Licensed
To Ill (1986)
Snotty nosed NYC punks turned snotty nosed metallic rap merchants – this is the sound of pubescent white-boy Hip hop crossing over, the sound of raging teenage hormones committed to vinyl, and the soundtrack for one particular rodent infested excuse for accommodation I endured in late 1986, early 1987. The Beasties’ full-length debut, Licensed To Ill, is in fact one of the most enduring and critically acclaimed Hip hop albums of its era. With good reason.
By
blatantly ripping up the Dummies Guide To Political Correctness handbook and by
embracing the write-about-what-you-know template to lyric (and rhyme)
construction, the Beastie Boys unrepentantly provide us with a set of tunes
about rebellion, sex, partying, and about adolescent life in mid-Eighties downtown
NYC in general. You’d think this sort of stuff would appeal to only a niche
(debauched) few, but the sales charts would tend to tell a very different story
– this being the best selling Hip hop album of the Eighties and the genre’s
first No.1 on the Billboard album charts.
Part
of its crossover appeal, I suspect, is the way Licensed To Ill throws a whole
raft of different musical influences into the mix, before blending it all
together to come up with something fresh, exciting, and genuinely innovative
for its time. Of course, producer Rick Rubin and the Def Jam crew deserve
immense credit in that regard; Rubin’s recruitment of Slayer guitarist Kerry
King and sampling of the likes of Led Zeppelin went a long way towards giving
the album its trademark heavy/Metal feel. Something that was also a feature of
Run DMC’s output during the same era (Run DMC being Def Jam’s other major
player and onetime tour-buddies of the Beasties. See also – LL Cool J).
So
yeah, when you consider the plethora of decidedly average rap/rock try-hards
and imitators we’ve been lumbered with today, Rick Rubin and the Beasties
certainly have a lot to answer for.
If
even just a couple of these newer bands/acts could produce lyrics and rhymes
half as clever as those found on Licensed To Ill we’d have much less to
complain about. I think that was another key ingredient in the Rubin/Beastie
Boys formula – they actually composed well-structured, frequently funny, and
invariably intelligent raps. It sounded like these guys were skipping school,
yet based on the sick-notes they were able to compose, you had to question the
need for them to be there in the first place.
Highlights
include … ‘The New Style’, ‘She's Crafty’, ‘Posse In Effect’, ‘Fight For Your
Right’, and ‘No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn’.
*
Paul’s Boutique (1989)
It
is difficult to believe that the Beastie Boys’ second album, Paul’s Boutique,
is nearly 25 years old.
One
of the main problems with reviewing older albums – for argument’s sake let’s
say anything with a release date of over a decade ago – is how to place the
work in its correct context. How did it relate to its time? Where did it fit in
alongside everything else going on around it? … etc. With a genre like Hip Hop,
which has advanced considerably since taking its first tentative steps not so
very long ago, the speed of its evolution means the task of providing context
becomes all the more difficult. If a decade in Hip Hop terms is a long time,
and it most certainly is, once you’ve added advances in technology and an
enormous swing towards the mainstream to the equation, a period of 20 years
must be considered a veritable lifetime.
I’ve
read and heard this album being described as “timeless”, but clearly that is a
misnomer. To me, “timeless” implies something that can’t become dated. How can
this album be timeless when it couldn’t possibly be made today, or made ten
years ago even, due to major changes in recording industry copyright law? Far
from being timeless, its content ensures it will always be associated with an
incredibly creative, less restrictive, and far more innocent age. This was
essentially (but not quite) free-for-all sampling’s last great hurrah.
After
the success, not to mention novelty, of merging Rap with Metal on their 1986
debut Licensed To Ill, the Beastie Boys took things a step further on Paul’s
Boutique, swapping New York, Def Jam, Rick Rubin, and Rock (temporarily, at
least), for a little bit of LA technicolor, and something approaching a genuine
kaleidoscope of sound.
The
last part was achieved by convincing the (soon to be) legendary Dust Brothers
to lay down the grooves for some clever, occasionally pubescent, but always
highly entertaining lyrics/raps. The production was certainly ahead of its time
with the duo piecing together more than 100 different samples to effectively
transport the listener on a whirlwind journey through time, and vast swathes of
popular culture itself.
Somewhat ironically, it was not rated upon initial release; critics struggled with it
(as I myself did at the time, after being a fan of Licensed To Ill) and record
stores failed to shift it in any great quantity given that it was so different
to what Beastie fans were expecting, even after the long sabbatical, and the
small matter that its own label was evidently happy to see it sink. However the
album has blossomed in subsequent years to be seen these days as one of ‘the’
pivotal early Hip Hop releases. It is a testimony to its quality that it should
eventually overcome those early setbacks and the reputation that preceded it.
Perhaps time has provided its own context after all. If Hip Hop is art, and the Eighties effectively a blank canvas, then Paul’s Boutique – thanks to three MC’s, a couple of brilliant producers, and a supporting cast of hundreds – is about as close to a Jackson Pollock as popular music gets. But then not everyone appreciated him either.
Perhaps time has provided its own context after all. If Hip Hop is art, and the Eighties effectively a blank canvas, then Paul’s Boutique – thanks to three MC’s, a couple of brilliant producers, and a supporting cast of hundreds – is about as close to a Jackson Pollock as popular music gets. But then not everyone appreciated him either.
Highlights: ‘Shake Your Rump’, ‘High Plains Drifter’, ‘The Sounds of Science’ (“I’m kicking with the Kii-nowledge” – priceless), ‘Hey Ladies’, ‘Car Thief’ and ‘Shadrack’; I’m not so sure about the 13-minute finale which can come across as a series of incomplete ideas if you’re not suitably zoned.
Non
credited contributors include, but are not limited to: everything from The
Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix; to the obligatory James
Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Sly & The Family Stone, Cameo et al;
then right on through Hip Hop’s formative years with the Sugarhill Gang, Afrika
Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow; to second wave contemporaries like Run DMC and
Public Enemy; Nobody is spared. So far as iconic cultural reference points go,
add Johnny Cash and Bob Marley to the mix (literally). Hell, the Dust Bros even
got to sample the Beasties.
Paul’s Boutique was listed among Rolling Stone’s 500 all-time Greatest albums, The Source had it as one of Rap’s all-time 100, TIME magazine had it as one of its 100 Greatest of all TIME (see what they did there?), while those shrewd old dogs over at Pitchfork rated it the No.3 album of The Eighties.
*
The
In Sound From Way Out! (1996)
Wow.
The In Sound From Way Out features 13 tracks of premium quality minimalist
instrumental Jazz-Funk from the self-proclaimed original party boys of Hip Hop.
Abandon all preconceptions; let your mind and body groove.
Something
of a one-off from the Beasties, and unlike any other album they’ve done. Well,
I suppose this is essentially a compilation, but it’s one that showcases their
talents as musicians and composers - as opposed to their rather more obvious
skills as lyricists and rap artists.
Not
a rhyme nor heavy guitar riff (ala Slayer providing the backing to their
initial run of “hits”) in sight, and a major departure from their Rap/Metal
roots.
Here they sound like they’ve set out to provide an audition to become James Brown’s backing band – or at least a softcore variation thereof. Move over the JB’s!
Highlights include: ‘Groove Holmes’, ‘Pow’, ‘Eugene’s Lament’, and ‘Lighten Up’.
Very
Smoooove work fellas, you got me hooked.
*
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