Ultramagnetic MC's Albums (3)
What The Critics Say
The revived 2007 edition of the Ultramagnetic MC's finds Tim Dog gone and some new members, and as far as Kool Keith, he's excited and inspired for the most part. There are some grand Keith moments scattered about, and when he rhymes about Keyshia Cole in the bathroom or drops his great new alias on "Underwear Pissy," it's easy to remember why his complete disregard for quality control is forgiven so often. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Ultramagnetic's final album featured the foursome trying to balance Kool Keith's bizarro battle raps with the kinds of beats and rhymes that would put them in company with other East Coast groups like Gang Starr or EPMD. Surprisingly, The Four Horsemen was largely a live album, with a studio band attempting to reconstruct the classic hip-hop structure. Unfortunately, most of the results were muddy productions with little more than a stray brass line or two over the drummer's pedestrian East Coast beats. Only the opener, an instant classic named "We Are the Horsemen," approached the eccentric but head-nodding genius of their early material, though a few other tracks did feature interesting ideas: "Saga of Dandy, the Devil & Day" took a look at black baseball. Most of the other tracks should've been delegated to demo territory, with Kool Keith often reduced to endless repetitions of banal, baffling lines like this gem: "See that man on the street?/Who's at the corner, yeah!" ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
'Critical Beatdown'
Release Date 9/19/1991
Tracks 15
Label Next Plateau
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Besides being an undeniable hip-hop classic, the first album by the cult crew Ultramagnetic MC's introduced to the world the larger-than-life, one-of-a-kind personality of Kool Keith. That alone would make this some sort of landmark recording, but it also happens to be one of the finest rap albums from the mid- to late-'80s "new school" in hip-hop that numbered among its contributors Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, and Boogie Down Productions. Critical Beatdown easily stands with the classic recordings made by those giants, and it is, in some ways, more intriguing because of how short-lived Ultramagnetic turned out to be. It would be wrong to assume that the finest thing about the album is its lyrical invention. Lyrically the group is inspired, to be sure, but the production is equally forward-looking. Critical Beatdown is full of the sort of gritty cuts that would define hip-hop's underground scene, with almost every song sounding like an instant classic. Although he turns in a brilliant performance, Kool Keith had not yet taken completely off into the stratosphere at this early point. He still has at least one foot planted on the street and gives the album a viscerally real feel and accessibility that his later work sometimes lacks. His viewpoint is still uniquely and oddly individual, though, and he already shows signs of the freakish conceptualizing persona that would eventually surface fully under the guise of Dr. Octagon. If Kool Keith gives the album its progressive mentality and adrenaline rush, Ced-Gee gives it its street-level heft and is, in many ways, the album's core. Somewhere in the nexus between the two stylistic extremes, brilliant music emanated. Critical Beatdown maintains all its sharpness and every ounce of its power, and it has not aged one second since 1988. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
