The trio of Andy Cooper, Dizzy Dustin, and Young Einstein have built up a small, but loyal fanbase over the years, with their lighthearted, classically trained brand of hip-hop. Producer Young Einstein propels the group with an endless selection of breaks and samples, changing every few bars or so, always keeping listeners on their toes. Late last year, they quietly released their fifth album, Moving At Breakneck Speed. So quiet, that it slipped under our radar, so here is the better-late-than-never review.

While Bang For You Buck abandoned the concept album formula of Taste The Secret, the group’s latest LP brings it back, even if not as brilliantly realized as an LP built around a fictional fast food restaurant called “Meat Shake”. The concept this time around is that of the mighty Ducks going on a cross-country road trip, while being chased by some faceless cartoon bad guys that want them in prison. This makes for a fun concept, keeping the album, well, moving at breakneck speed.

The album wastes no time getting underway, as both “Keep Movin’” and “Momentum” kick things off with their usual brand of funky break change-ups and old school B-Boy magnetism, leading into “$100 Weekend”, which kicks off the road trip concept. As far as the group’s catalog is concerned, tracks like these are par-for-the-course; fresh if you haven’t heard one of their albums before, yet a bit redundant if you have. The same can be said for higher energy cuts like “Elevation” and “Sprint”, which almost overkill the group’s tried and true formula. Still, as usual, they slow things down a bit with songs like the introspective “I Wonder Where She Is Now” and “How It Used To Be”, and close things out on a somber note with “Endless Summer”.

All in all, Moving At Breakneck Speed, is a fun album that doesn’t stray from the group’s usual formula, and will be shockingly refreshing for first time listeners. Make no mistake, this is of the utmost quality, but like their forefathers that they are so heavily influenced by – De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, The Beastie Boys, etc – they should look at changing things up a bit for future releases.

Video for the Ugly Duckling song “Elevation”. Animated by Justin Ridge and directed by Stoney Sharp, this is the first video from the group’s 2011 album “Moving At Breakneck Speed”. The video features comedians T.J. Miller and Zack Pearlman as well as Nathan Barnatt and several other members of the UD family. The goal of this video was to bring the Breakneck Speed album cover to live. See if you can also spot each of the previous Ugly Duckling album covers throughout the video.

Concept album or straightforward hip-hop LP? The cover suggests otherwise, but this is pretty much as straightforward as it gets. Or so it seems. Strangely, the Ducks seem to beat around the bush when it comes to topical songs, adapting an “if the shoe fits” type of mantra, never really being too blunt about what they are talking about. Case in point is the opening track, “I Won’t Let It Die”, which we can assume is a response to all of the “hip-hop is dead” talk – but again, they lack the, ahem, audacity to come right out and say it. The same can be said for “I Want To Believe”, a sort of ambiguous jam that again leaves things open to interpretation, but as known church goers, we can assume they are talking about God. Further vaguely themed tracks include “It Never Mattered” and “It’s Gone”, again, leaving out the definition of exactly what “it” refers to.

Not that there is anything wrong with Yudee’s approach to making hip-hop music; of course there are plenty of artists out there who have never chosen to reveal the meanings behind their songs. By no means is this stuff Sage Francis deep, as Dizzy Dustin and Andy Cooper travel over Einstien’s sample rich grooves with humorous, simplistic rhymes about everyday life. The concept of “Audacity” itself is probably the most down-to-earth idea here, as on the title track, they speak on the concept of confidence and how it’s helped shape the world.

After the brilliant Taste The Secret, it’s almost hard to accept Ugly Duckling doing just normal, old school hip-hop stuff. Sure, they are one of the last group’s left still sampling funk drums and rare grooves, not to mention making songs without swearing, however the brilliance of that concept album may always haunt them, at least until they decide to do another one. With their fourth LP, Ugly Duckling doesn’t progress or break new ground, you pretty much know what to expect here, so fans of the crew will be more or less pleased. But with an album title like Audacity, one might expect them to be a little bit bolder. – D.T. Swinga

