TRACKLISTING

01. Watch Me Now
02. Ease Back
03. Ego Trippin’ (MC’s Ultra Remix)
04. Moe Luv’s Theme
05. Kool Keith Housing Things
06. Travelling At The Speed of Thought (Remix)
07. Feelin’ it
08. One Minute Less
09. Ain’t It Good To You
10. Funky (Remix)
11. Give The Drummer Some
12. Break North
13. Critical Beatdown
14. When I Burn
15. Ced-Gee (Delta Force One)

Critical Beatdown is the debut full-length LP by the hip hop group known as the Ultramagnetic MCs. Released in 1988, it was the first full-length example of the influential style of the MCs: the bizarre, lyrical imagery, the unexpected and unpredictable polysyllabic rhymes and the innovative sampling. It has since been lauded as an underground classic, despite its failure in unit sales. Kool Keith is usually regarded the driving force behind the vocal style of the record, but most songs featured group member Ced-Gee (“Delta Force One”) as well. (Although he appears on the album cover, member TR Love did not vocally contribute on this record. At this point in time, TR had only rhymed on “Feelin’ It”, the B-side of the Watch Me Now 12″ single.) Produced by Ced Gee, the album features audio sampling techniques that had rarely, if ever, been used previously. In particular, Ced’s syncopated drops of chopped, out-of-context samples (building on the E-mu SP-12, the E-mu SP-1200 predecessor), along with his production work on the majority of Boogie Down Productions’ seminal Criminal Minded, have led some to credit Ced Gee, and Critical Beatdown, as among the critical sources of the so-called golden age of sampling. As it samples many other albums, so has Beatdown been sampled many times since in other hip-hop and electronic records. While it wasn’t a sample (Kool Keith re-recorded the lyrics), the song “Give the Drummer Some” is notable for providing the lyrics of the controversial 1997 hit “Smack My Bitch Up” by the Prodigy.

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