Critical Beatdown x Ultramagnetic MCs

[waterproof]

THE SOURCE GAVE

to

Ultramagnetic MC's Critical Beatdown (1988)

THE SOURCE - Kool Keith became the lyrically perverted Dr. Octagon, he was the left-field rap pugilist who pulled no punches. He used the wop-inducing “Ego Trip,” which successfully jacked the classic “Substitution” breakbeat drum patterns (bah-boom b-b-b-bap, boom-b-b-b-bap) to blast Run-DMC’s “Peter Piper” (“Say what, Peter Piper?/Hell with childish rhymes”).

Ced G, Ultra’s production arm, who also laid the musical foundation for KRS’s Criminal Minded, took hip-hop tracks to nerdy heights, pairing obscure samples and doeses of technical know-how with Keith’s lyrical oddballing. Critical Beatdown’s underground aesthetic, which included sampling Star Wars on “Ease Back,” predated the backpack-and-notebook scene that emerged much later.

With Beatdown, Ultra stood on rap’s periphery throwing stones at its central figures, thumbing their noses at the parade of MCs who passed them by to claim prominent places in hip-hop history. And so, one of hip-hop’s most original albums received critical acclaim but has been beat down by the passage of time.

 

[_Goldie_]

Did Rakim, LL or anybody they dissed respond to them?

 

[waterproof]

Just listened to the whole album, its definitely a classic with alot of replay value even in this day and age. Kool Keith in 1988 was lyrically better than most niggas who´s out today.. Favorite song off the album is definitely track 2 ¨Ease Back¨

@Younggoldie that's the shocker right??????? it still have replay value every other month or so i play this album and the lyrics are still fresh and the production is still banging.

and Kool Keith was in a zone, now i know why every track he and Ced-Gee didnt let up because of for Kool Keith he said in a interview about the lyrics on the album

Kool Keith: Paul C was the person that really made me get tight on my lyrics. I was so egotistical that I thought nobody really could tell me to rock my vocals over. But he was the coolest person, and the first person of my studio life to get me in that area of not rockin' a bad verse. He would say, 'You didn't sound like you meant it on Break North, you didn't sound like you wanna hit it on Ease Back'. And for Give The Drummer Some, he had the drums, he had the Dee Felice Trio record [There Was A Time, sampled on Give The Drummer Some].

 

[waterproof]

Did Rakim, LL or anybody they dissed respond to them?

@Younggoldie i see you caught that line when Kool Keith said that he snatch the kangol of your head , Rakim didnt answer back, nor did Run DMC ego trippin was about The 3 Kings and i was shocked that LL COOL J didnt snap back for that Kangol line because if anybody was talking bout kangol in a disrespectful way LL took it as a diss to him because LL was known for his Kangols

 

[_Goldie_]

I first noticed the shot he took at Rakim when he said this on ¨Kool Keith Housing things¨

They not ready, they don't smell done

like fish, it ain't my favorite dish

I grab a steak and to battle I wish

a Coke MC or Pepsi I'll sip up

Drop your face and bring the other lip up

Then I watched the ¨ Traveling at the speed of thought¨video , and they had mfs dressed up ass Kool Moe Dee , Slick Rick and LL. Im suprised nobody said shit.. They called the nigga LL Cool Wack lol

 

[Disciplined InSight]

Crazy dope thread. Props to the Aqua for this Hip Hop 101. This is why niggas need to check, research and respect the Hip Hop music before them.

Ultramagnetic MC's (especially Kool Keith) was on that odd ball, "I'm a martian, not a human being" themed shit waaaaay before Lil Wayne. You can even see some of Ghostface's and MF Doom's style from Kool Keith. He definitely doesn't get enough props.

