Beastie Week: "Too Many Rappers"

The Beastie Boys are famous for shining a light on rising hip-hop talents. They've taken The Roots and Talib Kweli on tour, rhymed with Q-Tip and Pharcyde and even let Kanye West appear in their "Triple Trouble" video in 2004. Less appreciated is the Beasties' tendency to enlist rap veterans and bring out the best in them, as they did with Nas on the Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.



Nas is a Queens-based rapper who gets great reviews for his street poet lyrics. Less commendable are his usually rhythmless, unimaginative beats. With the Beasties in tow, he's served with the kind of track his lyrics deserve, a bouncy Mix Master Mike beat with percussion that sounds like Stomp with trash can lids. The Beasties selflessly give Nas the chorus, although they're all included in the rejoinder, "One, two three/Too many rappers and there's still not enough MCs/It goes three, two, one/MCA, Ad-Rock, Mike D that's how we get it done."

The Beastie Boys were right, there are not enough MCs. And now there are even fewer.

Beastie Week: "So What'cha Want"

How did the Beastie Boys approach writing Check Your Head? They were trying to live down their hit first record and live up to its flop follow-up. The Beasties ended up distancing themselves from both, picking up their old instruments and recording a 20-song college-rap collage that reads like it should be too smart to be catchy. That is until you hear "So What'cha Want."



As musicians, the Beasties are not virtuosos. I remember one review calling Mike D "Meg White's dad." But the Beastie Boys are never held back by their technical limits. Mike D's rhythm track on "So What'cha Want" provided the basis for the most infectious Beck song ever, while the chorus riff and sputtering organ are now lodged in hip-hop history. Pat Metheny wouldn't know what to do with an Ad-Rock progression.

It's still rare, but more hip-hop artists (Common, The Roots and Mos Def among them) use live instrumentation since "So What'cha Want" dropped in 1992. Even fewer artists were able to improve on the ideas that the Beasties brought up with Check Your Head, but some did, the most notable example being Ill Communication.

Beastie Week: "Hey Ladies"

For as long as there's been music, there's been Shout Out to the Ladies songs. Every songwriter has tried and every genre is overflowing. But even when competing with the entire history of music, the Beastie Boys come out on top.

I'm not a believer that rap or rock lyrics are poetry. Poetic, maybe, but someone printing out 2Pac's lyrics in a book does not make them poetry. That being said, I like the lyrics to "Hey Ladies" more than I enjoy most poems.



Hey ladies in the place I'm callin' out to ya
There never was a city kid truer and bluer
There's more to me than you'll ever know
And I've got more hits than Sadaharu Oh

Ton Thumb Tom Cushman or Tom Foolery
Date women on T.V. with the help of Chuck Woolery
Words are flowing out just like the Grand Canyon
And I'm always out looking for a female companion

That blend of nursery rhyme innocence, adolescent humor and sly references set a high standard for hip-hop. Coupled with the Beasties' flow, a head-spinning mix of call and response, harmonies and interjections, the call is downright irresistible.

Much has been made of how with today's licensing laws, a record like Paul's Boutique and songs like "Hey Ladies" are impossible to recreate. Disregarding that barrier, "Hey Ladies" would probably still stand supreme. Listen for the breakdown after each cowbell rejoinder. They're all different, switching keys, vocalists and instrumentation, and each time it's organic. If you're dancing, a real possibility if "Hey Ladies" is on, you might not even notice.

Sometimes when I teach a large group of girls, I drop a chorus from "Hey Ladies" to fire them up or make them laugh. Every time it works, and every time I mind-thank Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA. The Beastie Boys radiated so much cool that in some circles, anyone who can sing the Beasties can be one.