Critical Beatdown is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Ultramagnetic MCs, released October 4, 1988, on Next Plateau Records. Production for the album was handled primarily by the group's rapper and producer Ced-Gee, who employed a E-mu SP-1200 sampler as the album's main instrument. Music writers have noted the album for its innovative production, funk-based samples, self-assertive themes, ingenious lyricism, and complex rhyme patterns.
Although it charted modestly upon its release, Critical Beatdown has since been acclaimed by music 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. Critical Beatdown was reissued by Roadrunner Records in 2004, with additional tracks.
Read more about Critical Beatdown: Background, Critical Reception, Track Listing, Personnel, Charts, Sample Use
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“It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)