 

[king hassan]

@Waterproof, college radio was good for playing dope hip hop mixes back in the day. I used to record all night during that 6 hour span of hip hop music being played

@kinghassan damn the whole six hours, i bet your tape collection was crazy, i bet every friday for allowance you was at the store buying packages of tapes. you had shoebox's full on tapes in the cover with the tracklisted inside the tape cover,lol....i used to do that shit, lol..

in the late 80's on fridays nights i used to stay up and wait for the mixtape shows it always started around 11pm and i tried but i couldnt stay up, i got to the point that i record the whole show, wake up flip the tape over and record again with the commericals and all...

LOL I would'nt be up the whole time. Back then they had those boom boxes that would record and automatically flip over to record the other side. I may wake up when it stopped and put another one in. Then the next day while you listening to it then you'd find out what you recorded. I don't know what happend to all those tapes, and when I went to the Navy in 1991 of course I could'nt record anymore. But those Friday and Saturday night mixes used to be the shit. And a pack of tapes were'nt that expesive so we'd cop a gang of 6 and 12 packs of them

 

[waterproof]

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown

t was the golden age of hip hop, Eric B. and Rakim were getting paid in full, no one was afraid to commercially sample The Beatles and thankfully Soulja Boy was yet to be conceived. In 1988 the Ultramagnetic MC's released one of hip hop's finest, innovative, but unfortunately lesser known albums, an album that still finds itself rotating on my playlist.

So how does the album sound 20 years later? Unsurprisingly it does sound like an album from 1988, this is partly due to the recording quality - it sounds a bit quiet and lacking sharpness and the 2004 remastered version doesn't do much to fix this. This may put some of the less patient readers off, but those willing to stick around will find some of hip hop's finest rapping, most creative lyrics and influential sampling techniques. Speaking of sampling, before the the Wu-Tang were sampling Kung Fu flicks Ultra were sampling films such as Star Wars.

Kool Keith is the album's protagonist stealing the spotlight on the mic, but unlike on The Best Kept Secret Ced Gee shines and provides a great dynamic, this is especially evident on Ease Back and Ego Trippin where Keith and Ced go to-and-fro.

Critical Beatdown is a true hip hop classic, while it has aged it is still the Ultramagnetic MC's finest album and has plenty to offer. For those looking for early Kool Keith or for old school (or the original new school) hip hop then you can't do much better than this.

 

[waterproof]

Ultramagnetic MC's - Ego Trippin', Live in Brooklyn, NY


Ultramagnetic MC's - Funky / Ease Back / Break North, Live in Brooklyn, NY
=relmfu

 

[Tommy bilfiger]

Good thread b

BUT...

Funk yo head up and the four horsemen are better albums imo than critical beatdown


This my favorite ultramagnetic mc's song I love this shit

 

[waterproof]

Good thread b

BUT...

Funk yo head up and the four horsemen are better albums imo than critical beatdown


This my favorite ultramagnetic mc's song I love this shit

dope albums but it wasnt groundbreaking like critical beatdown, critical beatdown was groundbreaking from the rhymes to production, the album was some new shit for it's time

 

[white715]

Dope thread

I never expected a thread about Critical Beatdown but major props we need more like this

And shout out to Paul C a true unsung hero in Hip-Hop

 

[plocc]

Dope thread

I never expected a thread about Critical Beatdown but major props we need more like this

And shout out to Paul C a true unsung hero in Hip-Hop

One of the better threads to come around in a loooooonnnnng time. So much childishness in the reason so I rarely visit. I started a D.O.C. appreciation thread and was dissapointed by the lack of responses for such a classic album. But critical beatdown was my shit. Ease back is one of the best hiphop songs ever made. I dj'd for a hobby so I was a vinyl savage. But I bought this album simply because of the album cover. I was like damn, these cats look like theyre raw, and when I got it home, I was like damn. I bet any money I had to be one of the first cats in Milwaukee with this album, much less, wisconsin, cause between here and Chicago cats wasnt really rockin eastcoast rap like that, other than LL, Whodini, Run Dmc, Stetsasonic, or BDP. PE, and Rakim hadnt really caught on yet. It was mostly house music, booty music, or bass music, Geto Boys, or N.W.A. and Too Short.

