In 2004
the Beatnuts returned with another album (
Milk Me) on another label (Rykodisc), and though they'd long struggled to regain their footing in the commercially disappointing wake of their Loud Records heyday five years earlier, they continued to release first-rate East Coast hip-hop. There's nothing exceptional about
Milk Me, granted, but it's another in a line of solid
Beatnuts efforts -- sure to please fans, if not overly impress them and win new ones in the process. The two
Nuts --
Psycho Les and
JuJu -- produce all their own beats, as they often do, and they rap over them in a fairly carefree, insincere manner. A few notable guests show up for the party --
Greg Nice,
Akon,
Freeway,
Rahzel,
Roc Raida -- and those guests are featured on the handful of standout songs: "Hot," "Find Us (In the Back of the Club)," "U Nomsayin," and "Confused Rappers." ~ Jason Birchmeier