"The Beatnuts began as an underground Latino crew working as producers separately before coming together to become one of the most respected underground hip-hop groups.Junkyard Ju-Ju (aka JuJu, born Jerry Tineo) and Psycho Les (born Lester Fernandez) first came together in the studio in the 1980s and enlisted Fashion (aka Kool Fashion, born Bertony Smalls) to form a trio. They worked with the Jungle Brothers before hooking up with Monie Love on a production gig for a single called ""Pups Lickin Bone"" from Down to Earth, her 1990 debut album. The Beatnuts resume expanded as they clocked studio time with Naughty by Nature, Cypress Hill and Prime Minister Pete Nice, and they eventually signed a recording contract with Combat Records. The label rerecorded the mini-LP Intoxicated Demons in 1993, but its release was held up when Kool Fashion served six months in jail on drug convictions. In 1994 the Beatnuts released an eponymous album on Violator/Relativity.Fashion officially left the Beatnuts after a three-year hiatus in which he became a Muslim and released the solo effort God Connections, which boasted production from his former bandmates. In 1997 JuJu and Psycho Les came together for another album from the Beatnuts, Stone Crazy, which was followed by Musical Massacre in 1999. In 2001 the Beatnuts issued Take It or Squeeze It, which boasted collaborations with Method Man and Fat Man Scoop and the following year Kool Fashion came back in the form of Al Tariq for The Originators. Milk Me and Hot followed in 2004 and the group garnered controversy when ""Confused Rappers"" took a few shots at Jennifer Lopez for stealing their beats on ""Jenny from the Block."" Since then, the Beatnuts have worked on separate projects and Pit Fight Records released a compilation of previously unreleased songs in 2008."