THE ULTRAMAGNETIC MC'S
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Well... it all started back in one of the most magical years in hip-hop's history, 1986. At that time, you had this sensation known as Rakim tearing up the microphone, KRS and MC Shan were right in the middle of one of the most prolific MC battles in history, and a little known group called the Ultramagnetic MC's (MC's Kool Keith, T.R. Love, Ced Gee and DJ Moe Love) dropped the all-out classic 12" 'Ego Trippin'/Funky Potion':
This first commercially released 12" from Ultra was (and still is) monumental for many reasons:
The jam is just movin'/(KK) After this, Kool Keith and Ced Gee each drop very memorable verses followed by a brief interlude by Ultra DJ, Moe Love, and then continue with yet another verse each. Kool Kieth
They use a simple back and forth/ Sure, credit should be given where credit is due and, yes, Ced Gee drops some great lines in this song; however, it is that crazy Kool Keith who catches the listener's ear. Line after line, he drops verses that "will stun and amaze you", it is simply incredible! All I can say, is 'Ego Trippin'' is 5:21 minutes of pure, classic hip-hop. On the B-Side of this album is yet another great track called 'Funky Potion'. The actual format of the song is quite similar to 'Ego Trippin'': Ced and KK start off with a brief exchange between each other and then proceed to drop individual verses. Naturally, it would be very hard for ANYONE to match the quality and energy of 'Ego Trippin', but Ultra did a very decent job with this track. The opening verse between the two MC's was really not that great but then the track really picks up after that with Ced and KK continuing to drop verse after verse of great lyrics. On the production side, Ced-Gee comes through yet again with a really bassy track that thumps along at a furious pace. It's amazing, but after listening to this 12", you really begin to feel that Ultra is on the brink of something really big. I've actually been told on many occasions that there was a 12" Ultra released before "Ego Trippin". A very helpful person by the name of Infinite was able to provide the following listing & title:
Apparantly, they released it under the name Bronx Vice with Red Alert. I've never heard them personally but they're supposedly on a more freaky sex tip than most of the Critical Beatdown material - somewhat of a prelude to KK's wierdness. Ziggy-Zag talks about loving your vinyl and shit...sounds pretty crazy!!! Again, this info is not 100% accurate but I'd say it's pretty damn close. I'll probably never get sound files for these unless someone wants to spread the wealth to me...PLEASE!!! Ultra's commercial release was another 12" which came out about a year later and was called "Travelling at the Speed of Thought":
'Travelling...' had a very different sound to it than 'Ego Trippin'. It had much more of a party-like feel to it and really didn't have much of the complexity of their previous release. It's strange, but Ultra really went back to the basics using an almost RUN-DMC style of rapping; however, don't get me wrong, this was still a great track. It featured more of Ced-Gee's innovative production highlighted by really cool sampling and it was interlaced with some cool lines too. The B-side to this 12", as most Ultramagnetic fans would agree, was the real prize. 'MC's Ultra (Part II)' was a very intense 5 minute track which sounds as though it was meant to be some sort of a sequel to 'Ego Trippin'. Anyhow, Keith and Ced drop some incredibly hype lyrics over the thumping tight beats in this song. In addition, there were no real changes to the overall format of the song in relation to their previous release (hey, why mess with a good thing anyways!!): KK and Ced start of the song together with a cool introduction and then proceed to rhyme individualy for the rest of the song.
Party people's in the place to be...
(Kool Keith & Ced Gee together) I think you get the idea of what this song is all about... The next record released by Ultra was the "Menatally Mad/Funky" 12".
Just when you thought the Ultramagnetic MC's totally outdid themselves on their previous 2 records, they come in with a 12" that's equally as good as "Ego Trippin/Funky Potion" and maybe even better than the "Travelling..." 12". 'Mentally Mad' is pretty much a self-explanitory track. Ced-Gee and Kool Keith go totally nuts and tell us how crazy they are. My only complaint about this song is that their voices aren't very clear and it really is quite difficult to make out what they're saying. Yet this is LARGELY overshadowed by the complexity of Ced Gee's production on this track. He really is becoming a leader in the use of the newfound sampling technology with a collage of sounds that no one else would ever dream of throwing together. Essentially, 'Mentally Mad' is a must have for any Ultra fan. The B-Side to this record is pretty much the second best song Ultra has ever made next to 'Ego Trippin'. 'Funky' reaches perfection in many ways:
I think by now, you pretty much get the picture of what Ultra is all about. They aren't a Public Enemy/De La Soul type of group which creates songs with deep meanings and social commentary nor are they a typical battle group which claims they are the greatest MC's on the planet. Sure, their style so far is very braggadocio, but they just do things differently to other groups. You really get this feeling that they are hundreds of years ahead of their time with their advanced lyrics and beat making. If it weren't for Ultra paving the way for this new brand of hip-hop music, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have legendary MC's like Organized Konfusion, Company Flow, and Rass Kass nor producers like DJ Premier. In fact, "Criminal Minded" might not have been the album it was if it weren't for Ced-Gee. Ultra's following two 12"s, "Watch Me Now" and "Ease Back" were starting to show a more polished side to Ultra's music.
