| The Beatnigs | |
| Type: | Studio Album |
| Artist: | The Beatnigs |
| Cover: | The Beatnigs (album).jpg |
| Released: | 1988 |
| Recorded: | 1988; Dancin' Dog Studio, Emeryville, California |
| Genre: | Industrial hip hop, political hip hop, experimental rock, spoken word |
| Label: | Alternative Tentacles[1] |
| Producer: | The Beatnigs |
The Beatnigs is the only album by the San Francisco band The Beatnigs, released in 1988.[2] [3] It combined punk, industrial and hip hop influences.[4]
Michael Franti wrote all of the lyrics to the songs; he also played bass.[5] The album was produced by the Beatnigs. An enclosure explaining the origins of the band's name was included with the album.[6]
Spin wrote that the album mixed "the Last Poets’ severe rhetoric with the horrific industrial grinding of Einstürzende Neubauten."[7] Trouser Press wrote that "this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations."[8] The New York Times called the album "a powerful conglomeration of taped sounds - speeches by Malcolm X, for instance - industrial noise made with saws, sirens and oil drums, and a conventional rhythm section."[5] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide called it "the most interesting and innovative album any of Franti's three groups has made, loaded with sonic twists and turns."[9] The Spin Alternative Record Guide deemed it "an angrier warm-up to De La Soul a year later: choppy beats mingled with inflammatory news items, goofy how-to spiels, exhortations from Malcolm X and others, and twisted loops of electro-industrial din."
All songs written by The Beatnigs.