The Echo Chamber Blog

I could extend our “Gangsta’s in the Kitchen Doing Gangsta Shit” series here but I don’t go near the kitchen. Not because I’m super sexist, but because my parents are cousins and I was born half retarded. Plus everyone knows how to make mashed potates. You peel them shits. Smash them shits. Whip them shits. Word to Method Man. Sprinkle in your fave-five fancy shit, i.e, garlic, rosemary, chopped green onion, et al, and Frank Viola, you have smashed face potatoes. Good job ya dunce.

The wiener-schnitzel I ordered Ill Communication from finally delivered the goods. I hold it under Paul’s Boutique (which is my #1 Beastie Boys Album), Licensed to Ill and Hello Nasty but it’s still pretty fucking dope. “Sure Shot” leads off the album and that song is just stereotypical Beastie. “Sabotage” is another track everyone and the mother knows, and rightfully so, because it bangs, is also on here. Q-Tip stops by on “Get it Together” which is factually proven to be the best track on the record (TECB is gospel, son.)

When I was a youngin’ listening to these dudes, I feel I never gave them more of a listen. I just blasted the radio hits and skipped over the dope production interludes and passed over every other track and chalked it up as filler. . . even though I didn’t know what filler was at the time. As an adult (can I say that when I still sit cross-legged [Indian-style for all you racists] while playing and managing virtual baseball teams on the X Box,) I appreciate Beastie Boys more than ever. They’re geniuses and more than pioneers. I wish they received more shout-outs from dudes in Hip-Hop nowadays. I hold them in just as high regard as Kool G Rap, Rakim, and KRS-1. They’re not as nice lyrically as Giacanna, but their genre bending style and ridiculous beats should be in everyone’s collection.

I was 10 when this album came out. I was 2 when Licensed to Ill dropped. Even though Ad-Rock could be in the next Just For Men ad, he’s still so Hip-Hop.

Filed under: Album Talk/Review, Hip-Hop, Music Tagged: | Beastie Boys, Jews can rap, Mashed Potatoes, Q-Tip