     The formula here is pretty much the same – Einstein layers meaty, sample heavy beats – ones that may have caused fights between Big Daddy Kane and Rakim were it 1992 – while Andy Cooper and Dizzy Dustin trade hilarious, retro rhymes. The album is a non-stop, old school tour-de-force that never leaves the listener a chance to catch their breath. It begins with the title track, “Bang For The Buck”, which sneaks up on the listener with snapping funk drums and jazzy cello backdrop, letting listeners know that this is bare-bones hip-hop music, without the fluff. They then burst upon the scene with “Yudee!”, an up-tempo re-introduction to the crew, finding Dizzy and Andy trading rhymes over Einstein’s rich palate of horny horns, opera organs, and funky keys. “The Breakdown” finds the duo giving an honest account of how they’ve broken in, despite that the industry has tried to shut them out, showing perfect chemistry between Einstein’s beat and the emcees. This all leads up to “Smack” – the album’s lead single and crown jewel – an abrasive rap superhero anthem, where the UD’s attack the wack over perhaps Einstein’s most ambitious track yet, filled with unpredictable change-ups and tons of flavor. His hard work is then rewarded on “Einstein’s On Stage”, which rings as one of the best deejay cuts in recent memory, as Dizzy and Andy salute their oft-overlooked producer.  The album continues at a strong pace, with energetic bangers like “Let It Out” and “Lower The Boom”, only taking a slightly different direction for “Andy Vs. Dizzy”, a mock-battle between the group’s two emcees, and “Shoot Your Shot”, a fun posse cut featuring People Under The Stairs.  

      And that is Bang For The Buck in a nutshell. Lots of standout moments, great production, funny lyrics, and excellent song structure. Alas, while another concept record in the vein of “Taste The Secret” might have led to a little more cohesive of a record, Bang For The Buck’s more straight-forward approach will please a wider audience, without alienating any of their core fanbase. This more bare-bones approach finds sometimes-repetitive hooks and is a lot lighter on the last album’s smarter song concepts, but definitely packs more…..well, you know.

HipHopSite.com: For those that don’t know, what label were you on previously and why did you swich over to Fat Beats?

Dizzy Dustin: The last album we did was on Emperor Norton. But now it’s Fat Beats.

HHS: How long have you been with Fat Beats?

Dizzy Dustin: Actually, we just finished the deal up a couple of months. So we’re looking forward to being on an hip-hop label. This is the first time we’ve actually been on an all hip-hop label. So that feels good for us.

HHS: So the reason you went to Fat Beats was because it was hip-hop oriented?

Dizzy Dustin: I think so because every label we’ve been on is like Dance, a Euro-type of sound that was coming out. With Fat Beats they came at us. They know we could sell. We’ve proven ourselves in the last few albums with our fan base as far as the underground scene.

Andy Cooper: They were really adamant about wanting to work with us and that’s our first priority, is finding people who just are excited about the project. You’d be surprised after so many years of doing this how important that is. Just pure enthusiasm.

And even sometimes you might get offered a deal that’s more lucrative, but the people there don’t understand the project and aren’t excited about it. And you might get offered something that’s not quite so fancy, but the people there understand the music or just have a real drive in them long term. That’s what’s most important, we found. Everybody with whom we do business now, what we do is make our records and license it out to different labels around the world and our first thing is looking for people who are enthusiastic about our music.

HHS: So obviously they supported you guys and decided to take you under their wing?

Andy Cooper: Yea. I mean one way to do business is just look at the bottom line and take what offers the most money. For example you might get offered two shows, one for 100 bucks, one for 1,000 bucks. But the $100 show is going to be right in the core of your audience. There’s going to be a big crowd there and there’s going to be other great hip-hop groups and it’s going to be a real event. And the $1000 thing is going to be very corporate and it’s maybe a rave and it’s not your fan base.

So, a lot of times it’s wise to opt for the lower paid one because in the long term, those are the people who are gonna support you and it’s better to be in touch with them and it will even be more profitable in the long term because you’ll have a relationship with those folks.

HHS: It definitely sounds like a good look for you.

Dizzy Dustin: We’ll see. It’s all up in the air man. My thing is the proof is in the pudding. Treat us right, we’ll treat you right. It seems like everybody at Fat Beats is really excited about the album and that’s something we haven’t really had. So that’s a good thing.

Andy Cooper: We’ll see how it goes. It’s always interesting when you start a new relationship.

HHS: What’s the difference between Taste the Secret, your last album, and your new album, Bang for the Buck?

Andy Cooper: Well, I think one’s a concept record. Honestly, I was kind of in charge of the last album and I wanted a real cinematic album, with themes and commercials and skits so you could sit down and picture the album in your mind, picture the characters like a giant Broadway review or something. Whereas, this album, we just wanted to do some great hip-hop songs. I mean, we thought we had some cool hip-hop songs on the last album, but we kind of blanketed them in between a bunch of skits and what not. Bang for the Buck is straightforward, straight up stuff.

Dizzy Dustin: It’s one of those things, like you just want to come out throwing punches. Ugly Ducking, we ain’t no hardcore gangsta group, but we’re gonna come out and have fun with it, clown around and, you know, pull out our water pistols and get rid of all these jiggy rappers. That was our whole idea…And you better have a waterproof jacket because we’re gonna wet you up (laughs). It’s one of those things. They bring out their guns, We’ll bring out the water guns. That’s as far it goes with us. No bulletproof vests, but just a waterproof jacket will work fine. That’s it man. We’re super soaking ‘em , man.

