Monday already got you staggering for the weekend? If so, may we prescribe this week's throwback album, which comes in the form of Ultramagnetic MCs high-voltage debut record, Critical Beatdown.
Born into Hip-hop's Golden Age, Ultramagetic MCs is a New York-based rap group rostered by TR Love, Moe Love, Ced Gee, and Kool Keith. Despite being their first album, Critical Beatdown gained notoriety as what critics acclaimed as a “classic” for its era, as well as Pitchfork's precise citation as “one that stands tall today as one of Golden Age's most ageless.”
The album features 15 tracks overflowing with sky's-the-limit energy, from hard-hitting hooks to razor-sharp beats and sounds. Honorable mentions go out to Keith's stand-out rhymes on “Watch Me Now”, as well as “Give The Drummer Some”'s very impressive creative design authored by the late Paul C.
If you're a Kool Keith fan, then you've most likely familiarized with his distinct enigmatic antics and multiple personas. Critical Beatdown, on the other hand, both depicts his earliest years into Hip-hop and foretells the journey of a brilliant lyricist. Add that with Ced Gee's cohesive production skills, and what you have is one-hundred percent, “electrifying” magnum opus.
What made this album stand out amongst a sea of several Hip-hop giants was its tremendously innovative design, showcasing funk-driven samples and unorthodox rhyme schemes, which the group exhibits flawlessly. And though the album released with modest reception, Melody Maker applauded it in retrospect, “full of scratch-tastic heavy beat, gold plated hip hop which manages to combine the minimalist ground-breaking Sugar Hill sounds with the show-no-mercy aural assault of the then-emerging Public Enemy.”
By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com
