The Beatnigs (album)

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The Beatnigs
The Beatnigs (album).jpg
Studio album by
the Beatnigs
Released1988
Recorded1988; Dancin' Dog Studio, Emeryville, California
Genre Industrial hip hop, political hip hop, experimental rock, spoken word
Label Alternative Tentacles [1]
Producer The Beatnigs

The Beatnigs is the only album by the San Francisco band the Beatnigs, released in 1988. [2] [3] It combined punk, industrial and hip hop influences. [4]

Contents

Production

Michael Franti wrote all of the lyrics to the songs; he also played bass. [5] The album was produced by the Beatnigs. [6] An enclosure explaining the origins of the band's name was included with the album. [7]

Television EP

Television EP
The Beatnigs-Televion EP, front cover.jpg
Front cover
Studio album by
the Beatnigs
Released1988
RecordedDancing Dog Studios
Genre Industrial, big beat
Label Alternative Tentacles
Producer ON-U Sound
The Beatnigs chronology
The Beatnigs
(1988)		Television EP
(1988)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]

The Television EP is the Beatnigs' 4-song follow-up, also released in 1988. The opening track is remixed by English dub musicians Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail, and Mark Stewart. There's a special thanks to "Troy" on the rear cover, indicating that Louis "Troy" Dixon (AKA the Crack Emcee) had joined the band.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 7/10 [10]

Spin wrote that the album mixed "the Last Poets’ severe rhetoric with the horrific industrial grinding of Einstürzende Neubauten." [11] Trouser Press said that "this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations." [12] The New York Times called the album "a powerful conglomeration of taped sounds—speeches by Malcolm X, for instance—industrial noise made with saws, sirens and oil drums, and a conventional rhythm section." [5]

MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide called it "the most interesting and innovative album any of Franti's three groups has made, loaded with sonic twists and turns." [6] The Spin Alternative Record Guide deemed it "an angrier warm-up to De La Soul a year later: choppy beats mingled with inflammatory news items, goofy how-to spiels, exhortations from Malcolm X and others, and twisted loops of electro-industrial din." [10]

Track listing

All songs written by the Beatnigs.

  1. "(Welcome) - Television"
  2. " C.I.A."
  3. "(Instructions) - When You Wake Up In The Morning"
  4. "(The Experience Of All Of Us) - Street Fulla Nigs"
  5. " (Re-Classification) - Control"
  6. "Malcolm X"
  7. "Nature"
  8. "Burritos"
  9. "Rooticus Sporaticus"
  10. "Who Is Doing This To All My People"
  11. "Rules"

Television EP

  1. "Television" (ON-U Sound Dance Mix) – 6:40
  2. "Television" (Dub Mix) – 6:40
  3. "Television" (Beatnigs Radio Edit) – 4:22
  4. "Jazzy Beats" – 1:46

CD bonus tracks

Personnel

The Beatnigs
Also
Engineer
Remix

References

  1. ↑ "s/t". May 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ "The Beatnigs | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  3. ↑ "Pop Music : A Mellow Trip 'Home' : Michael Franti drops the aggression and evokes soul-R&B; traditions to celebrate community, family". Los Angeles Times. September 18, 1994.
  4. ↑ Rabaka, Reiland (April 4, 2013). The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation. Lexington Books. ISBN   9780739181171 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 Watrous, Peter (July 15, 1988). "POP/JAZZ; Rock by Any Other Name Is 'Alternative' (Published 1988)". The New York Times.
  6. 1 2 MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 1065.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Denise (March 1, 2011). Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-hop. Chicago Review Press. ISBN   9781569769065 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ The Beatnigs – Television EP at AllMusic. Retrieved 2025.
  9. ↑ "Beatnigs - The Beatnigs | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  10. 1 2 Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. 1995. p. 115.
  11. ↑ "Louder Than Bombs: Death Grips and Killer Mike". Spin. June 23, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Beatnigs". Trouser Press. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
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