HHS: Your music has a fun vibe to it. Bottom line, you aren’t afraid to smile. When did it begin to get so serious in hip-hop?

Dizzy Dustin: It’s hard to say man.

It got serious to me when Public Enemy dropped the Nation. I mean ‘Hey, you know what. That’s a hot album,’ but at the same time it was hip-hop and it woke us up. It wasn’t negative. It was more positive. And nowadays, these groups are coming out on the negativity tip, but they’re not preaching something that really means anything. Public Enemy, they let you know. You came out with an album like ‘Shit is fucked up right now,’ you know. But it was a positive vibe and it was still serious. And there’s no one like that no more. Everybody’s like ‘Hey, I’m a negative dude. I’mma shoot everybody around me. I’mma run my block. I’m gonna run the neighborhood, blah, blah, blah,’ but no message. You can’t be serious without a message in hip-hop. It ain’t like that no more. No one’s spitting the truth.

Andy Cooper: Well I would say like around the mid-’90s…I blame a lot of things on The Chronic. Not that The Chronic is a bad album, the original Chronic, but what happened is they figured out a way to make gangster and violent rap commercial radio-friendly and commercial radio came around to rap. So all of a sudden, rap could be on the radio. And that made sales go up, I’m sure, for some of those groups. Fifty, 100 percent. So it just changed the whole artistic style of the music because before, even if you wanted to be on the radio, it just wasn’t a option so noone even bothered really trying that stuff. In fact, if you did, people kind of made fun of you and called you an R&B sellout and all that kind of thing. So I’d say with The Chronic. With Cypress Hill. With House of Pain. Those groups all started getting on the radio a little bit. So I think once the radio and mainstream MTV started playing rap videos, it just changed everything.

HHS: One of the songs I liked off the new CD liked was “Slow the Flow”, a song that basically says slow down and appreciate life. Do you feel that society nowadays has gotten too fast-paced?

Dizzy Dustin: I think so. I think everybody’s got their eye on the prize, which is a good thing. Everybody’s trying to hustle. Everybody’s trying to see what they have to do. But at the same time, sometimes you got to stop, stand back and smell the roses or take a deep, fresh breath and be able to be like ‘You know what. Life ain’t that bad.’ We’re only here for so long. Just enjoy life around you. I think that people need to really take a look at what’s important in their life and you’re job ain’t really that important. It’s just something to get by and at the same time there’s a lot more important things in the world than you sitting at your job or desk and busting your ass for eight hours a day. The world offers a lot more than that. Especially on the West Coast. That’s what we wanted with that song. To make sure everyone can relax a little bit.

HHS: How did the collaboration with People Under the Stairs come about for the track “Shoot Your Shot”?

Dizzy Dustin: We’ve been working with People Under the Stairs for a long time. Our first Cali tour that we did on the West Coast was with People Under the Stairs. We’ve known each other for a long time and we would always discuss on the road or on shows like ‘Yo, ‘Scenario’ was the joint. Remember Tribe Called Quest and Leaders did that, that was the joint.’ So we wanted to try to capture that with us. Like OK, People Under the Stairs, Ugly Duckling. Let’s do something we can collab on and just knock it out the box. And I think that song came out real well. People are lovin it. I’m lovin it. It was just one of those things. Like ‘Hey we’re all from LA. You produce like we produce. We have the same beliefs in hip-hop and the culture as far sampling, as far as digging as far as lyrics. It was due. And we ship the same fan base so the fans were like ‘Hey. That’s the joint. Thank God you guys finally did something together.’”

Andy Cooper: We’re not much of a collaboration group. We always want to stand on our own feet, produce it. Just have our own sound…We discussed it lightly with those guys a long time. And to be honest, Diz and I were working on a song for that track and it was really stupid. It was called “Buzz Off” and it was gonna be a song about people bothering you. Almost like “Bug-A-Boo” by Ed OG. People were bugs and they were all….and we kept working on it and working on it and one day we said ‘Man, this sucks’. And Diz was like ‘Yea this was really a bad idea. And it was getting late and really had to record our stuff pretty soon so it was like ‘let’s call People Under the Stairs. Let’s do a posse song.’ So we knew that would probably be easier to do. So a lot of it was the result of us coming up with a stupid idea and thankfully, it didn’t work out or else we would’ve had a really wack track on the album. We had a whole thing. We had a bug voice like he was going to be bugging you. It was really stupid. Really, really bad. Thank the Lord that that didn’t happen.

HHS: You two battle it out on the track, “Andy vs. Dizzy.” So who won?

