The Beatnuts - Street Level

Having already proved their production skills by providing excellent beats for Chi-Ali's debut and releasing and extremely promising EP of their own The Beatnuts dropped their first full length album: Street Level in '94. Street Level is packed from front to back with track after track of classic New York boom-bap production. It plays like a greatest hits album. Chunky, knocking drum loops are a premanent fixture. The bass lines are inventive, like the jazzy acoustic one on 'Props Over Here' and the tight, funky, head bopping line on 'Are You Ready?' The Beatnuts switch from gritty and funky to jazzy and lush with ease and keep heads nodding throughout. The Beatnuts are all decent MCs but their lyrics are composed of mainly drunken mysogyny, blunt smoking and violent threats but all are always delivered with a bizarre sense of humor. Intoxicated Demons is an apt alias for the crew but all their aimless hedonism on the mic is more than forgivable because of the magic they work behind the boards. Street Level would be instantly enjoyable to any fan of jazzy boom-bap Hip-Hop and would have heads nodding for months. The Beatnuts have much in common with Da Beatminerz, not just their dark, jazzy style. Although they might not have had as much impact or recognition as other producer extrodinaires they made their lasting mark in Hip-Hop's underground with their brilliant and skillfully crafted production which stands up next to the best work of Hip-Hop's more applauded producers.