Re: new beasties

Colin Millar (millar@maths.ed.ac.uk)
Wed, 29 Jul 1998 09:22:02 +0100

> well here's my take on the new album
>
> the dope songs are "super disco breakin' "(albeit too short), "The Move",
> "Just a Test", "Body Movin'"(one of the best ..."We be gettin down and you
> know we're crush groovin!"), "Intergalactic", "Sneakin' out the Hospital"(a
> nice intstrumental that takes you back to that days when Mark Nishita used
> to roll with the group), "Putting Shame in Your Game"(this is by far my
> favorite), "Three MC's and One DJ"(I wish, though, that Mix Master Mike
> would have gone off a little more on this one), "The Grasshopper Unit(Keep
> Movin')"(Biz Markie goes off at the end of this song, and it sounds like a
> buch of insects), "The Negotiation Limerick File", and "Electrify"
> My True feelings are that this album is phenomenal. But it wouldn't be
> this way if Hurricane had stuck around. The main reason that this album is
> good is because of the contributions made by Mix Master Mike. Sometimes he
> is heard actually playing with the beats, and hooks, where on past albums
> Hurricane was a good transitionalist, and not a player. This is why the
> track "Puttin' Shame in Your Game" is my favorite. It's got the great
> transitions, but MMMike plays nicely with some great samples: "non stop
> hip-hop", "can't get enough of that funk"(he messes with this one so that
> it just fits the beat).

Its Ad-Rock that does the scratches on that track (he did most of the
scratched on the LP as far as I'm aware). Mix Master Mike is only on 4
tracks on the album so any improvement from the last album is more
than likely down to the Beastie's themselves. Mind you I don't think
Hurricane had much input in any of the previous albums as Ad-Rock did
a lot of the cuts on those as well so even if he'd stayed the album
would probably have been near identical to what has been released ('3
MCs and 1 DJ' excluded). If Mike had been responsible for more then
the album would have been totally f**ked up judging my his 'Anti-Theft
Device' album (what does go on inside this man's head?).

> So after further review, I say buy the album. If
> not for the fact that Mix Master Mike makes it dope, but for the fact that
> the Beastie Boys are the Beatles of Generation X. You may not buy that
> last statement, and I hope it causes some discusion on the list, but it is
> how I truly feel. My main argument: The Beatles took a new form of
> music(rock and roll), and made it popular. The Beasties did the same for
> Hip-Hop back in '86.
>
> Keep-keep bouncin'...
> mikedor

Personally I think the album's reasonably good though it does takes
time to grow on you and some of the lyrics and (non-Mike) scratches
are pretty weak.

Colin.

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