This was the album that had me worried. In the wake of the commercial failure of “Paul’s Boutique,” would the Beasties try to rehash “Licensed to Ill?” I heard from a buddy it was going to be more like a rehash of “Pollywog Stew,” as they had decided to pick up their instruments again. But the same buddy got a leaked track from another buddy, a song called “Professor Booty.” Good news for me: 

They were still M.C.’s. 

The full album opens with a “Cheap Trick” vocal sample, “This next one…is the first song…on our newwwwwww albummmm”, and then goes right into a Jimi Hendrix sample. “Check Your Head” is a sonic masterpiece (in my opinion, anti-sampling crowd), mixing hardcore punk and hip hop, with some funky instrumentals thrown in. The album was a success; the Beasties were back, at least with the college crowd. It’s unfair to say that the lyrics had lost something, they were still very funny guys, referencing everything from Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s autobiography, to Vic the Cleaner from Luc Besson’s “La Femme Nikita.” In the wake of Licensed to Ill, gone out and bought their hardcore stuff, “Pollywog Stew,” and even found a copy of “Cookie Puss.” Even on these crappy recordings, you could sense the fun they were having. Having grown to love punk music as well, partially because of “Pollywog Stew,” I remain a fan of that side of “Check Your Head.”  

The album marks the appearance of something new from the Beasties: cynicism. Not that it’s a downer. It’s a non-stop party, but one laced with lyrics such as: “I’m not sure what it takes to be hip. A lot of people making music that to me ain’t shit.” Clearly, this was a response to the backlash against them, which culminated in lukewarm sales for “Paul’s Boutique.” On the aforementioned “Professor Booty,” Yauch gets personal. Though the source of his venom has never been officially “outed,” his verse in the song is pretty obviously aimed at 3rd Bass, and MC Serch specifically. This is what is known in the hip hop world as a diss track, and it was a first for the Beasties.  (more…)

“Paul’s Boutique.” I remember thinking, “That’s a weird name for an album.” Turns out, that wasn’t the only thing weird about the album. Masterfully produced by the Dust Brothers, “Paul’s Boutique” contains samples on top of samples, twisted into other samples. I know there are some that, at best, don’t consider this an art, and at worst consider it theft. 

 I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard. 

The Eagles, The Supremes, The Commodores – no one was safe from the Beastie Boys; Mike D. was ecstatic that the Beatles threatened to sue over the use of three of their songs in one Beastie Boys song, “Sounds of Science”  (Best. Song. Ever.). Lyrically, the album was, again, the height of hilarity. Mike D. rapped, “I’m Mike D. and I’m back from the dead. Chillin’ at the beach. Down at Club Med.” This in itself is not funny, but the line shows how in tune to the pop culture zeitgeist the Beastie Boys were. Again, this is pre-Internet, but a rumor had circulated in, oh, 1987 or 1988 that Mike D. had died. My first college roommate was from DC, and he refused to believe it was in fact Mike D. on “Paul’s Boutique”: “That dude’s dead, man.” Their pop culture references grew more varied. They are uniquely conscious of pop culture bits that the rest of us have forgotten about, as demonstrated with the line from “Hey Ladies”: “I’m not James at 15, or Chachi in Charge”. Who in their right mind had any recollection of “James at 15”, a 1970s dramedy about a boy who was, well, 15 years old (It was called “James at 16” once James had a birthday)? But the line that made me declare them to be hip hop geniuses was: “Make another record ‘cause the people they want more of this, suckers they be saying they can take out Adam Horovitz.” Dude rhymed Horovitz. Damn.  (more…)

In November 1986, I wandered into a mall record store with every intention of buying nothing. I browsed, and nothing caught my eye, except the Violent Femmes first album, but it was too expensive. Nothing stood out in the rap section, which at that time was tiny, so I left. As I stepped back out into the mall, a display in the window caught my eye. It looked a little something like this:

Now, with all due respect to Ben Shapiro, I had been a fan of rap/hip hop since I heard “Sucker M.C.’s” by Run-DMC in the seventh grade, and my early cassette tape collection included such artists as Whodini, The Fat Boys, and LL Cool J. While I heard “Fight for Your Right (To Party)” on the radio, I honestly didn’t consider it hip hop music. I also didn’t know that the Beastie’s had been around as a hardcore punk outfit for a little while. But there’s one thing I did know when I saw that poster in the window of Camelot Music at Cumberland Mall, and that my friends is this: The Beastie Boys were obviously the coolest guys that had ever lived. I hurried back inside the store and snapped up a copy of their Def Jam debut, “Licensed to Ill.” 

Thus began a strange career for Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, and Michael Diamond, and my stranger fascination with it. For better or worse, their music influenced the rock-rap subgenre, but it’s unfair to categorize them with the bands they inspired. From Even when they venture into the hardcore punk of their youth, The Beastie Boys are a hip hop group. If Rap is a style of delivering lyrics, then hip hop is an attitude. The Beastie Boys, along with Run DMC and Public Enemy (among others), created music informed by Rock and other genres, but is definitively hip hop.  (more…)