Album Review ? Beastie Boys
Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
EMI
The wait has been long, so long in fact since the release of ?To The Five Boroughs? that a whole new generation of kids have come of clubbing age, relatively unaware of the Beasties and their profound impact on popular culture from the 80?s through the early 2000?s.? Not only were they the first all Caucasian rap crew to achieve media dominance and respect from the heads at the same time, they managed to remain on the cutting edge of sound through the Grunge years with ?Check Your Head? and ?Ill Communication?, integrating live instrumentation with dirty Old School raps.? They even managed to age gracefully, with MCA?s committment to Tibetan liberation leading to some high profile benefit shows.? Always pushing the boundaries of their well-defined sound, Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D?s musical palette has stretched from their Hardcore Punk Rock beginnings, through jammed out space funk, stadium status electro-bangers, and contemplative pieces of personal poetry.
With the release of ?Hot Sauce Committe Part 2?, the boys have chosen to make an album purely for the Old School Beasties fans, those whose parents first hated (and inspired) ?Fight For Your Right To Party?, and who eagerly dove off stage for the first time to a coverband?s version of ?Gratitude?.? MCA?s gravelly voice and gut rumbling bass kick off the festivities with the ragged psycho-funk of ?Non Stop Disco Powerpack?.? Nas drops by for the swampy grime of ?Too Many Rappers?, and even NYC darling Santigold kills a spliffed out ragga dub chorus on ?Don?t Play No Game That I Can?t Win?.? Throughout the feel is of a group of seasoned vets flexing for fun, yet with a more serious undertone, perhaps the product of maturity and life?s struggle.? Especially notable is the ever dope MCA, whose well documented battle with and recovery from throat cancer undershadows the entire album, and who is in fine form throughout.
Tracks like ?Funky Donkey? take it all the way back to ?82, or is that forward to 3000? It is pure electrified nerd-funk that instantly calls to mind the Beastie?s in their hardhats and factory worker outfits running madly around the stage.? This is an abstract world of bleeps and rumbles that slowly coalesces into intelligible and well-disciplined compositions, like the elegantly insane prelude to ?The Larry Routine?.? While the rhyme patterns are generally predictably Old School, given the current state of rappers? cadences it compares well to a Gucci Mane or Waka Flocka flow, proving once again that Old School is not simple, just precise.? There?s even a classic Beastiecore jam on ?Lee Majors Come Back? where the boys get to really rock out.? It may not be ?Heart Attack Man?, but it does the trick.
The young kids may like it and they may not, but who cares?? ?Hot Sauce Committee Part 2? is for the fans first and foremost, with all the elements of a tasty tray of Beastie treats.? It may not have the youthful insouciance of ?License To Ill? or the sparkling spontaneity of ?Ill Communication?, but for the dynamic trio to be producing music of this calibre over 25 years into their career (let alone to remain together as a group at all?), is remarkable, and to think that the zit-faced teens that wrote ?Brass Monkey? would create a track as subtly nuanced and utterly dope as the instrumental ?Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament? should be enough to make a nation of rappers pick up a P-Bass, a Crybaby Wah Wah, and a Moog synth.? Sixteen tracks deep and not a dog among them, ?Hot Sauce Committee Part 2? could well be the summer soundtrack for thirty-something stoners this year.? Well done boys!!!
Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 Is In Stores Now
beastieboys.com
hotsaucecommittee.com
By Dave ?Corvid? McCallum
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Source: http://abortmag.com/index.php/2011/05/album-review-beastie-boys-hot-sauce-committee-part-2/
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