Betty Boo Boomerang Review: What Goes Around Comes Around

The rapper-singer’s first album in 30 years exists in its own out-of-time universe, where Brit-pop, pop-rap, and disco coexist.

Betty Boo, Boomerang
Photo: Betty Boo

Alison Clarkson, better known to beat heads as Betty Boo, was discovered by Public Enemy after freestyling for the group at a West London McDonald’s in 1987. The Malaysian-Scottish rapper, singer, and songwriter became a household name in the U.K., buoyed by hits like “Hey DJ/I Can’t Dance (To That Music You’re Playing),” a collaboration with Rhythm King stalwarts the Beatmasters. After her more pop-centric second album, the gloriously titled GRRR! It’s Betty Boo, landed with more of a purr than a growl, Clarkson left the industry, but not before turning down an offer to sign with Madonna’s then-fledgling record label.

Clarkson was embraced more by American club DJs than urban radio in the early ’90s, but her brand of dance-oriented pop-rap helped create the template for crossover hits by many of today’s female hip-hop artists. With its disco strings, cowbell, and rapped verses juxtaposed with luscious pop hooks, “Shining Star”—a standout cut from Clarkson’s belated third album, Boomerang—would sound inconspicuous alongside Doja Cat’s “Say So” or “Kiss Me More.”

But aside from that track, and the Auto-Tuned vocals of the rock-tinged “Nobody Can Bring Me Down” and the sinuous “S.O.S.,” there’s little connection between the album and contemporary hip-hop. Nor is there much in the way of the late-’80s hip-house that initially put Clarkson on the map. Boomerang exists in its own out-of-time universe, where Brit-pop, pop-rap, and disco coexist, and where gangsta rap, alternative hip-hop, and trap music never happened.

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The effervescent title track is stacked with micro-hooks, while the reggae-infused “Bright Lights,” which finds Clarkson reminiscing about her salad days as a b-girl, is a mix of deep dub bass and sugary pop that recalls “Hollaback Girl”-era Gwen Stefani. But while it’s adeptly produced and mixed, Boomerang lacks the bite of Clarkson’s underrated debut, Boomania, whose cartoonish pop-rap was shrewdly tempered by sleek, unassuming house tracks.

Lyrically, Boomerang is less combative than Clarkson’s early albums, focused mostly on having a good time, though “Never Too Late” touches on the artist’s own personal and professional journey: “If you wanna go back to the way things were/Then you gotta find a way to start all over.” From the album’s frothy, Human League-sampling opening track, “Get Me to the Weekend,” to the rousing “Hell Yeah,” the album risks tipping into toxic positivity (Clarkson’s old pal, Chuck D, is sadly wasted on the terminally optimistic “Miracle”).

Clarkson’s lyrical references, which include Frank Sinatra and Kool & the Gang, are charmingly antiquated, and a subtle nod to Kriss Kross’s 1992 hit “Jump” during the bridge of the aptly titled “Stop Your Nonsense (Bubblegum Pop!)” lands on just the right side of clever given that the entire album pretends like the last three decades didn’t exist. Clarkson has called Boomerang “the record I should have made when I was 25,” and in many ways it sounds like it was, proving that sometimes what goes around really does come around again.

Score: 
 Label: Betty Boo  Release Date: October 14, 2022  Buy: Amazon

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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