Four years after the debut, Ultramagnetic MC's led by Kool Keith are back to release a studio album: while "Critical Beatdown" would have been one of the best albums in 1992 as well, its sequel wouldn't have been good even in 1988.
The debut is too far ahead of its time, while the sophomore is too far behind. In 1992 Kool Keith kills "Poppa Large", a cut that Mercury Records/Polygram decides to make as promotional single of this album: this song gets a good radio and television airplay and worthily promotes the album, however, for incomprehensible reasons, it doesn't find space within the disc itself. Boom bap sublime, jazzy samples, dark vibes, dope delivery and flawless flow by Kool Keith, in an indisputable banger that ultimately turns out to be a remix from East Coast producers Da Beatminerz. In place of this remix, the original song is inserted at the end of the disc: probably self-produced, boom bap lo-fi funky simple and mediocre, it doesn't maintain the same vibes of the remix, unfortunately.
This is the first of a long series of mistakes that almost immediately sink the LP. The funky production at its best is decent and weak or mediocre for much of the listening, the drum machine is hard and lean but sounds light and weak for some reason, while the group's lyricism is average; the guys here are limited to a few tunes in battle rap, several purely braggadocio choices and some extravagant fillers or on the theme of girls. Kool Keith works hard and his delivery is often good, but Ced Gee and TR Love, despite being featured with several verses over the record, it's as if they weren't there. Very bloated and too long album, 23 songs, 8 skits, for a total length of seventy minutes: apart from the numerous fillers (the pop-R&B attempt "I Like Your Style" is among the least successful), many joints are exhausting, "Porno Star" comes in at seven minutes, Tim Dog comes to help the band and although some bars are fun, the slow beat reminds Too Short, this tune doesn't quite work.
Generic and disappointing album, not recommended. 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment