Ultra-Stans RAISE YOUR HANDS!

Remember the weird kid in class? Not the booger picker or the dude that had the doo-doo breath and big ass dandruff but the kinda cool kid that talked to them? The one you would scratch your head and ask: "Why the hell is he doing that?" Ultra was that weird kid. In 1988 when It Takes A Nation Of Millions was making most of my friends angry at "the man", Critical Beatdown was making me nod my head. It's not that they didn't care it's just that it wasn't their niche.

Sometimes I feel Ultra gets a little disrespected with their place in "history". While Keith's rhymes are definitely some of the most bizarre lyrical tangents on wax, Ced's production is often overlooked. He was one of the first producers to cull different samples together and form cohesive songs from that...yes, pre-Bomb Squad! His uncredited work on BDP's Criminal Minded will attest to that. A perfect example of this is Traveling At The Speed of Thought with it's guitar-heavy, "Wild Thing" sampled riff.

After Beatdown they released Funk Your Head Up, which to me missed it's mark and didn't really stand out other than the immortal Poppa Large and the subsequent East and West Coast remixes(if anyone has that West Coast, holla!). The Four Horsemen is actually my favorite Ultra album. With the assistance of Godfather Don on the boards, they really laid down some dope shit. Raise It Up has my second favorite Keith verse (They said yo Keith yo Kool you usin big words/I went to college I'm even more stupid herb). Also give The Saga of Dandy, The Devil & Day, Yo Black and the Man On The Street a listen. More of a companion to the first album then Funk in my opinion.

For nostalgia's sake, I'm putting up Beatdown for a limited time.

Critical Beatdown-Ultramagnetic MC's

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZWPG0RH9

If you want to get Horsemen which is a great album, purchase it here:
The Four Horsemen -Ultramagnetic MC's