Ultramagnetic MC's - The Ultra's Live in Brixton LP - Red Vinyl (/1500)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Record Store Day 2024 might as well have happened on Ed Lover Dance Day this year as every record that I bought was a hip hop release this time out.  The costs of these records were ludicrous, partly because the Record Store Day release tax is still a thing and everything is already priced high to begin with, but also because the store I go to seems to have marked stuff up another five to ten dollars per release after poking around online after the fact.  The flip side of that annoyance being that the store always has what I need and I don't have to camp out over night to get it.  That said, maybe I just hunt for leftovers the next day next time.  We'll see, there is a nice dopamine hit getting the records in hand day of.

On to the record for today.  Ultramagnetic MC's is one of my favorite hip hop groups and even though I'm not really a live album guy, I just couldn't pass up a live recording of these guys recorded in 1990.  I should have listened to my inner monologue and left it on the shelf.  I'm not going to sugar coat this at all, this record is awful.

There are a few tracks on here that are alright.  All of which are freestyles or DJ interludes.  But whenever the Ultras do an album track, they are rapping over the actual album being played.  So you can hear the vocals on the record, and then hear a second set of muffled vocals on top of that.  It sounds so bad and I can't believe that anyone would have ever played a show doing this.  

Maybe they didn't have instrumental versions available at the time, which would be forgivable - but most of their singles did have instrumental versions on them, so who knows what happened there.  But the bigger issue is I'm shocked that anyone would think it was a good idea to release a recording of this and then charge over 40 bucks for it.  Even the cover picture is kind of crappy and blurry.  

A regrettable purchase that, based on Discogs prices, I probably couldn't unload if I wanted to.  It'll probably just sit on the shelf next to all of my other Ultramagnetic MC's records.  While I play those others all the time, I can't fathom ever spinning this one again.

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (Expanded Edition) - 2xLP - Yellow Vinyl (/2000)

Music On Vinyl (2021, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I did already have the standard version of Critical Beatdown, but when an expanded version was announced that was on colored vinyl and was limited; I just couldn't help but pick it up again.  Even though there isn't anything I didn't already have on a 12" single, I reordered this as soon as I saw it was available.  Does everyone need this version, probably not - but it has two big things going for it in my opinion.

The first is that it includes the 12" version of "Ego Trippin'" which is one of my favorite Ultramagnetic songs.  This version has the same production as the original LP version, but it's longer.  So more song for me to enjoy.  The second big reason is the inclusion of the original 12" version of "Funky." This one is very different that the LP Version and is the song that inspired me to start buying all of the Ultramagnetic MC's 12"s a year or so ago.  I haven't posted about those yet, but one of these day's you're all in for about 10 straight weeks of Ultramagnetic MC's singles...

All in, is this version worth paying double the cost of the standard version?  Honestly, probably not.  For me it's worth it as I'm such a gigantic fan of this band, but for most normal people the single disc LP is probably enough at this price point.  That said, I truly believe that anyone that likes hip hop should have some version of this record, it's way too important of a release to not celebrate.

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (Expanded Edition):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lfBRLGFJ_cbnUSxBQdkHzkxWQdo-NKZZw

Ultramagnetic MC's - The Four Horsemen 2xLP

Wild Pitch (1993)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

A few weeks ago I wrote about picking up a bootleg version of the second Ultramagnetic MCs album, Funk Your Head Up.  It was spaced out on two LPs and sounded much better than the old single LP version I've been dragging around for a while.  That motivated me to start looking for a newer version of the Four Horsemen LP.  I had this already, but my copy was a little bit worn and didn't sound so hot.  I had bought it off eBay or Discogs or something like that quite a while ago, but the condition just wasn't up to par.

So, I stumbled across this copy on eBay that was still sealed.  The cover art was a little beat up (and unfortunately the art on my other copy is a cut out, so it's only marginally better), but having two pristine slabs of vinyl was something I just couldn't pass up.  And man-oh-man does it sound wonderful.

It's hard to rank those first three Ultramagnetic albums.  They're all so different and have elements about them that are superior compared to the others.  I probably will always like Funk Your Head Up more, because I heard it first, but Four Horsemen is definitely a more consistent album start to finish. This is an album where these guys are just embracing their weirdness, making no play at all for crossover appeal and just throwing down off kilter rhymes over tremendous beats. 

In my opinion you really need to own all three of the first Ultramagnetic MCs albums.  They're all perfect in their own way and it's kind of a crime that the second two have been out of print for about a thousand years now.  A new, fancy version of Critical Beatdown just came out (Yeah, I'll be writing about that one pretty soon).  Hopefully that will spark demand for equally fancy reissues of their other golden era classics.

Ultramagnetic MCs - The Four Horsemen:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_myhlhqQi_cZ_DTo19FUzIWPJPeEBb-pUk

Ultramagnetic MC's - Funk Your Head Up 2xLP

Bootleg (Originally released in 1992)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Ultramagnetic MC's are a pretty special band to me.  I know they are lauded by those in the know these days, but when I stumbled across them in the early 90s, they certainly weren't a household name.  I am reasonably sure I saw the video for "Poppa Large" on MTV sometime during 1992.  It wasn't a staple of the show, but I find it impossible to believe I didn't see it once or twice.  That's likely what led me to pick up my first copy of this on CD, which I did at a CD store in Heathrow airport in London.

1992 was my sophomore year in high school and I got a job at McDonalds so that I could save up and go on my school's Spanish class trip to Spain.  I was in debt for a long time after that trip and I had good times there for sure, but it's funny to me that the most memorable part of that trip thirty years later is that I bought this Ultramagnetic MC's album while on a seven hour layover at Heathrow.  I also had the single best glass of orange juice I ever had in my life that day. Whether it was remembering the "Poppa Large" video or just because I had a little extra spending money in my pocket, Funk Your Head Up came along the rest of that trip with me.

Now, is this album a crushing classic from start to finish?  No, it's not.  There are a handful of songs that either are really slow, have a weird R&B vibe to them or seem to be trying to claw at a mainstream acceptance that would never be the band's destiny.  I think the album would be stronger if you removed "I Like Your Style," "Porno Star" and "Bust The Facts."  That said, my life would be so much worse if I had never heard the rest of this album.  "Poppa Large" (any of the 3 versions between this album and the 12" single), "MC Champion," "Funk Radio," "Pluckin' Cards" and "You Ain't Real" are top notch, all time hip hop classics.

I've had a single LP version of this for quite a few years, but this is a long album and it kind of sounded like crap.  It's too much music for 1 piece of vinyl.  This 2xLP bootleg version showed up on eBay and I snagged it.  It doesn't have cover art, so I've put in the cover from my other copy in the picture.  Lack of art aside, it sounds so much better than the single LP version.  Maybe it was pressed straight from the CD version, who knows - but the bass is deep and full of energy and I'm just thrilled to have a really solid sounding version of this album in my collection, bootleg or not.  It's not like I wouldn't instantly buy a remastered 2xLP official reissue of this.  Hell, I'd still buy one even having this bootleg.  Someone get on that.

Ultramagnetic MC's - Funk Your Head Up (YouTube Music full album playlist):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nbDAjv6c6jWanuBHF9N2jpK3BZhPyY1rM