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BEASTIE BOYS :: FROM PUNK ROCK TO
RAP
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Beastie Boys Break Their Silence
 Now, the Beastie Boys
are back with their sixth LP, To the 5
Burroughs, their
first LP in six years. Recorded and mixed in NYC and the first album that has
been self-produced by the band, the 15-track
To The 5 Burroughs,
was released last June via Capital Records. With long breaks between records as
nothing new for the Beastie Boys, the New York-based rap trio’s first album
since 1998’s Hello Nasty
is a thunderous return to
form and an album that makes it seem like they've never been away.
Recorded on and off over the
last two years at Beastie Boys' own studio in downtown new York City, produced
by the band and mixed by Supa Engineer Duro, To The 5 Boroughs captures
the sound of the Beastie Boys in their prime with forty-something voices that
are as fresh as ever. Dispensing the electro experimentation of the more
challenging Hello Nasty, as the boys get back to basics and return to
their old-skool sound, To the 5 Burroughs features crashing beats,
ultra-funky samples and those trademark rhyme styles all combine to create a
brand new masterpiece in the Beastie Boys’ saga. To emphasize the straight-ahead
hip-hop sound of To the 5 Boroughs, the Beasties shunned live
instrumentation with only a few traces of the instrumental jams and full-band
efforts of their last several albums, featuring, rather, largely programmed
backing tracks. To the 5 Burroughs also prominently features longtime
stand-in DJ, Mix Master Mike rapping whose scratching also highlights “Shazam!”
and “Right Right Now Now.”
Lead single "Ch-Check It
Out," with its booming meaty beats and funky vibes demonstrates how MCA, Mike D
& Adrock have lost none of their old skool sensibilities as they remind
listeners just how exciting the rap-rock genre was back in the day when the
Beastie Boys helped pioneer it. It rocketed to No. 3 on the Billboard Modern
Rock Tracks chart in only four weeks and its accompanying video is also
continually rising up the MTV hit charts.
In keeping with its title,
To the 5 Boroughs is, in large part homage to the city that brought Mike D,
Adrock and MCA together. With lyrics that are as random as ever, the Beastie
Boys still rap as well as they did on previous albums as they keep a perfect
balance between political views, and their usual 'fun' stuff in blending
politics with party time.
To the 5 Burroughs
is based on the knock-on
effects and American's reaction to the 11 September 2001 incident when Ad-Rock,
MCA and Mike D were all at home in downtown Manhattan that fateful morning.
Reinforcing the subject matter, the album’s cover art is a pencil drawing of
lower Manhattan as viewed from its southern tip, with the World Trade Center
towers intact. An album loaded with political commentary, including calls to
vote President Bush out of office in “That’s It That’s All” and criticism of US
foreign policy in the politically charged “Time to Build,” it also frequently
pays homage to the trio’s New York surroundings, best evidenced in the
straight-up tribute “An Open Letter to NYC,” which together with block-party
rockers "Ch-Check It Out" and "Triple Trouble," conjures the early '80s New York
underground B Boys came up in-but keeps one foot firmly in the future
throughout, especially on the unclassifiable "Oh Word?" and "Crawlspace."
Despite all the political commentary, the Beasties wisely don’t skimp on their
trademark goofball humor as they littered the album with references to such
pop-culture figures as Fred Sanford, the Keebler Elves, Ron Popeil, Herman
Munster, Jabba the Hut, Foghorn Leghorn and “Three’s Company” landlord Mr
Furley, living up to the band’s reputation of representing to the music
community the themes of rebellion, their sarcastic sense of humor and leftist,
socially conscious viewpoint that has resonated well over time.
Beginning their first
extended tour in five years, the Beastie Boys, who are expected to tour in
support of the release, has already confirmed two August appearances at Japan’s
Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo and Osaka.
They may
have always been Manhattan boys, formed in Greenwich Village back in 1981. From
Licensed to Ill, which was where they were at that time – drinking beer
and just having fun, to the sun-drenched funky goofball rap of the LA album,
Paul's Boutique, To the 5 Boroughs is an album made worthy of New
York City, as the Beastie Boys have defiantly proved that, like New York, they
are very much still in the game, having fun in troubled times.
© Valerie V. Mayuga,
2005
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