Don't get me wrong, these are still two great records simply because Ultra have really cleaned up the production and their deliveries in these songs. For now, the raw and uncut feel of their previous records is officially gone as Ultra begin to set themselves up for the release of their debut LP "Critical Beatdown". Although most of my favorite material from Ultra comes from their first three records, I really feel that they've achieved a perfect balance of complexity (both lyrically and musically) and listenability with "Watch Me Now" and "Ease Back". Each song features a really deep, pounding bass combined with nice crispy highs. With FIVE incredible 12"'s behind them, the Ultramagnetic MC's decided to unleash one of the greatest LP's ever made: "Critical Beatdown".
This LP placed Ultra in the same light as Eric B. & Rakim, BDP, and Run-DMC as being one of the few artists in that era who have been able to give their fans a solid album from front to back. On the other hand, a few still viewed it as somewhat dissapointing in terms of the selection of some of the tracks on the album:
About a year later, after the release of "Critical Beatdown", Ultra rounded out their barrage of 12"'s with two album cuts "Give the Drummer Some/Moe Luv's Theme" and "Travelling at the Speed of Thought":
And as a special treat...here's an entire live performance of A Chorus Line (Live from London). Everyone except for Tim Dog did some nice freestyles...and I included all of the performance including Ultra's pre and post performace chatting on stage. Oh yeah, I totally forgot the name of the person who gave this to me...but if you come accross this page...drop me a line. "Give the Drummer..." was essentially an album for the club and radio DJ's which featured a radio version (remixes) and instrumentals of the LP versions of the two songs. However, the second release of "Travelling..." easily matches (if not surpasses) the first release in terms of quality and is considered yet another must have for true hip-hop fans. The A-Side to "Travelling..." features two different mixes of the LP version but contain two more hype verses by KK and Ced-Gee. The Hip-House mix was an obvious attempt at getting them some more radio play but still bumps along quite nicely (same goes for the radio version). But what most Ultra fans will tell you is that the real prize on this record is the incredible B-Side track called 'A Chorus Line'. As one of the hardest and roughest tracks ever made by this group, 'A Chorus Line' introduces us to two other Ultra members: T.R. Love and Tim Dog. Tim Dog came off pretty good on this song, dropping some pretty good rhymes with his deep and abrasive voice and T.R. Love managed to display some half-decent lyrical ability as well. Still, it was Ced-Gee and Kool Keith who stole the show with their incredible chemistry and terrific word play. BTW, do I need to mention that Ced put together yet another brilliant track...
Whew... Before we move on, I should point out a lovely little compilation which featured one of the hottest & most sought after Ultra track of the 80's, 'Bait'. This was actually a song released off the legendary Red Alert Goes Berzerk Compilation album (which also included the full length 12" version of 'Ego Trippin'):
Oh yeah, there's apparently a promo version of 'Bait' which features all four verses which were later to appear on the "B-Sides Companion" compilation. Anyone with info, pleeeeaaaasssseeeee let me know!!! After about a couple year's break, Ultra decided to break off from Next Plateau and joined a much larger label called Mercury. Although Next Plateau were VERY supportive of all the work Ultra had put forth up until now, the group felt it was time that they try to gain a little more exposure and finally tap into the large fan base that hip-hop was starting to receive.
 Their first release was the much anticipated 12" called "Make it Happen". As most Ultra fans would agree, this was a promising start for the group on their new label. 'Make it Happen' was very much liked by the underground and the B-Side, 'A Chorus Line Pt. 2', was keeping in line with the quality of the original 'A Chorus Line'. Still, after the release of this very good record, fans were becoming impatient with Ultra as it had been nearly 4 years since they dropped "Critical Beatdown".
