It took me a while to get into the sophomore album from The Beatnuts. Their debut album ‘Street Level,’ had provided a certain sound and production style from the duo that I wasn’t prepared to leave by the time ‘Stone Crazy’ released. Psycho Les and Juju claimed, and were a part of the Native Tongue crew but were way more “street” in their content, and this album really leaned into that lane.
The Beatnuts are not a “scary” act and the majority of the street content is more fiction sounding than real but the listeners feel the energy. The Beatnuts can also be a bit comical and juvenile which can keep the listener from not taking them too seriously. Prime example is the two lead singles from the album. ‘Do You Believe’ which I initially didn’t care for, grew on me over the years with it’s story of the streets not needing to be trusted. Meanwhile the next single ‘Off The Books’ had a fun vibe while Juju, Psycho Les, Cuban Link and Big Pun traded lyrics over one The Beatnuts first and biggest hits.
‘Stone Crazy’ has a sharp and edgier sound in the production but it is so consistent throughout the record that you have to give respect to their evolution within a three year period. Most production acts always sound better when they rap over their own beats. This usually sounds like beat makers “living out a dream” of being a rapper, but with The Beatnuts one tends to forget that they are in fact playing two roles. “Les” and “Junkyard Ju” clearly like to rap even if just streams of thought and lyrics for rap sake.
This album seemed to be the start of them developing a formula for turning their dual abilities into hit making. Listeners might find the song ‘Gimme Tha Ass’ very familiar as Will Smith’s ‘Men In Black’ song from the movie of the same name, used the same sample from Patrice Rushen’s ‘Forget Me Not.’ This was always a confusing time for me because both songs came out the same year but were drastically different in their purpose. It’s a possibility that if The Beatnuts were able to be the sole users of the sample that year, they might have had two hits on this album. Clearly the song was overshadowed by the “Wackmasters” as Psycho Les called them when I asked about this situation a few years ago on the Digiwaxx New Music Wednesday platform. What did you think of the album?
Singles include:
‘Find That,’ ‘Do You Believe’ & ‘Off The Books’
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