Andy Cooper: Well, that’s the cool part. It depends on which style you like. For that track, I wanted to be like Kool G. Rap or Big Daddy Kane. Like real slashing and cutting and up tempo funk. And Diz is sometimes a little more laid back and almost like Dizzy Smalls. More like in the cut and a little bit slower and slicker. I would personally go with my style, but that’s because I like it more and that’s why I do it. But you know it depends on what you like. Some people don’t like all that up tempo, hype stuff. To me, rap is rhythm and poetry. And rhythm is a huge part of it. I like different rhythmic schemes and rhyme schemes and I sit around, put my verses together like a mathematician sometimes. I try to figure out a cool way to bounce a word here. I put some thought in to it. But some people would rather hear someone talking from their heart. It just depends. That’s what’s great about rap or any kind of art form. It’s like whatever suits you. But yea, I won, to put it into closing form.

Dizzy Dustin: We have no idea man. I feel like I won because I freestyled. Andy had his written. Andy can flow regardless. He’s a great writer. He can spit it, He can do what you gotta do with it. I’m nonchalant with it. If it’s homework, I’m not doing it. I don’t know.

Who won? Einstein won, that’s who won.

HHS: In closing, how would you some up Bang for the Buck?

Andy Cooper: Well, here in Southern California, we’ve got this cat named Cal Worthington and he’s maybe 70-years-old and he wears a cowboy hat and he sells used cars on TV. That’s kind of like the cover and the idea is like. We’re trying to go right for you. We’re not trying to pull punches. We’re trying to sell you a car, but not a used car, but some hip-hop. But, there is this little scheme that I slipped in there. I don’t think I told the other guys. The idea of especially the record cover, with the gun shooting out money. That sort of a laugh about gangster music and violence and how it’s all a ploy to make huge amounts of money and act like you’re some kind of gangster, anti-society rebel. But the fact of the matter is it’s just an image being used to profit. So there’s a little bit of double entendre in that. for what it’s worth.

Andy Cooper: Meat Shake is a Long Beach fast food chain where we all met in the early 90′s, when we got out of high school. It was my first job, aside from summer jobs with my dad, it was my first independent job. Einstein was working there at the time, and then Diz came around maybe six months later. We worked there together for maybe six months, and that’s how we started the group.

HHS: Okay.. So as far as incorporating it into the album, was this just pure fun or was the deeper meaning to it?

Andy Cooper: Yeah, a lot of it was fun and humor. Maybe if there was any deeper meaning, it was a satirical look at culture, especially in America, there’s the fast food clique of people – the majority, the mainstream of just “give me something quick, easy, cheap, simple to digest”. And then us being in the music business, there’s the high-end, super-cool crowd, on the edge of fashion. The edgy crowd that would never eat McDonald’s or something like that. It’s sort of a look at two sides of culture in America.

HHS: So where would you guys say you fit in to that?

Andy Cooper: (Laughs) nowhere.

HHS: Those are like the two extremes.

Andy Cooper: Yeah, both groups of people don’t like us. We fit in nowhere.

HHS: Since the music you are making isn’t typical to today’s definition of what hip-hop “should” sound like, how is the mainstream press viewing the album?

Andy Cooper: We’ve gotten a lot of negative to lukewarm responses from mainstream press. I think our group’s easy to pick on because we’ve got a different look, a different style, a different angle, a different humor, a different sound, so, it’s really easy to call us out, because when every group in every magazine looks like 50 Cent and whatever else is hot at the moment, a group like us are like fish out of water, I suppose.

Dizzy Dustin: I think they just can’t stand us period. We’re nothing, we’re a totally different music than they are, you know? It makes no sense for them to feel what we are doing or like what we are doing. Like Andy says we do get some lukewarm response, but most of it is that we aren’t the jiggy scene or the “in” type of music. A lot of these people are looking for the really.

Andy Cooper: Street cred.

Dizzy Dustin: Yeah the street cred. We could care less about the street cred.

HHS: How is the indy press, in comparison?

Dizzy: The indy press has always been good to us. Independent magazine, independent whatever, they’ve always been supportive.

Andy: The bad bit about our music, radio or press or anything, is that our music is pretty musical, relatively intelligent, and humorous. Right now, music culture isn’t geared towards that. Big time record labels and big time magazines, they gotta feed people, they gotta hire people on their staff, they gotta go on vacations, and making money is their main objective.

Dizzy: And we’re not a group that’s going to make a lot of people a lot of money.

Andy: Exactly, at least not at this point. We ain’t generating monster money. I guess that’s when you become a priority, I suppose.

HHS: Okay, so it’s obvious that you guys aren’t on the corner slangin’ rocks or anything. But how important do you feel street credibility is important to the music. Being that’s it’s not necessarily a part of your music, how important is it to hip-hop in general?