In '92, the group unleashed their second full-length LP, "Funk Your Head Up":
Sadly, though, many of Ultra's fans were very dissapointed with the outcome of this album. Many did not like the production or they felt Ultra had changed their style way too much to appeal to a broader fan base. In any event, this album was VERY different to "Critical Beatdown". Sure, it still had some great lyrics and pretty hype production on quite a few of the tracks, yet it still lacked the power and influence that "Critical Beatdown" and many of their 12"'s had on hip-hop music back in the 80's. With NWA, Native Tongues, Main Source, and many others reaching their prime, there was just no room for a group like Ultra anymore. People were tired of their style and were looking at other groups for inspiration. Oh well... It should be noted that there were still some great songs on this album that people should know about. Of course, 'Poppa Large', 'Make it Happen', 'A Chorus Line Pt. 2', are obvious choices, but 'Pluckin' Cards' and 'MC Champion' were very well put together songs which featured some classic rhymes and trademark Ced-Gee production. Before moving on, Ultra did manage to release a follow-up 12" to "Funk Your Head Up", "Poppa Large".
What's truly remarkable about this record is not the fact that it comes very close to "Ego Trippin/Funky" in terms of quality and that they managed to woo their long lost fans back with these remixes, it was that Mercury all of a sudden dropped them from the label just when they started regain the respect of the hip-hop community. Anyways, what made this record so good was the incredible work of the almighty Beatminerz on the 'East Coast Mix' and then the slammin' DJ Pooh remix for the 'West Coast Mix'. Both of the mixes are very nice but the 'East Coast Mix' really kicks ass. The Beatminerz demonstrated some of their early signs of brilliance on this extremely hype remix, a wicked combination with the flow of Rhythm X himself...It should be noted that this was one of the first times that very influencial players from both coasts came together to work on an album together. Unlike some other useless East/West pairings of late (Nas & Dr. Dre comes to mind), this one actually works really well, further showing what hip-hop has been missing due to the useless coastal wars. After being left out in the cold by Mercury's idiotic record exec's, they managed to regroup and sign on with a credible hip-hop label called Wild Pitch. By '93, they released their third LP entitled "The Four Horsemen":
This album is a neat little piece of work for many reasons:
The "Ego Trippin" of this album has got to be 'Raise It Up'. With help from Godfather Don both behind the boards and on the mic, Ultra managed to give us a very smoooooth and jazzy track with some very nice & polished rhymes from KK, Don and Ced. We then move onto a funny little track called 'Two Brothers With Checks', hmmm... I've never really figured out what's going on in this song but I still like it. Two other extremely tight tracks have got to be the Kool Keith solos: 'Checkin' My Style' and 'One, Two, One, Two'. You really begin to believe that Keith hasn't lost a damn thing since the CB days when you hear him rip it up over these tracks. Other notable dope songs are definitely 'We Are The Horseman', 'See The Man On The Street', and 'Don't Be Scared'.
 Oh yeah, as I mentioned before, there are numerous references to baseball throughout this album (they even mentioned my favorite team on 'Two Brothers...', the Montreal Expos). The excellent 'Saga of Dandy, The Devil, and Day' was a wonderful (and THOROUGH) dedication to some of the incredible players and events of the Negro Baseball Leagues in the 40's. Even the track itself was nice to listen to with its smooth, jazzy production. Well, I guess that pretty much sums up the album. In terms of quality, it fits somewhere between "Critical Beatdown" and "Funk Your Head Up". Again, mega props have to go out to Ultra for being able to come out of all that disasterous label mess (which usually leads to the undoing of 95% of MC's these days) and dropping a very solid, yet sadly underrated, LP. After the release of this LP, Ultra released two 12"'s:
The "Two Brothers..." 12" was really nothing special, just your standard LP versions with instrumentals. However, they did manage to pick the two most bugged-out songs on the entire LP which pretty much saves the 12" from being a total waste. I'm sure this would make a fine addition to any DJ's collection. On the other hand, "Raise It Up" was a very strong 12", featuring nice remixes of both tracks. Personally, I really didn't think there was much of a need for a remix to 'Raise It Up' as it was so good to begin with, but I guess it makes for a nice change of pace once in a while. The 'Saga...' remix is actually much better than the original track. It would definitely take the title for being the most laid-back track that has ever come from the Ultramagnetic crew. With the poor sales of this album, the Ultramagnetic MC's pretty much went MIA for a couple of years and I guess everyone went their seperate ways - being the most underrated and slept on MC's has got to take