It’s a couple of years late but the Beasties are finally back. Is there anyone else who’s been in the hip-hop game as long as they have who still garners this much hype on the eve of a release? To date they haven’t released a single duff hip-hop album and their last hip-hop release (2005’s To The 5 Boroughs) was a superb effort. On the other hand there was self-indulgent instrumental LP The Mix Up from a couple of years ago which didn’t exactly set the world alight. Have they still got game? With eighth LP Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 only days from release – let’s have a gander…or you can just ignore my shit and skip to the end for the Beasties’ soundcloud player.
MAKE SOME NOISE
The new single. Got bounce – like one of the better tracks off Hello Nasty. Goes a bit ‘rock’ for the last eight bars or so though – just when you want a smooth beatmatch…
NON-STOP DISCO POWER PACK
Classic break and dub-funky b-line – bit of an Ill Communication/ Check Your Head vibe going on. Liking it.
OK
New wave-y intro but it’s ok, they’re still hip-hop. Definitely liking this too. Sounds like a single to me.
TOO MANY RAPPERS (feat. Nas)
Apparently, this is the Beasties’ own stab at remixing the single that got released two years ago. It seems they’re pretty handy at a remix since this replaces the beat-in-the-bathtub vibe of the original with something a cleaner and heavier and better. And when I say ‘heavier,’ I mean borderline industrial.
SAY IT
The progeny of their hardcore punk days tries to forge it’s way to the surface. Hip-hop just manages to hold it’s head under the water but it’s not pretty.
THE BILL HARPER COLLECTION
Who the fuck is Bill Harper?
DON’T PLAY NO GAME I CAN’T WIN (feat. Santigold)
Significantly better than the last time the Beasties did reggae and actually more like Santigold featuring the Beasties. If J Star or Mr Benn aren’t already in the frame for doing an even more skanking remix they definitely should be…
LONG BURN FOR THE FIRE
Funky spaced-hop groove…little bit different. Kind of like it.
FUNKY DONKEY
What it says above. Got a bit of a P-funk feel and some dirty clavinet going on.
THE LARRY ROUTINE
…as last featured on the end of the very fresh B-Boys In The Cut which was supposed to be on Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. Although I have no idea how I legally know that.
TADLOCK’S GLASSES
Tadlocks’ Glasses then – or – we’ve passed the midway point – time for some padding.
LEE MAJORS COME AGAIN
…and the punk beast finally breaches the surface. You can’t sing, you can’t play. You’ll still have a career in thirty years. But only if you start rapping and get yourself some beats.
MULTILATERAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
See Tadlock’s Glasses above. So-so instrumental that could have been on so-so instrumental album The Mix-Up two years ago.
HERE’S A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YA
Oh good – hip-hop’s back – got that trippy vibe again – the lovechild of Bodhisattva Vow and Intergalactic.
CRAZY ASS SHIT
Are those kids at the start 3 Titans? One minute fifty-seven? Should have doubled the length for a potential single…
THE LISA LISA FULL FORCE ROUTINE
Ill Communication style fifty-seconder for the lowkey finish…
COMMENTS : Yeah, still dope. “Grampa” might have been “rapping since ‘83” but the ‘rolling stones of rap’ clearly couldn’t give two shits about whether or not it was a wise choice to use the appellation ‘Boys’ all those decades ago. In fact, Mike D, AdRock and MCA are showing every apparent inclination of growing old at least as disgracefully as Mick and Keef – this has, for example, more mad vocal drop-ins than we have any right to expect of three men in their mid-forties. It’s also got the obvious singles, the abstract-y early-90s boom-bap crowd pleasers, the poppy/ experimental stuff that works and if there’s an inevitable hardcore track in there as well as the odd non-entity, they’ve earned the right.