Never underestimate the power of old money. Ja Rule rocks Burberry, the Majesticons are Burberry. They don’t give a fuck – they’ll even slum it and order something from Talbots for the experience. With their debut album "BEAUTY PARTY," the Majesticons team up with the Trusticons to take us further than we’ve ever been before.



"Listen to 'Beauty Party' and hear irony die in a whole new way," says Majesticon lawyer and founder, Jay Wakowitz. "Majesticons are about the ultimate post-Jiggy experience. Beats in the Valley beyond Bling. Some cats want loot, others want power and some are so far-gone they just want more beauty."



Maybe some background is called for. The man behind the man behind the Majesticons is none other than Bronx-based hip hop genre-crusher Mike Ladd. Ladd has been performing in punk bands, funk bands, solo and with DJ or DAT since he was thirteen. Born in Cambridge, Massachussets, it’s in current home NY where he’s made his name, sharing stages with the likes of KRS-One, De La Soul and the Last Poets, winning the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Slam competition and having his words published in collections such as "In Defense of Mumia". One of the most maverick presences in US black music, his first album was released in 1997, since when he has built up a body of work which few artists can match for range, imagination and ambition.



But few of his projects can be more ambitious than his Infesticons v. Majesticons trilogy for Big Dada. Conceived at the end of the last millenium, the records tell the tale of the epic clash between the Infesticons and the Majesticons – a battle for the heart and soul of black music and culture, a conflict between glimmer and substance, even – if you wanna get hifalutin about it – an investigation into notions of beauty in African-Amerian society. Luckily, Ladd’s work is also funky as hell, grounded in hip hop’s traditions and attitudes and very, very funny. On the first installment, 2000’s "Gun Hill Road" we were introduced to the Majesticons – jiggy robots invented by the smart friend of evil genius Poof NaNa accidentally reactivated by his mom and now on a mission to take over New York. The Infesticons, "regular men and women living on the five-borough fringes," rally to repel them, and on Gun Hill Road in the North Bronx battle ensues. The Majesticons retreat, which leads us to "Beauty Party".

"'Beauty Party' is the second part of the trilogy," Mike explains. "There had to be an Empire Strikes Back to the Infesticons. That's how these things work."

Here the Majesticons are re-grouping after their apparent defeat and coming to terms with a world in economic downturn, where conspicuous consumption is starting to be frowned upon. Their answer? The arrival of the Trusticons to school them in the ways of the truly rich and powerful:

"They traded in their Ford Explorers for Land Rovers and '68 Volvo Hatchbacks, their Ninja 550s for '73 Ducatis. They traded in their Cristal at Nell's for Uzo on the bluffs of Santorini. They traded in their Fubu for vintage reconstructed Sergio Valente re-imported from Japan. They traded in their Glocks for Lawyers and their Desert Eagles for real estate brokers."



So welcome please, the cyborg tribe of fully loaded MCs and Nu-Neo-soul divas such as Cheeta Chinchilla, Disasterous, Ivy League, Hampton Jitney, Kim Shimmer, Chubzee C, Sprinkle, Jimmies and Cherri. "These talents continue to break the frame, pushing the limit of apré-ballin’," Wakowitz offers. Of course it’s done with a little respect for the relentless pop machine they are about to dominate – "that’s the deal with pop, it’s a business and the craftsmen and women that deal in it take that craft very seriously." So the beats hit just like they should and MCs such as Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox), Murs (Living Legends), L.I.F.E. Long, Omega Moon and El-P (Def Jux) treat their roles with respect, even if there’s slightly more going on lyrically than the casual listener might at first realise. As the chorus of "Piranha Party" has it, "We’ll buy you out/ Or kick you out/ tear down your house/ it’s condos now."



"These cats blaze out the Five Boroughs in a whole new way," claims the pony-tailed Wakowitz. You better believe him. Even if, strictly speaking, he’s not really real.