As far as pause tape mixes go, I was the king in my hood. I only used memorex's or maxell's with the hi bias for the extra clean crispy effect. Aint nothing like fresh vinyl recorded on a high quality cassette. I specialized in Zapp, Soul Sonic Force, and Go-Go mixes, and really anything on Tommy Boy. I had a Pac-Jam pause mix that lasted one whole side of a 90 minute tape. Aaaahhhhh, the memories.

 

[waterproof]

Dope thread

I never expected a thread about Critical Beatdown but major props we need more like this

And shout out to Paul C a true unsung hero in Hip-Hop

One of the better threads to come around in a loooooonnnnng time. So much childishness in the reason so I rarely visit. I started a D.O.C. appreciation thread and was dissapointed by the lack of responses for such a classic album. But critical beatdown was my shit. Ease back is one of the best hiphop songs ever made. I dj'd for a hobby so I was a vinyl savage. But I bought this album simply because of the album cover. I was like damn, these cats look like theyre raw, and when I got it home, I was like damn. I bet any money I had to be one of the first cats in Milwaukee with this album, much less, wisconsin, cause between here and Chicago cats wasnt really rockin eastcoast rap like that, other than LL, Whodini, Run Dmc, Stetsasonic, or BDP. PE, and Rakim hadnt really caught on yet. It was mostly house music, booty music, or bass music, Geto Boys, or N.W.A. and Too Short.

As far as pause tape mixes go, I was the king in my hood. I only used memorex's or maxell's with the hi bias for the extra clean crispy effect. Aint nothing like fresh vinyl recorded on a high quality cassette. I specialized in Zapp, Soul Sonic Force, and Go-Go mixes, and really anything on Tommy Boy. I had a Pac-Jam pause mix that lasted one whole side of a 90 minute tape. Aaaahhhhh, the memories.

@plocc is the thread title No Can Do It Better if not change the title to D.O.C. NO ONE CAN DO IT BETTER so i can find and up that thread because i like to contribute to that thread on that classic album with the history behind the album like i did for this thread, I was a big NWA fan and I was in jr high when that album dropped one of my favorite albums of all times.

yeah those memorex's was ill because it was black N gold when you have one of those tapes people know you meant business because to me at that time those tapes wasnt cheap at all,,,,,,,,

i am going to have to make a thread on the mixtape, pause tape BOOM BOX culture in hip-hop.

 

[a.mann]

a Ultramagnetic appreciation thread in the Reason in this day and age???

I'm speechless and very,very impressed

SUPER DOPER MAJOR PROPS!!

 

[Therecanonlybeone]

Bruse Wane.. Rocking Out On Stage With Kool Keith.. #r.e.s.p.e.c.t_Niggaz

 

[Mr. Caesar]

Nice thread. You put me in a zone with this one; in fact, I'm bumping "Break North" as I type this. This album blew my mind back in '88. It was 'sick genius' defined. A lot of classic albums dropped in '88, but this one, PE's It Takes a Nation... and Stet's In Full Gear were in a dead-heat for the year's best.

 

[waterproof]

Nice thread. You put me in a zone with this one; in fact, I'm bumping "Break North" as I type this. This album blew my mind back in '88. It was 'sick genius' defined. A lot of classic albums dropped in '88, but this one, PE's It Takes a Nation... and Stet's In Full Gear were in a dead-heat for the year's best.

Full Gear with it's mixing and live production from them Being a band had a brother adjusting his levels on the boom box because i wasnt use to that shit being that clear and hearing different instruments so i wanted to hear every drum pattern, horns, bass and everything, lol......

Straight Outta Compton with Dr. Dre, PE with the Bomb Squad and Ultra with Ced-Gee production was taking hip-hop to another level in 88

 

[a.mann]

c/o homie

that 4 Houseman album was pretty ill too

straight classic here

Ultramagnetic MC's - Raise It Up
=related

 

[king hassan]

Raise it UP was that shit!