Dizzy: I don’t know, I mean, I have to sell crack because my music don’t sell. I’m on the corner selling crack right now, trying to pimp some hoes and everything. So, as far as street credibility goes, you can ask anybody in California they know I am.

Andy: You know what’s funny to me about street cred? The only people it seems to matters to are nerdy young white kids. That’s the only people who are concerned with it – the people who have never lived in a bad neighborhood or never been around Black people. All of a sudden “I ain’t real!” You know, Hubert from Irvine is worried about street cred. Honestly, if you love music. I don’t care of James Brown is from Iceland, it’s funky! It doesn’t matter.

Dizzy: I think street cred is just gonna level you to the streets. Us as a group, we’re way above trying to get street cred. We’re not about where we’re from. We’re all rooted in hip-hop, as far as trying to gain respect on the street it’s not going to get you anywhere. You’re gonna be one of those groups that got a little bit of recognition in your own neighborhood, or doing shows at little venues of 500 people or something like that. I think our goal is a little bit higher than that, so street credibility, we really don’t care about that. We’ve paid our dues.

Young Einstien: Don’t forget that we are from Long Beach.

Andy: That’s the irony. Of all the young white hip-hop groups that came out, we are more old school and more from bad neighborhoods, and grew up in all that gangster stuff way more than anybody else did. We could be talking about that every song, but that’s a waste of time.

Dizzy: I think our music is a way to escape that. I grew up in the north side of Long Beach, there wasn’t a friendly neighborhood at all. I’m an old cat, I grew up on hip-hop..

Andy: He been hit with a few shots, now he walk with a limp!

Dizzy: Yeah but you don’t hear me talking about it on record.

HHS: At the same time though, do you guys agree that certain areas will kind of define an artist, like Nas wouldn’t be Nas without Queensbridge? You know what I’m saying?

Dizzy: I think that growing up in Long Beach has diversified our music. Long Beach is one place where you get a mix of everyone – black, white, Mexicans, Asians, whatever. Everybody grew up on the same type of music. Andy would go to a dance or something, and they’d play a Salt-N-Pepa cut and then play a Guns and Roses tune or something.

Andy: I would say that I think you are right, like in what you said about Nas, if what you are trying to talk about street stuff, then I suppose you should have some street credibility. Like you should know what you are talking about. But I am personally not interested in hearing about selling jumbos because they have been talking about if for like ten years and they’ve exhausted the subject.

Dizzy: It was dope when N.W.A. did it though.

Andy: Which is ironic, because those guys weren’t really even that street credible. But I understand, if you are going to talk about selling crack, you should have sold crack, I suppose.

Dizzy: But that’s not how the rap game works, man.

Andy: I suppose that’s true. But my point is that why does music have to be about the street, why does hip-hop have to be about the street. I understand that it came from the street to a large degree. But historically, I’d say most music and hip-hop has been about partying and fun and other subjects besides selling crack.

Dizzy: The beginning of hip-hop was about: forget about your problems in your neighborhood and your house, and go to the park and have a good time. Dress in up in goofy suits and have a blast.

Andy: And lying about stuff that you don’t really have. That’s 95% of all hip-hop, pretending you have stuff that you don’t. “Gotta color T.V., so I could see.”

Dizzy: A lot of people look at real hip-hop like it’s gotta be that “rah rah” real rough stuff, when hip-hop never started out like that. If you could prove me wrong, someone please do. Rap way back in the day, they had these giant metal suits, doing dance moves, kinda like the disco era.

Young Einstien: Melle Mel (dressed) like Motley Crew.

Dizzy: So I really don’t think that hip-hop originated with the hardcore street credibility act.

HHS: I agree.I been on your side for a minute now. So what made you guys decide not to include any cuss words on your album?

Andy: We did say “jackass” once.

HHS: Okay, well. I mean you guys are hip-hop fans. I’m sure you listen to hip-hop on a regular basis, or at least have in your lifetime. I know for me, cussing has just become an everyday part of my vernacular, and a lot of it is because of hip-hop. So, I’m curious, did you guys sit down and say, “let’s not cuss on this record”, or.?

Andy: Check this out: Biz Markie, Rakim, Peoples Instictive Travels, 3 Feet High and Rising. I mean like, great, great albums maybe some of the best – no cussing, if maybe one or two cuss words. So to me the most quality stuff, ironically had the least amount of cussing. Not including Straight Outta Compton which is like the best record ever. But I mean, the point is, you could make a great argument that cussing and great hip-hop don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. Rakim being the best example.

Dizzy: Um. Fuck, like I cuss all the time in regular life.

Andy: Cuss cred!

