Planet Of The Crates
Amid the influx of influential hip-hop producers coming out of the East Coast in the early ‘90s, Queens, NY reps The Beatnuts had little trouble garnering appreciators of their booming street-level sounds.
Beatsmiths/MCs JuJu and Psycho Les dug just about as deep in the crates as the best of ‘em to find the juiciest funk, jazz, and Latin music samples for their party-sparking hip-hop. Look up their Roy Ayers-sampled single “Get Funky” for an early example; or take the disco-flavored hit “Watch Out Now” (which saw J Lo controversially reuse the same sample shortly after). Their ear for bouncy breaks on these tracks is what put them on the map. While the Nuts have worked with other artists like Mos Def, the funky samples and robust drums programming found in their own records is what has kept them world famous.
Of course, the raps of these two have always been secondary. JuJu And Psycho Les’ free-flowing rhymes about laying freaks, blasting gats, and getting loot aren’t anything groundbreaking, but on the rhyme tip, they’re not trying to be. Still The Beatnuts nimble approach to thugged-out party raps goes hand-in-hand with their rugged production — a combination which should make for a fun set on their rare stop in Chicago. (Saturday@Double Door with Mass Hysteria, Que Billah, and Scheme.)
— Max Herman
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz, Weekly