its toll. In '95, however, Kool Keith re-surfaced on the solo tip doing a rediculously large number of projects under different aliases (Dr. Octogon, Big Willie Smith, Sinister6000, Mr. Gerbik, Mr. Clean, 'Ultra' [with Tim Dog], and Reverend Tom). Two other members of the crew, Moe Luv & TR Love also had a hand in a few of these obscure and strange projects. Obviously, if I were to get into these on this page, it would end up being over 50K (in text alone!!!) so be sure to check out the Kool Keith page for more details. On another note, there was still one Ultramagnetic member who really hasn't done too much since their latest album and he is Ced-Gee. Now, there have been all sorts of silly rumours floating around him, but the truth is that there has been some sort of a break-up of the crew over Ced's selling of all of Ultra's unreleased material to Tuff City. Apparently, he did this without the consent of the other members and it led to the creation of 'Ultra' - since they obviously couldn't use the 'Ultramagnetic MC's' name. Anyways, one LP and two 12"'s (that I know of) were released under the 'Ultra' name and then 3 LP's & 2 12"s were additionally released by Tuff City. For all the controversy and contempt held against Tuff City and the Ultra releases, "Basement Tapes" is pretty good:
By far, the best songs are 'Make You Shake', a really eerie distorted song recorded on a 4-track; 'Get A Job', a self-explanitory track; and of course the very nice 'Brainiac'. Many Ultra fans would also discover two songs on here which sound very similar to existing material that they released from CB. 'You Got To Feel It' could very well have been a remix-type track for 'Feelin It' and of course, 'We're Ultra (Part III)' was some sort of continuation/remix for 'MC's Ultra (Part II)'. Ah well, not bad, but all in all, this really is material for the hardcore Ultra fan as most others really couldn't (or wouldn't) appreciate these tracks very much. On the other hand, "New York What Is Funky" as well as the 12" were not that great at all:
I really thought these were a waste of time, even for big time Ultra fans. I don't know, it just seems like total overkill to release more demo stuff (of even lesser quality!!!). If you really wanted to know, 'I'm Fuckin Flippin', 'Grip The Mic', and 'New York What Is Funky' are pretty much the only half-decent tracks on this...everthing else is pretty awful. And this brings us to the next slew of demo/basement/unreleased Ultra stuff, "Moe Luv's Basement Tapes" (for which I don't have any info right now) as well as a 12". If 'Watch Your Back' is any indication, you're probably going to get more of the same old thing:
Now as an interesting move by Next Plateau (to apparantly equal Tuff City's slew of lost Ultramag releases), they decided to release a little album of their own, entitled "The B-Sides Companion":
As you can see, it features a whole wack of neat little b-side material. Unfortunately, they aren't the original versions but kinda f*cked up remixed versions, some of which have the vocals totally re-recorded. But all is not lost, Next Plateau were able to hook us up with some juicy never seen before tracks like 'I'm On', 'Kool Keith Model Android #406', and then 'Live At Tramps'. In addition, there's a re-union cut featuring most of the old Ultramag members all together on this new track. It's not that bad either... Well, although they are considered a different entity on paper, "Ultra" is essentially Ultramagnetic and that material should very well be covered on this page too:
If anything, this LP will remind you a lot of a track off "Funk Your Head Up" called 'Pluckin' Cards'. This essentially a big diss album with Tim Dog & Kool Keith handing out beatdown to anyone and everyone from NY to LA. It's pretty funny at times although it can get a little annoying after a few listens. As an interesting side note, the back cover to this LP is hillarious with KK & Tim Dog mocking some of the more familiar celebrities in the hip-hop community (Green Man = Red Man, No Face = Ghostface Killer, etc...). Anyhow, a couple of surprisingly solid 12"s were released off this album:
The Big Time 12" was not bad considering it featured a nice little remix & then a solid b-side off the LP. But the real prize was the "Industry Is Wack" 12" with a phat remix of the title cut and then a solid b-side in "Outtatowniggaz". Wheeeewwwww........ That pretty much takes care of 99% of what the Ultramagnetic MC's have done so far, pretty amazing eh! If not one of the greatest and most brilliant groups of MC's to have ever existed, they are also one of the most dedicated and hard-working groups I've ever known. To think that after all these years, members like Kool Keith are still extremely active and doing amazingly well. I honestly believe that they will come together again for good (they did a reunion show sometime in July/Aug '97) and may very well drop another good album. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading the Ultra page as much as I did creating it and if you have any questions/comments/corrections/additions to make, email me at s733807@uottawa.ca. |
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