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Throwback Review: Beastie Boys ‘Paul’s Boutique’

BeastiePauls
I have a confession to make that I’m not particularly proud of.  Sometimes I joke about it, but have never fully indulged in what caused the massive chasm in my listening repertoire. However, I feel that you and I have become close and I can trust you not to stone me in riotous judgement: I don’t listen to rap and hip-hop.

I grew up listening to classic rock and soul, so rap and hip hop culture was not something I’ve ever been familiar with. Recently, my brother fell into a “Golden Age West Coast Hip-Hop” phase and I caught the residual effects. We laughed at the absurdity — two white kids with Polish parents, having never stepped foot in Compton, rapping “today I didn’t even have to use my A.K.” in our apartment, eating the food our mom cooked for us.  Not only did I feel silly, but I felt like a faker.

So I did what I do best — descend into a Wikipedia k-hole that killed most of my Sunday afternoon. Among the lists of best hip-hop records was unanimously the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique. In a sweep of albums that meditate on inner-city gangs, killing cops, and drug use, how could one of the top albums come from three clownish white Jewish kids who reference Hunter S. Thompson and Fuzzy Navels?  Deemed one-hit wonders after their first album Licensed to Ill the Beastie Boys’ sophomore project Paul’s Boutique was written-off as too experimental and peaked at #24 on the charts. The record is chock-full of samples pulled from other hip-hop tracks and films. For instance, the first and last beats of “3-Minute Rule” are from Sly and the Family Stone’s “The Brave and the Strong” and the fourth track “Eggman” samples multiple times from Public Enemy.

Paul’s Boutique has grown to receive critical acclaim and is considered a landmark hip-hop album.  I have a theory that supports why I enjoy writing these throwback albums so much: the best way to discover new music is through your favorite artists’ influences. Paul’s Boutique is considered important, the way I presume, anyway, because it served as the catalyst for the trend of sampling songs in original pieces. The same way golden age hip-hop from L.A. sampled Jamaican dub music, funk soul, jazz poetry and call & response patterns from African-American religious services á la James Brown, the Beastie Boys packed dense allusions to their funk predecessors (Curtis Mayfield), black hip-hop counterparts (Public Enemy), and their hometown haunts (59 Chrystie Street).  I picked Paul’s Boutique because while I’m not an aficionado of hip-hop by any stretch of the imagination, this album transcends some of the biggest decades in American culture, the hardcore lifestyle of late 1980s South Central L.A., and three Jewish “hipster” kids from New York City. For those of you who are rap newbs like me, or even if you consider yourself fluent, it is imperative that you visit Paul’s Boutique.  Make sure you’re at a computer — you’ll be doing a lot of Googling.

Review by Eva Bandurowski. Follow her on Twitter @ewabando.



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