THE BEATNUTS - A Musical Massacre

Loud

Although Beatnuts“ debut dates back to 1993 their experience on samplers and on the microphone is more than a decade old, and Juju and Psycho Les, now strong in their background, have finally released ”A Musical Massacre“ one of the most anticipated albums of this late summer 1999. The Afro-Hispanic duo from Corona Queens (now on their fifth record if you also consider the two ep's released) never ceases to amaze; each new Beatnuts record always has an edge over the others, and this latest one I think can be called, along with ”Street Level,“ their most successful product yet. Even if the Beatnuts” music is pure underground Hip Hop it is still difficult to give it a precise placement: their kind of rap is indeed unique and nobody in the scene worldwide makes music in their way; this fact is given, in addition to the aforementioned experience as rappers and producers, by a lot of style and personality, characteristics lacking in most of today's musicians who are usually successful for a single season. As a testament to the integral quality of “A Musical Massacre,” I confess that I find it difficult to choose one track out of all; the entire album is meticulously crafted with extreme professionalism and is one of those products that one listens to and re-listens to hundreds of times and never gets bored. Numerous guests participate in this record: we can find Cuban Linx and Triple Seis (from Fat Joe's Terror Squad), veteran Biz Markie (always struggling with his hallucinating freestyles), Greg Nice, Common Sense (with a beautiful verse on “Slam Pit”) and many others less famous but no less excellent on the mic. All the productions, which are taken care of by the Beatnuts themselves, are engaging and innovative and have nothing to envy those of the more celebrated Premier and Pete Rock, listening to believe. The Beatnuts with "A Musical Massacre" have achieved an important result by bringing back to everyone's ears the true Hip Hop sound that is increasingly difficult to find, impossible not to recommend its immediate purchase.

By Hakeem
AL 40 October 1999