Dizzy: But I think when your working on writing, cuss words become a crutch for a lot of people who can’t think of something creative to say. Like, “I can’t fill in this one-bar or line or whatever, what am I gonna say? Oh ‘motherfucker’ fills up half a bar.” I don’t really like to cuss on albums. I don’t like to bleep nothing out.

Andy: Plus we all like our mothers and would like our moms to be able to listen to the record.

Dizzy: I gotta kid so you know, I’d like to be able play it. We’re the type of group where people come up to us like “my kid loves it, my mom loves it, my grandmother loves it”. Since we don’t sell a lot of copies, we are trying to hit every angle of human. Like a kid or someone in a walker.

Young Einstein: We did just do a song with Grand Puba and he held it down for the cussing.

HHS: Yeah my daughter is four, it’s like the only current hip-hop album I let her listen to. She loves it.

Andy: Maybe we should go to Nicolodeon and try to get a T.V. show or something.

Young Einstein: I was looking in a chat room and someone was asking what could be played for a seven-year old, and someone said “Ugly Duckling”.

Dizzy: Yeah, but seven year olds don’t go out and buy albums.

HHS: Yeah but that’s cool, because from my perspective, when I’m driving with my daughter, except from your album and a few classics, I don’t listen to hip-hop in the car. I love hip-hop, but as a parent, it’s just not happening.

Dizzy: I had another mom tell me that her daughter thought we did a song called “Just A Little Simba”.. You know, from Lion King.

HHS: Oh man (laughs).

Andy: You know the bottom line to all that junk, its not that nobody in hip-hop should cuss, and nobody should talk about crack. All we are proponents of is diversity. There is no reason that hip-hop cannot be a wide spread culture with different ideas and different approaches. That’s what makes a culture good. The thing that makes a culture bad is homogeny, when it’s the same products, the same look, the same story, the same “I got shot” over and over again.

HHS: It’s obvious from listening to your music where your influences stem from, everybody you mentioned, at least as far as hip-hop is concerned. But do you still consider yourselves fans of hip-hop? Do you listen to today’s artists?

Dizzy: I can honestly say that I don’t listen to that much hip-hop no more. I stick with a lot of the older stuff. I listen more to people’s demos than I do mainstream music. I haven’t bought an album in so long. It’s just one of those things. Hip-hop is in a very bad time right now with all the mainstream, the bling-bling, and the jiggy. I mean when you can pick a basketball team off the street because everybody’s wearing jerseys and make them look like pros, something’s wrong.

Andy: On the underground level, there’s a lot of repetitiveness, lack of creativity. A lot of good lyricists, but the production, it’s not bad, it’s just not funky anymore, and that’s what I always liked about hip-hop. Here and there, there will be tracks; I like People Under The Stairs and a lot of stuff.

Young Einstein: Rarely, I’ll hear a couple songs a year. The last song that I really wanted to go buy was Jay Dee “Fuck The Police” and that was like over a year ago.

Andy: Yeah there’s no loops and funk, just a lot of crescendos and chopped drums, and people talking about how they do ill science on lyrics and emcees and all this.

HHS: You guys heard Edan’s album?

Dizzy: Yeah, Edan! He’s all right, yeah!

Young Einstein: I was listening to it on the internet, it was dope.

HHS: Einstein, how many records would you say are sampled per song on Taste The Secret?

Young Einstein: We don’t sample.

HHS: Come on.

Young Einstein: Average? Per song, I’d say like 12, on this record.

HHS: I heard you guys had problems with sampling in the past, can you shed some light on that?

Andy: We got in trouble for that song “I Did It Like This” on the last album.

Dizzy: And we didn’t get in trouble for the Beastie Boys sample (on the song) either.

Andy: Yeah we got caught on that one. It’s hit or miss, we’re gonna sample and we aren’t going to pay for it. We just hope we don’t get in trouble.

Young Einsten: Yeah if we are getting sued, that means we are doing something right because a lot of people are hearing our record.

HHS: I heard a crazy ass story on that. Something like you weren’t even sued by the original artist, by instead someone who bought the rights to the record for like $500, after you used it?

Dizzy: We were sued by Ubiquity. That’s pretty weird huh, and the crazy thing is that they put out records incorporating samples and they aren’t even clearing all of them.

Andy: It’s a small complaint, but we’ve been lucky thus far. But nobody really even bought that album, on this album we sampled 10 times more.

Young Einstein: “Turn It Up” might have 30 samples on it.

Andy: The worst one is “La Revolution”. Well, drum breaks don’t really count, but that has like 9 different loops. We try to make it spicy.

HHS: Andy can you break down your involvement with Crankcase?

