FEATURE:
Beastie Boys at Forty
Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
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I am writing this feature…
as July marks forty years since the Beastie Boys’ formation. Not as the trio we would go to know them as. In July 1981, Beastie Boys were formed from members of the Hardcore Punk band, the Young Aborigines, in 1978. They had Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond as vocalist, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, guitarist John Berry and Kate Schellenbach on drums. After Shatan left in 1981, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch replaced him on bass and the band changed their name to Beastie Boys. Soon after, following Berry’s departure, they were joined by Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horowitz. That is a short history – or at least, the overview of the group’s formation. Beastie Boys would soon slimline to the trio of Diamond, Yauch and Horowitz. From the Hardcore Punk roots, they transformed into this Hip-Hop band with an edge of Rock. I don’t think the world had seen anything like Beastie Boys when they put out their debut album, Licensed to Ill, in November 1986. In 2012, Yauch died of cancer and Beastie Boys disbanded. I think they would still be together making music were Yauch still with us. It is tragic to think he has been gone almost a decade. It is also sad considering the strength of the trio’s final studio album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. Released on 3rd May, 2011, it is as strong as some of the Beasties’ material from the 1980s and 1990s.
Not to say that they lost form or slumped. Some felt that 2007’s The Mix-Up was an average album. It is an instrumental album so, with those parameters, it is hard to impress as much as the Beasties usually do with their vocal interplay and incredible lyrics. Never the less, the trio produced this magnificent final album. The project was originally planned to be released in two parts. Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 originally planned for release back in 2009. The release was delayed after Yauch was diagnosed with cancer. Following a two-year delay, only one collection of tracks (Hot Sauce Committee Part Two) was released. Any plans for a two-part album was eventually abandoned in light of Yauch's death in 2012. One would not be able to tell of any weakness or upcoming tragedy in the camp. The songs on Hot Sauce Committee Part Two are as strong and memorable as any in the Beastie Boys’ catalogue. From the stunning Make Some Noise (which I think should have been the album’s opener) to Too Many Rappers (ft. Nas), it is such a strong album. I am going to do some other Beastie Boys features to mark forty years of the group’s formation. Whilst everyone will have their say regarding the group’s finest album, there is no denying their last studio album is a magnificent one. For that reason, I am going to bring in a couple of reviews. Thinking about the Beastie Boys and how they evolved through the years, it is amazing to think they were as sharp and inventive in 2011 as they were in 1986 (or prior to that, regarding their earliest songs).
In a very positive review, AllMusic had some interesting things to say about the sensational and hugely memorable Hot Sauce Committee Part Two:
“Once Adam Yauch discovered he had cancer in 2009, the Beastie Boys shelved their forthcoming The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 and its companion volume, gradually reviving and revising the project once Yauch went into remission. At this point, they scrapped their convoluted plans to release concurrent complementary volumes of THSC and simply went forth with The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2, which retained the bulk of the track list from Pt 1. All this hurly-burly camouflages the essential truth of The Hot Sauce Committee: that the Beasties could sit on an album for two years to no ill effect to their reputation or the record’s quality. This doesn’t suggest they’re out of step so much as they’re out of time, existing in a world of their own making, beholden to no other standard but their own. Certainly, the Beasties stitch together sounds and rhymes from their past throughout The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2, laying down grooves à la Check Your Head but weaving samples through these rhythms, thickly layering the album with analog synths out of Hello Nasty, all the while pledging allegiance to old-school rap in their rhymes. Nothing here is exactly unexpected -- even the presence of Santogold on “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” isn’t new, it’s new wave -- yet The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2 feels fresh because there is such kinetic joy propelling this music. Last time around, the Beasties weighed themselves down by creating retro-tribute to N.Y.C., taking everything just a little bit too seriously, but here they’re free of any expectations and are back to doing what they do best: cracking wise and acting so stupid they camouflage how kinetic, inventive, and rich their music is. And, make no mistake, The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2 does find the Beastie Boys at their best. Perhaps they’re no longer setting the style, but it takes master musicians to continually find new wrinkles within a signature sound, which is precisely what the Beasties do here”.
If you are new to the Beastie Boys or are more affiliated with their earlier work, I would suggest you take some time out and listen to Hot Sauce Committee Part 2. It is a magnificent album with – like all of their albums – so many gems and memorable lines! In another review, this is what The A.V. Club had to say:
“Beastie Boys eased naturally into their role as hip-hop elder statesmen a long time ago. These days the Boys are so far removed from trends in contemporary hip-hop that they’re practically Paleolithic—and that seems to suit them just fine. On Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D. perform old school bits with telltale names like “The Lisa Lisa/Full Force Routine” and “The Larry Routine” with the cheesy élan of grandparents telling cornball jokes to their indulgent grandkids. Like the Boys’ curiously underrated last album, 2004’s To The 5 Boroughs, Hot Sauce is rooted in the good-time party-rocking rhymes and dusty grooves of old-school hip-hop, though the group finds ways to expand its sound without deviating from retro fundamentals.
On previous albums, the proud dilettantes’ genre-hopping sometimes felt like experimentation for experimentation’s sake, but here the forays sound both purposeful and fitting, whether the Beasties are going reggae alongside Santigold on “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” or fusing hip-hop with cranked-up rock guitars on “Lee Majors Come Again.” The sparky, electronic “OK” leans to the new wave side of the ’80s and Nas slides easily into the old school cadences he last rocked on Ludacris’ “Virgo” on “Too Many Rappers,” a long-in-the-works—and worthy—teaming of legends”.
I shall wrap it here. I really love Beastie Boys and, though one can say that the fortieth anniversary occurs in 2023 (1983 is when the Hip-Hop single, Cooky Puss, meant the group fully transitioned to Hip-Hop – it was when Kate Schellenbach left). I think that July 1981 is when we can declare the beginning of the career of Beastie Boys. Even though the line-up and sound changed radically within a few years, they started out forty years ago. Their eight studio albums are among the finest ever released. One of my favourites is the amazing Hot Sauce Committee Part 2. As an album, it is…
QUITE a swansong.