If the Beatnuts' 1999 effort Musical Massacre! was a mild effort to open up a more commercial path for the self-anointed intoxicated duo, their sixth release, entitled Take It Or Squeeze, intends on streamlining the Beatnuts' hoarse sound while satisfying hardcore fans. With the aid of understated appearances by (onetime group member) Al Tariq, Greg Nice, DJ Tony Touch and Method Man, you get a mix of both serious musical ambitions and the equivalent dark comedic material. My whole clique starvin' like a jail cafeteria/While you around the block suckin' cock, I'm in Siberia, cracks Psycho Les on the violent wit of Hammer Time. To the credit of The Beatnuts, the latter track's dated piano sample stylistically seems worlds apart from the plush synthesized Latin funk of Prendelo.

The Beatnuts' first single, No Escapin' This superbly showcases the duo's artistic spirit with its high pitched flutes, grandiose violins, and trippy vocals, coming off like a deformed musical number. A blatantly serious Ju Ju even speaks out of his locoman persona as he warns wanna-be thugs, It's turned into a police-state, the average cat don't even know his fate. Yet, the Beatnuts' on Take It Or Squeeze It covers up the duo's less than stellar lyrics with such unsophisticated lines as Make you a believer/Chop you in a neck with a motherfuckin' meat cleaver. Of course no one ever mistook The Beatnuts for Jurassic 5. Like an outta control rock band, The Beatnuts may not take themselves too seriously, but they prove to be passionate about their warped musical craft. And that's all you can expect from these nuts.