BEASTIE BOYS – Hello Nasty – 2LP – Vinyl

2LP – Black Vinyl

On their previous album,Ill Communication, the Beastie Boys expanded their parameters yet again, melding cutting-edge hip-hop with slinky jazz, butt-wiggling funk, weepy classical, and combustive punk rock.

Four years down the line, the group’s music isn’t nearly as organic. They’ve all but abandoned the guitars and returned to the kind of old-school beats and rhythms that defined their groundbreaking 1989 album,Paul’s Boutique. ButHello Nastyisn’t a regression, and it’s anything but a cop-out: in addition to resurrecting the best elements from their past, the Beastie Boys have embraced the dopest high tech gizmos of the computer age.

Hello Nastygurgles like galactic sulphur pools, whizzes like a Sega game, and slurps and thumps like the best backward Hendrix loops. Add in a cavalcade of Latin percussion, calliope keyboards, and exotic samples (Stravinsky, Stephen Sondheim, Jazz Crusaders, Rachmaninoff), and you’re left with one of the most creative and jubilant hip-hop records to date.Paul’s Boutiquemay have been the band’sPet Sounds, butHello Nastyis the Beasties‘Sgt Pepper’s.

Tracklist:

Super Disco Breakin’
The Move
Remote Control
Song For The Man
Just A Test
Body Movin’
Intergalactic
Sneakin’ Out The Hospital
Putting Shame In Your Game
Flowin’ Prose
And Me
Three MC’s And One DJ
The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)
Song For Junior
I Don’t Know
The Negotiation Limerick File
Electrify
Picture This
Unite
Dedication
Dr. Lee, PhD
Instant Death