I remember my older brother was going down to Howard University to check it out. He was a senior applying to go to college there so I got to go with him and my pops to check out the campus. My brother had a friend that went there so we got a chance to hang out in one of the dorm rooms. This album had just come out and the kids in the dorm were listening to it.
As I remember the general consensus was that the beats were dope and the rhymes were bugged out. I mean, there were alot of albums that came out around that time Eric B & Rakim, BDP, Kane, NWA, Salt N Pepa, Kid N Play, etc. (1988 was a great year). The kids at Howard liked the album.
Here's a few songs that Ultramagnetic were known for
Well, in New York City there were two major Hip Hop shows in the mid/late 80s, Chuck Chillout and Red Alert on 98.7FM. Chuck Chillout was on Friday night and Red Alert was on Saturday Night. Then there was Mr Magic and Marley Marl who were on 107.5 WBLS on Friday and Saturday nights Marley Marl was the DJ and Mr Magic was the radio announcer. There was also the Awesome Two; Special K and Teddy Ted. They had a weekend show but I'm not sure which station.
Ultramagnetic MCs were down with Red Alert so he gave them alot of spins. If you go on Youtube or work the internet you can find old Chuck Chillout and Red Alert shows where they play alot of Ultramagnetic songs (also BDP). Conversely Marley Marl and Mr Magic would play Juice Crew songs.
They weren't really big. They didn't have a hit song, nothing like Push It or It Takes Two which were out around that time. MC Hammer and Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince were out around that time and they were much more popular. But if you were gonna make a mixtape in that era you'd probably put 1 or 2 Ultramagnetic songs on the mixtape.
In fact, there were some Red Alert mixtapes that featured some Ultramagnetic songs.
^^^^^Those albums are all floating around the internet and if you dig hard enough you should be able to find them. Don't download the individual songs, try to find the album as the songs are mixed and there's alot of promos that make the album unique. The second one, We Can Do This is mixed and sounds exactly how Red Alert's show would sound if you taped it off the radio. I strongly suggest downloading that album because it has alot of hits and it gives you an idea of what a Saturday night in NYC would be like. In fact, We Can Do This is one of my favorite albums/mixtapes.
And then sometime around 1993 Hot 97 became a thing. 98.7 Kiss went Black adult contemporary (Sade, Isley Brothers, Marvin Gaye, etc.) Red Alert moved over to Hot 97 and Funkmaster Flex took over for Red Alert and Red Alert ended up doing a 5 O'Clock free ride show where he would play old school Hip Hop from 5-6pm. Funkmaster Flex started doing Friday and Saturday nights and the 80s became the 90s.
But yeah, you can go on Youtube and find old Red Alert shows from the late 80s where he would play alot of Ultramagnetic songs.
I don't think Marley Marl and Mr Magic played them.
I grew up in Boston. There were alot of colleges and college radio shows. The Hip Hop shows would play Ultramagnetic but they never had any real mainstream success. In fact, they didn't have any videos from their first album which is probably why they didn't blow up. They had a a few videos from their second and third albums. I think Poppa Large might be their biggest song. And they have another song called Raise it Up that has a video, but to be honest, their first album is a masterpiece and their subsequent albums are lackluster.
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