Critical Beatdown

Critical Beatdown is the debut studio album by Hip-Hop group Ultramagnetic MCs. The album was released on October 4, 1988, by Next Plateau Records. Production for the album was handled by the group's rapper and producer Ced-Gee, who utilized an E-mu SP-1200 sampler as the album's main instrument. Music journalists have noted the album for its innovative production, funk-based samples, self-assertive themes, ingenious lyricism, and complex rhyme patterns by Ced-Gee and Kool Keith.

The Ultramagnetic MCs was formed in The Bronx, New York City, in 1984 by Kool Keith (Keith Matthew Thornton, b. 1963), Ced Gee (Cedric "Ced-Gee" Miller, b. 1963), TR Love, Moe Love, and Tim Dog (Timothy Blair, 1967 – 2013) who became an unofficial member in 1989. The group's sound was associated with eccentric sampling, polysyllabic rhymes, and peculiar lyrical imagery.