at a glance...

Hometown: Queens, NY
Formed: Early '90s

Members:
Psycho Les
JuJu

Notes:
Queens' Psycho Les and JuJu were partners in hip-hop since the '80s, DJ-ing and turning their love of old funk into a production hobby. Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers took them under his wing, dubbing them The Beatnuts and setting up their first major production work (for Monie Love). Soon New York's top rappers were soliciting their production skills, and The 'Nuts eventually dropped their debut EP Intoxicated Demons, in 1993. Tracks like "World's Famous" and "Psycho Dwarf" became underground hits, mixing hilarious lyrical lewdness with a hard funkiness that was quickly disappearing from hip-hop. They stayed true to the formula on the next year's Street Level LP, which featured the party anthem "Yeah You Get Props." Third member Fashion left the group before second album Stone Crazy arrived, but The Nuts scored a near-crossover hit with the Big Pun collaboration "Off the Books." Third album A Musical Massacre continued to buck hip-hop's ever-more-blunted trend, sticking to the hard, nasty funk that is The Beatnuts' calling card.

Actually, I hope JuJu and Psycho Les, i.e. the Beatnuts, don't read this 'cuz, judging from their lyrics, they'll track me down and saw my arms off with a chainsaw. Aside from the unfortunate, occasional female vocals their new record, A Musical Massacre, is hip-hop production at its finest. They still know how to use more than one breakbeat per track, and they remember that short one-off samples are what made hip-hop so much fun way back when, before RZA and his mind-numbing loops. The first single, "Watch Out Now" has this dope flute sample deftly followed by the bassline, and the "Intro" is a lesson in beat and sample manipulation.

There's also no shortage of hardcore, porno lyrics. If you're sensitive about things like torture, abusive sex, or rampant drug use, then try to ignore it when they say: "Oh it's money man? Handle your biz / We the ones that'll strangle your kids," or "I told her I got a long salami / And that's no baloney." And turn the volume down during the intro to "Se Acabo" (I won't give it away). That said, the posturing is playfully hyperbolic. They clearly have an eye on hip-hop's history of exaggerated self-congratulation. This album is a strong hit of what's best about hip-hop, just the right dose if all the crap out there is bringing you down.