Best Kept Secret

Ultramagnetic MC's | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 9, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dmaft Records
• ASIN: B000KP62RK
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,605 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Whack reunion of the once futuristic ULTRAMAGS, January 10, 2007

By 

capaBILLity (Morristown, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Kept Secret (Audio CD)

Unlike The JUNGLE BROTHERS 2nd album DONE BY THE FORCES OF NATURE where they gave props to past and present rappers, MC's and DJ's in a grouping. They mentioned only one rap group as the FUTURE of hip-hop: Ultramagnetic. Well guess what JB's. Future No More.

The album is trash. Nothing at all like the 3 studio albums made over a decade ago. But don't take my word for it, sample for yourself.
Once ahead of their time. Time zoom past Ultramagnetic and they didn't see it coming. FAITH, NO MORE should be the title of this rubbish. What can I say about this album without my review getting kicked off Amazon.com? I'll use no profanity or content of explicit nature to describe it but this album highly does. 1988's CRITICAL BEATDOWN never, ever gave that kind of deliverance. That maybe one reason why that album is a classic and THE BEST KEPT SECRET is a bargin bin passer-by, by any means (vocally, production, lyrically, concept). Can I get a witness? Please? Aw c'mon!

DJ MOE LUV is the only producer on the album trying to keep that old Ultramagnetic sound alive here on "Vibrato" and "Mechanism Nice (Born Twice)" the album's 1st single. CED-GEE just wrecks the album in a terrible way, verbally and lyrically, bragging of 16 bars in almsot every track and being very explicit and obscene (never heard that on CRITICAL BEATDOWN by CED). KOOL KEITH does fine on solo track "Late Nite Rumble" but KOOL KEITH is goin' nowhere with his lyricism and on most of the other songs, HIS delivery is sounding just like CED's towards the end of the album. T.R. LOVE? M.I.A. You see him in photos, you hear silence from him, he doesn't even produce a track. Production by CED, MOE and 2 others and the other 2 sound like KUTMASTA KURT producing (producer for most of KOOL KEITH solo stuff). I do not mean that in a good way. The beats of "Nottz" is bangin', the lyrics by both KEITH and CED should raise eyebrows on what's next to come for THE BEST KEPT SECRET being the B-side to the 1st single "Mechanism Nice (Born Twice)".

Songs like "Ain't It Good 2 U" (2007) and "Party Started" are for gentleman's clubs for the girls to dance to. Now do you see what direction this album is goin'? If you're lookin' for Ultramagnetic to comback with a reunion album with the same spacey super dope production and/or the masterful, brainiac, monkey wrench lyricism as CRITICAL BEATDOWN; FUNK YOUR HEAD UP and THE FOUR HORSEMEN albums gave you over a decade ago, you will not find it here. Maybe in the next 14 years. Right Ultramag? JB's don't count on it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars so so sorry, July 22, 2007

By 

flexxxor "germ-one" (cleveland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Kept Secret (Audio CD)

yo, ced, keith, tr and mo love.........what the hell is this?? some things are just better left in the past. ultra is a hip hop hall of fame group and just disregard this latest thing as.....an incident of human error. i will stick to the other 3 cds. the ones i grew up with when things were right in the world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two stars for content, one star as a show of respect to this legendary crew., August 24, 2007

By 

Sigaba "armchair strategist" (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Kept Secret (Audio CD)

Like many long time fans of what is arguably the most under rated hip hop band, I looked forward to this release. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have detailed, much of the magic that made the Ultras one of the few bright spots of the hip hop world in late 1980s and early 1990s is not evident on this CD. As always, Kool Keith demonstrates why informed observers consider him to be among the best MC's to grip a mic. Sadly, his band mates did not bring the same level of intensity to this project.

Ced Gee, never mistaken for an elite rapper, displays a precipitous decline of his skills. At times, Ced sounds almost desperate to assert his relevance in the contemporary environment. Ced's contributions to BDP's seminal "Criminal Minded" alone secure for him a place in Hip Hop history but in an art form that has always been focused on the cutting edge, he needed to do more to show that he is still an innovative artist. It would seem that TR Love and Moe Love really haven't worked out the riff that deepened between the two of them over their collaboration on King Tee's "IV Life" project. "The Best Kept Secret" would have benefited greatly had they contributed more. And where is Tim Dog?

What is especially frustrating about this project is that the Bronx is the home of Hip Hop. Even those of us on the west coast know that this is true (as hard as some try to deny this basic fact). However, "The Best Kept Secret" does little to rehabilitate the lost glory of the Boogie Down.