It's that time of year again folks. It's time to break out the hooks and eyepatches, replace "you" with "ye" and start doing that scurvy pirate swagger. That's right kids, it's September 19th, which (aside from being the birthday of yours truly) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. While we've covered this very special day in the past, to great extent, we've never really delved into the appropriate soundtrack for the day. Well, if you are going to celebrate the day then you probably need a bit of instruction. That's when you turn to pirate rap extraordinaire Captain Dan and his aptly named Scurvy Crew of Scott Free, Sea Dawg & DJ Syko with their track "Rap Like a Pirate" off their new compilation CD Divide the Plunder.
If you aren't familiar with the maritime rhymes of Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew, they are regular performers at the annual Nerdapalooza festival in Orlando, as well as trolling around the southeast performing at local pirate festivals and rap fests. They also have a long standing rivalry with Ninja. That's actually the theme of one of the new tracks on this "greatest hits" CD "Ninja Hater." This delves into the long standing battle between pirates and ninja, taking some direct ribs at one particular ninja rap group also based in Florida. It's a great new track to add to a collection of engergized pirate rap songs. While this might not mean anything to most people, the track also falls in the middle of the CD. Normally on collections the new tracks at all at the end. This kind of thing matters to me.
For Divide the Plunder Captain Dan has edited some of their most well known tracks, such as "Flintlock Glock" and "Mutiny." He's done this to keep the parental advisory label off the album (as it's on the previous albums) in order to garner a larger - and younger - audience. While the curse words have been removed, the subject matter hasn't changed and a lot of it is not meant for younger ears. However, when I say younger I mean teens and not toddlers. So don't mistake Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew for some random pirate themed children's group. That they are certainly not.
They are scurvy treasure hunting, wench wrangling, sword swinging ninja killers. They make this quite clear in many of their tracks. They also are quite generous, as they point out in another new track on the album "Divide the Plunder." Yes, that's the title track and also the first track on the album which of course violates one of my rules about CD's, but I'll give them a pass on this one. In "Divide the Plunder" the Scurvy Crew raps about giving some of their best nautical raps back to the people, all one CD. Just in case they happen to lose all their treasure someday, we'll have their best on one CD.
The third new track on the album is "Rap Like a Pirate" which takes you through a basic schoolhouse lesson on how to act like a pirate in manner of speech, behavior and look. This is probably the track you need to start International Talk Like a Pirate Day off with. Enlisting the help of animator by Matt Beaudoin they've made a music video with that very theme. For your pirate learnin's and convenience (so you don't have to pillage anything to get it) I've posted it here.
In the spirit of giving, they've also added three live tracks to the collection, "Diggin for Gold," "Black Beard's Treasure," and "All About the Booty." I think I was in the crowd for one of those recordings. Not sure. These do come at the end of the CD, and a great way to end a fantastic collection of pirate rap, leaving the door open for a new studio album in the future.
WIRED How high a rating can I really give a compilation album? The three new tracks are definitely some of the best that they've released. The rest of the album is packed with their most entertaining pirate raps ever recorded.
TIRED I'm not a big fan of radio edits, especially after hearing the original unedited tracks. I understand the logic though, but I'd prefer the originals rife with curse words. Pirates curse.
Rating: 
Check out Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew on Facebook and Twitter if ye feel so inclined. You can get the CD on the Pirate Dan website, for the price of a nice pint of grog. If you prefer, it's also available for download via Amazon.com.
Image: Captain Dan
