Critical Beatdown

Critical Beatdown
Studio album by
Ultramagnetic MCs
ReleasedOctober 4, 1988 (1988-10-04)
Recorded1986–1988
GenreHip hop
Length50:01
LabelNext Plateau
Producer
Ultramagnetic MCs chronology
Critical Beatdown
(1988) 		Funk Your Head Up
(1992)
Singles from Critical Beatdown
  1. "Ego Trippin'"
    Released: 1986
  2. "Travelling at the Speed of Thought"
    Released: 1987
  3. "Funky"
    Released: 1987
  4. "Watch Me Now"
    Released: 1988
  5. "Ease Back"
    Released: 1988
  6. "Give the Drummer Some"
    Released: 1989

Critical Beatdown is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Ultramagnetic MCs, released on October 4, 1988, by Next Plateau Records.[1] The album was produced primarily by the group's rapper and producer Ced-Gee, who employed an E-mu SP-1200 sampler as the album's main instrument. Music journalists have noted the album for its innovative production, funk-based samples, self-assertive themes, and clever lyrical rhymes by Ced-Gee and rapper Kool Keith.

Although it charted modestly on release, Critical Beatdown has since been acclaimed by critics as a classic album of hip hop's "golden age" and new school aesthetic. The album's abstract rhymes in strange syncopations laid on top of sampling experiments proved widely influential, from Public Enemy to gangsta rap to several generations of underground hip hop artists.[2][3][4][5] Critical Beatdown was reissued by Roadrunner Records in 2004, with additional tracks.

  1. ^ "Hip-Hop's Greatest Year: Fifteen Albums that Made Rap Explode". Rolling Stone. February 12, 2008. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  2. ^ Shapiro 2005, p. 376.
  3. ^ Shapiro 2003, p. 161.
  4. ^ Jenkins et al. 1999, pp. 331–337.
  5. ^ Coleman 2007.