After nearly a decade of false starts and wishful features in XXL, URB and allhiphop.com, Ultramagnetic MCs finally finished a follow-up to its 1993 minor classic The Four Horsemen. Kool Keith, Ced Gee, Moe Love and TR Love, the Bronx foursome behind old-school classics like “Ego Trippin'” and Critical Beatdown, are issuing The Best Kept Secret on January 9, according to their MySpace page.
Ultramagnetic MCs is a key act in the late 80s hip-hop explosion. Never as successful as fellow Next Plateau acts MC Lyte and Audio Two, Ultramag still proved influential on the next wave of rap stars like Leaders of the New School and Organized Konfusion. The group fractured after The Four Horsemen proved a sales failure and Kool Keith experienced a nervous breakdown. Ironically they briefly reformed to record new tracks when Kool Keith staged a major comeback as a solo artist (thanks to Dr. Octagon) in 1997.
If the two cuts posted on the group’s MySpace page (“Ultra’s Back” and “The Line Up”) are any indication, The Best Kept Secret will be much darker than prior efforts, keeping in tone with much of Kool Keith’s recent output. The album will arrive via DMAFT, the label that issued Kool Keith and Kut Masta Kurt’s Diesel Truckers project and The Lost Masters compilations. A first single, “Mechanism Nice (Born Twice)” b/w “Nottz,” is scheduled for release on November 21.
www.myspace.com/ultramagneticmcs
www.koolkeith.co.uk
www.factshen.com