Andy: Some guys I know from my church make kinda bad funk music, and I thought it was amusing so I did some songs with them. I’ve never performed (live) with them before, but there’s an album coming out, I was on like half the songs. I played little keyboards and drums on it, cause I’m pretty bad at those and so are they, so it works out. I’m not really an official member; I mean I suppose I am, we never really talked about it. It’s always been pretty loose with them. I never signed any contracts or anything.

HHS: So being that Taste The Secret was real conceptual from start to finish, is your next record going to be another concept like that, or..?

Andy: Next record? (Laughs)

Dizzy: I make more money selling crack, man I don’t want to do another record.

Andy: Shoot, I don’t even know if there is a market for another record. Actually before you called me and (Einstein) were just talking about that. What’s the future, what do we do?

HHS: You guys have to do another record.

Andy: Yeah, I’m on it! (Laughs). Could we take donations from the few fans? Pledge drive.

HHS: No for real, because there are not people making records like 3 Feet High and Rising anymore.

Everyone: (Laughing) because nobody wants to hear it!

    So how about some disclaimers? If you missed hip-hop in the late 80′s, forget about it. If your hip-hop experience began with Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die, or Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The 36 Chambers, forget about it. If De La Soul, Leaders Of The New School, Jungle Brothers, and The Pharcyde’s early works aren’t embedded in your consciousness, forget about it. If 50 Cent is god to you, forget about it. If a rapper’s “realness” matters to you, forget about it. If the fact that these guys are goofy and two-third’s white bothers you, forget about it. If you don’t like “happy rap”, forget about it.  Well, that narrows down the current hip-hop population down to about 25 percent. Now if you are in that other 75%, there’s nothing wrong with that (this critic loves Jay-Z and M.O.P. just as much as the next guy) however, if you are in the 25 percent, congratulations, you are part of the elite, and you will definitely enjoy the Ugly Duckling album. With all of that out of the way, let’s get into what makes the meat shake taste so good.

     Starting with the production, beatsmith Young Einstein could make Prince Paul, Cut Chemist, or Egon jealous with his incredibly deep crates and concepts, probably averaging about 10 to 15 records sampled per song. The sound conveyed with Taste The Secret is definitely “throwback” (see also Jurassic 5′s Quality Control or Edan’s Primitive Plus), as it conjures up that same good feeling caught when listening to De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising. The tracks are up-tempo, catchy-as-hell, and innocent in nature. There’s no cussing on this record, and while the songs are somewhat corny, it’s not Will Smith-corny. It’s smarter than your average rap record, as each song follows a concept, following the UD’s as employees of the imaginary fast-food franchise, Meat Shake – the restaurant where “it all has meat”. The skit tracks will throw newer fans off base, such as on “Meat Shake”, where Andy Cooper breaks down the concept of the restaurant in a hilarious rap-jingle that actually works. But the fun doesn’t stop there, as the beating of a dead…cow continues throughout the entire album, on tracks like “The Drive-Thru”, where Andy breaks down the tasty menu to some customers over a ridiculous funk loop; or “The Confrontation”, where Andy battles competitor Brianna, who works at “Veggie Hut” across the way. While on paper this sounds about as funny as a 2 Live Jews record (read: nil), it actually really and truly works. Einstein’s beats are incredibly funky, which automatically gets the listener’s attention, and Andy’s lyrics are overflowing with brilliance, subtly rhyming entire sentences with humorous lyrics (yes, it’s actually funny). What at surface value seems like a goofy idea that would never work, works incredibly well.          

    While the skits cohesively sew this album together, it’s not all about the meaty goodness of Meat Shake. “Opening Act” is an excellent self-parody where the crew humorously introduces themselves over a catchy piano loop, as the group opening for some big-name hip-hop act, only to be booed or not even paid attention to as club-goers aren’t even aware they’re on stage (just like in real life). There are plain old hip-hop jams in the spirt of yesteryear, such as “Turn It Up” and “Energy Drink” which conjure up images of the Ugly Duckling back-up dancers. And there’s also a few underlying messages about the current state of hip-hop, in which they surprisingly don’t come off as obnoxious as most rap preachers or as those with average skills obsessed with killing wack emcees. On “Dumb It Down”, the UD’s question why hip-hop has become so ignorant, poking fun at the whole scene with a hook that goes “Duh, duh, duh?”. Meanwhile, “Mr. Toughguy” calls out all the middle-finger ice grill rappers, while “Potty Mouth” sports a soul brother vocal sample warning – “you said a bad a word! I’ma tell yo mama on you!”, as they chant “ooh, ooh shame on you / tell you what I’m gonna do / you better watch your mouth!” during the hook. There’s even a lullaby at the end (“Goodright Now”), that any aging b-boy could proudly play for his sleepy son or daughter – and it actually works.

