The Illest Motherfuckers From Here to Gardena

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Music snobs from all corners of the globe (Pitchfork I’m looking at you) will state it as historical fact that “Paul’s Boutique” is the Beastie Boys crowning achievement.  And while it’s an amazing album that pretty much reinvented how samples could be used to great affect, it just doesn’t give me the feeling that “Check Your Head” does.  You see while “Paul’s Boutique” in many ways was the Beastie Boys proving they matured somewhat since “License to Ill”, “Check Your Head” brings them backwards to their NYC Hardcore Punk roots while also proving that samples aside, Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA had musical chops, or in other terms, the skillz ta pay the billz ya’ll.

So what we have here is not only my favorite rap album of all time but also one of the punkest rap albums of all time (Public Enemy’s “Fear of A Black Planet” coming in at a close second).  And I’m not talking about any of that Kid Rock, Limp Biscuit rock/rap hybrid bullshit either.  What the Beasties did on “Check Your Head” was not only unique in 1992 but continues to go unrivaled almost two decades later.  You’ll be hard pressed to find a more energetic, audacious album anywhere.  When the Beasties aren’t finishing each other’s sentences in rapid-fire succession, they’re using samples as punch lines to their rhymes, playing their own instruments, and cutting it up on the turntable like it was a goddamn electric guitar.

Recently reissued by the Beasties own Grand Royal imprint, “Check Your Head” comes to us in a couple varieties.  I picked up the double 180 gram LP version.  But there’s also a quadruple LP version with a bunch of great bonus tracks, including an FSS favorite, Netty’s Girl (YouTube it if you don’t know).  And, if vinyl isn’t your forte you can also pick this all up as a two disc expanded CD.  While you can’t go wrong whichever one you pick, there’s a certain something about holding a shiny new black slab of heavy gram vinyl when you know it’s also one of the key instruments in the making of the sounds therein.

Now if memory serves the three singles the Beasties put out for this release were Pass The Mic, Gratitude, and So What’cha Want (maybe Jimmy James too now that I think of it).  But they’re just the tip of the iceberg.  Finger Lickin’ Good, The Maestro, Live At PJ’s, and personal favorite Professor Booty are all equally amazing as well.  And let’s not forget this album also has Biz Markie singing (The Biz vs. The Nuge) and a punk fucking rock version of Sly and the Family Stone’s Time For Living.  I’d also be somewhat remiss if I didn’t list some of the artists sampled on this album.  The list is long and includes Cheap Trick, Bad Brains, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, EPMD, and Ted Nugent to name a few.  Check Your Wikipedia for a more complete listing song by song.

So if you’re at the record shop and you have to make a choice between buying “Check Your Head” and the recent vinyl reissue of “Paul’s Boutique”, forget the opinions of the snobbish musical elite and remember your friends at the FSS. Oh and one suggestion… turn the bass way the fuck up before you blast this one.  Your neighbors will thank me when you get the block party started.

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