The Beatnigs (album)

Last updated
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, conscious hip hop, experimental rock, spoken word, funk rock, post-punk, industrial rock
Label Alternative Tentacles [1]
Producer The Beatnigs
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 7/10 [3]

The Beatnigs is the only album by the San Francisco band The Beatnigs, released in 1988. [4] [5] It combined punk, industrial and hip hop influences. [6]

Contents

Production

Michael Franti wrote all of the lyrics to the songs; he also played bass. [7] The album was produced by the Beatnigs. [8] An enclosure explaining the origins of the band's name was included with the album. [9]

Critical reception

Spin wrote that the album mixed "the Last Poets’ severe rhetoric with the horrific industrial grinding of Einstürzende Neubauten." [10] Trouser Press wrote that "this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations." [11] 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." [7] 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." [8] 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." [3]

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"

CD 'bonus tracks'

Personnel

The Beatnigs
Also
Engineer
Remix

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References

  1. ↑ "s/t". May 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Beatnigs - The Beatnigs | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  3. 1 2 Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. 1995. p. 115.
  4. ↑ "The Beatnigs | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  5. ↑ "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.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. 1 2 Watrous, Peter (July 15, 1988). "POP/JAZZ; Rock by Any Other Name Is 'Alternative' (Published 1988)". The New York Times.
  8. 1 2 MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 1065.
  9. ↑ Sullivan, Denise (March 1, 2011). Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-hop. Chicago Review Press. ISBN   9781569769065 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ "Louder Than Bombs: Death Grips and Killer Mike". Spin. June 23, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Beatnigs". Trouser Press. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
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