    Besides the fact that this is leaps and bounds ahead of their debut, Journey To Anywhere, its the return to innocence is what makes Ugly Duckling’s Taste The Secret such an incredible piece of work. It’s weeded out all of the current “rap essentials”, such as sex, drugs, and guns; and while that’s really no feat considering that this can be said for a number of underground hip-hop acts, the difference here is that it’s actually done with originality and a smart sense of humor. This is actually, perhaps for the first time in years (not forgetting DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince’s Rock The House), a hip-hop album that is clean enough to be given to a five-year old, dope enough to be rocked by a sixteen year old, and smart enough to be enjoyed by a thirty year old. But don’t take our word for it, Taste The Secret.

Journey.. is full of B-Boy bravado and if you can’t catch a head nod somewhere in the midst of the 14 tracks you might need to reevaluate how Hip-Hop you are. From funky, crunchy loops (“Eye On The Gold Chain”) to unquestionable party starters (“Rock On Top”), the U.D. know how to create a fun atmosphere in their songs. Whether you’re a club DJ or just entertaining guests tracks provide an accessibility to all audiences – hard-rock to soft-boiled.

Sparked off properly with “Introduckling”, a rippling energetic joint focalizing the UD’s braggadocio to a tee with simple yet effective combo of beats and rhymes. “I Did It Like This” continues with a steadfast track only intensified by the group’s sharpness through the beat’s considerable amount of change ups. “Rock On Top” scores as another party winner and one of the album’s highlights as the marriage of subtle vibes and bubbling drums uplift the rhymes of Dizzy and Andy to the pinnacle of what they’re best at – moving the crowd.

Intellects might scream for more substance, and while the fellas drop a few seemingly subdued verses in “Oasis” and “Journey To Anywhere” (although re-recorded from the version The Funky Precedent compilation), the real gems are in the straight up party joints, so just chill and like the album closer let the UD simply “Lay It On Ya”.

Journey.. is full of B-Boy bravado and if you can’t catch a head nod somewhere in the midst of the 14 tracks you might need to reevaluate how Hip-Hop you are. From funky, crunchy loops (“Eye On The Gold Chain”) to unquestionable party starters (“Rock On Top”), the U.D. know how to create a fun atmosphere in their songs. Whether you’re a club DJ or just entertaining guests tracks provide an accessibility to all audiences – hard-rock to soft-boiled.

Sparked off properly with “Introduckling”, a rippling energetic joint focalizing the UD’s braggadocio to a tee with simple yet effective combo of beats and rhymes. “I Did It Like This” continues with a steadfast track only intensified by the group’s sharpness through the beat’s considerable amount of change ups. “Rock On Top” scores as another party winner and one of the album’s highlights as the marriage of subtle vibes and bubbling drums uplift the rhymes of Dizzy and Andy to the pinnacle of what they’re best at – moving the crowd.

Intellects might scream for more substance, and while the fellas drop a few seemingly subdued verses in “Oasis” and “Journey To Anywhere” (although re-recorded from the version The Funky Precedent compilation), the real gems are in the straight up party joints, so just chill and like the album closer let the UD simply “Lay It On Ya”.

Ugly Ducking may be a comical name for this crew, but it’s definitely a misnomer - nothing about this EP is ugly. Self-produced and featuring DJ scratches by Young Einstein; this crew’s Mode is made of witty rhymes and snappy beats. “Now Who’s Laughin’” is an ideal example: two different pianos loops are laid over a boom-kick and snare that leaves groove riders salivating, and references to classic shit that will crack a smile to any hip-hop head that’s in the know. The only downside of this song is that at two minutes and fifty seconds long, it’s too short!

“..provide a way to get from point A to point B, so I can see, my way through this Stratego / I gotta put the group before my ego / cause sometimes we bump heads like NFL linemen..” – Dizzy Dustin, “Get on This”

Perhaps the most refreshing thing about the Mode of Fresh that Ugly Duckling displays is their constant stream (of conciousness) references to their favorite rap records. The crew displays this devotion to rap’s true school on “Do You Know What I’m Sayin?” by intermingling classic lines from KRS-ONE, K-Solo, and Big Daddy Kane one right after another and changing up the endings with clever word substitution.

“..in the end times, breakin it down like enzymes, to package and send rhymes / to another galaxy, as a proton - I split ‘em into catastrophe, and so on, and so on..” – Andy Cooper, “Everything’s Alright”

I’ll even let Andy get away with flipping Nas’ rhyme from “Live at the BBQ” - he changes it to “when I was twelve, I went to heaven for lovin Jesus”. What? Nah kid, go ‘head with your good self. You can’t blame them for being positive when they’re so positively Fresh.