The Beastie Boys first album was the soundtrack to my 15th and 16th years of life. It was an incredible piece of work that galvanized everything I love about music into a wondrous amalgamation of sound, rhythm, fury, hormones, smart-assedness, and pretty much everything else a young man of that age is seeking to discover. The beats were jamming, the rhymes were intricate, hilarious, and super cool. And Led Zeppelin samples on top of that? Come on, man! Licensed to Ill was a work of teenage art, comparable to the early work of the Ramones, but with a hip hop twist.
It’s too bad that the Beastie’s sort of disown this period of their musical legacy. But the overwhelming sense that the group gives now is that Licensed to Ill was a put-on, a joke, a parody. That's not true at all, and they know it and so did everyone who loved that album. Revisionist history. But the group did mature, and there's nothing wrong with that. Never did the band grow as much between albums as it did for 1989’s Paul’s Boutique remains among my top five hip hop albums of all time.
If you don’t have this album and know it by heart, I can’t even begin to tell you. If you know, then you already know. Needless to say that if you consider yourself a rap music fan in any way, you need to know this album like the back of your hand. Check Your Head was a third masterpiece, showcasing the diversity of the various sounds the trio was able to create. And it all sounded smooth and easy.
Ill Communication was mostly more of the same. The falloff began here, but there were still enough cool tracks to make it a winner. After that, the Beasties never put out another worthwhile album. There were some good songs here and there, but overall the shit was wack.
Former Spin somebody or another Alan Light offers a brief oral history of the Beasties in The Skills To Pay The Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys. This 2005 book pretty much covers everything from the band’s early days to that kind of shitty album they put out in 2004. The oral history format makes for a quick read. (One Amazon reviewer called it “Beasties For Dummies, not an unfair criticism.) That said, Light tracks down quotes from all of the key players (Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, Chuck D, Run DMC, Money Mark and anyone else you can think of), including the Beasties themselves, and sprints through of the group’s career.
The Good: You can knock this one out in an afternoon or two. Light gets all the key players and it gives a broad overview of the band’s career. Also of interest is how success changed the group from cocky to arrogant, with Adam “MCA” Yauch apparently leading the way. If you’ve never heard the story before, this is probably all you need.
The Bad: With nothing but quotes, there’s little other than the basic plot -- the events that comprised the Beasties’ career. Yauch and the rest of the Beasties eventually denounced “Licensed to Ill” and got all Tibetan on our ass, but the book lends no insight into how that evolution came about.
Moreover, there is little insight into the music, how it evolved, or the group’s creative process. Instead you read, for the gazillionth time, about the skateboard ramp set up during the Check Your Head and that the studio was named G-Son. That was super cool in 1992. Now? Not so much.
Overall, if you don’t know the story, this book covers the basics. If you're music book geek like me, it's reasonably fun read that you can kick out in a sitting or two. All the key players are here, offering their perspective, and it’s fun when the occasional cat fight breaks. I like oral histories and this one is pretty much what you'd expect. If you're a fan of the Beasties, or want to know their basic story, this is as good as anyplace to start, as long as you don't expect to learn much about the music. It would be great to have a serious biography of these guys alongside rigorous analysis of their music. Given the group's impressive body of work, it deserves a more scholarly, in-depth treatment. This would require the participation of the band, which seems to be one reason why there is not a really good bio on the Beasties to date.
You can pick up a copy for a little under $6.00, shipping included. Wait a year, and I'm sure you can scoop it a lot cheaper.
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