Flashback Favorite! Back in 1989, when skateboard culture was pure, punk rock was freshly dead and MTV was still looking to be a good thing, the Beastie Boys released a confusing little record called Paul’s Boutique. Muddy - that might be the first world I’d use to describe the record. Or how about progressive? Shocking? Either way, the album - now considered to be the landmark record for experimental hip-hop - left the music community scratching (and also nodding) its head through the summer and fall of 1989. Now, we finally get a properly mixed down version of this classic with this, the 20th anniversary edition.

So dense, unique and labored over is Paul’s tracklist that it makes the Beastie’s blockbuster debut, Licensed to Ill, sound less like a classic first outing and more like a subtle hint of talent. The sound on Paul’s, since branded in the media as “alternative hip-hop,” is built on heavy sampling, live instrumentation, thick bass lines, youthful back-and-forth rapping and a quilt-like production style that takes an “any and everything at once” approach. Like most concept albums, this record is very cohesive, moving quickly from one idea/genre/sound to the next while always feeling like one big, ambitious idea.

Leaving NYC for Los Angeles a year or so before the record came together, Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA began working with production team the Dust Brothers on their hotly anticipated follow-up record. This being a long time before sampling was outwardly thought to be a bad/illegal thing, the Beasties hit the crates hard, digging non-stop for the finest selection of loops, beats and samples they could gather. The sound on Paul’s eleven proper songs (there are also twelve “mini” songs/interludes) reflects the trio’s hard work, sounding almost as if they loved the samples they dug up so much that they didn’t want to
leave any on the cutting room floor.

Notable as the Dust Brothers’ inclusion and top-shelf collection of samples are, the real point of interest here is the way everything melts together - including the sometimes annoying vocals. The samples and programming are always moving, changing from one beat to the next, never resting. It can be exhausting, truthfully. But once you get over the initial feelings of over-stimulation, Paul’s feels like a hip, timeless slice of 1980s New York. This is a youthful blast of creativity made for music lovers of all kinds.

To list the artists and albums who took influence from this, the
Beastie Boys’ best-ever work, would be a chore too major for this
writer. Flat out, Paul’s Boutique changed hip-hop, but, more so, it started a subculture. Ask the skaters. Ask the indie rock and indie hip-hop kids: this is a classic that sounds just as good today as it ever did.