Description
Label Review.
2011 album.
Our Overview.
New York City Hip Hop group Beastie Boys were the first big white rap group, and they have stayed popular — at times hugely popular — for nearly a quarter century. After emerging from New York's hardcore punk underground in the early Eighties, the trio crossed over into the mainstream in 1986 with their first full-length album, Licensed to Ill, the first rap album to reach Number One. Featuring "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" (Number 7) and "Brass Monkey" (Number 48 pop, Number 83 R&B, 1987), the album sold 720,000 copies in six weeks, becoming one of Columbia's fastest-selling debuts ever. In the late Eighties, Beastie Boys' take on hip-hop began maturing, and throughout the Nineties the group ventured into spaced-out funk, psychedelia and lounge music, yet retaining its adolescent charm and hit-making sensibility.
The members of the group were teenagers, all from wealthy Manhattan families, playing in various hardcore punk bands when they came together in the early Eighties as Beastie Boys. The initial lineup consisted of singer Mike D (b. Michael Diamond, Nov. 20, 1966, New York, NY), bassist MCA (b. Adam Yauch, Aug. 5, 1965, New York), drummer Kate Schellenbach (b. Jan. 5, 1966, New York) — who later formed Luscious Jackson — and guitarist John Berry.
When founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch passed away 2012 It was obvious to most that there could be no Beasties without Yauch and he New York daily times reported that the two surviving members of the group would never again release music under that name. It also meant that ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’ would be the final Beastie Boys LP and a great way to go out, the final Beastie Boys LP.
The album is diverse but cohesive, and the fact that it's one of the few wholly self-produced Beasties records makes its technical expertise all the more impressive. Originally planned as the second part of a double release, it was delayed by Yauch’s illness. But the extra time allowed the Beasties to record more tracks, and to prune the weaker cuts from the record.