Ultramagnetic MC's

Emerging from the Boogie Down Bronx during the mid-'80s, the hip-hop trio Ultramagnetic MC's—comprising Kool Keith, Ced Gee, and DJ Moe Love—carved out a distinctive niche among old-school acts through their abundance of fresh approaches. Their tracks blended funk-heavy grooves with jeep-rocking beats and obscure lyrical references, yielding several pioneering achievements: they became the first rap group to treat a sampler as an instrument, the first to incorporate extensive live instrumentation, and the first to place a former psychiatric patient, Keith, behind the microphone. Initial releases such as "Something Else" and "Space Groove" quickly became block-party staples, generating underground momentum that led the group to the disco-dominated Next Plateau label for their underappreciated debut album. Subsequent years saw them moving between imprints, issuing further records on Mercury and Wild Pitch before the members parted ways to explore separate endeavors.