comparing the tracks to plunder that they’ve chosen specifically for this album. I mentioned “Rap Like a Pirate” on my list of pirate tracks for International Talk Like a Pirate Day so no need to go into more detail here. The last new track is “Ninja Hater” which picks up on the battle between pirates and ninjas. Obviously the pirates win this round, but I’m very much hoping to hear an actual rap battle between Captain Dan and either HDNinja or Krondor Krew.
Divide the Plunder serves as a great introduction to the world of pirate rap. If you haven’t yet checked out Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew, or even if you have, go out and pick up this CD now.
Track Listing:
- Divide The Plunder (New Original) (3:02)
- Yo Ho Ho (Radio Edit) (3:41)
- From the Seas to the Streets (3:02)
- Rap Like a Pirate (2:33)
- Broadside (3:13)
- 7 Seas (3:03)
- It’s All About the Booty [Explicit] (3:48)
- Mutiny (Radio Edit) (2:45)
- Sea Monsters (Radio Edit) (3:25)
- Ninja Hater (New Original) (3:28)
- Ship to Ship (2:42)
- Pirates Code (3:43)
- Flintlock Glock (Radio Edit) (3:20)
- Sea Monsters (Nautical Mobsters Mix) (3:01)
- Rap Like a Pirate (Grogfest Mix) (2:59)
- Broadside (Salty Sea Dawg Mix) (3:11)
- Diggin For Gold- Live @ Nerdapalooza (2:52)
- Black Beard’s Treasure- Live @ Nerdapalooza (4:09)
- It’s All About The Booty- Live @ Nerdapalooza (3:54)
