Beastie Boys Album: “Check Your Head”

Well, after you have phenomenal chart success with your first album ("Licensed to Ill") that you will never see again, and you make a cut-and-paste masterpiece with your second album ("Paul's Boutique") that nobody has equaled since, what do you do for the third? Apparently, if you're the Beastie Boys, whatever you want. Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA actually picked up their instruments for this album and created a lot of funk and punk instrumentals, and then added some rap along the way. Of the rap songs, the high points are "So What'cha Want", "The Maestro", and "Professor Booty", and some of the non-rap songs that are really great are "Gratitude", "Funky Boss", and "Time For Livin'". Even parts of the album that would normally be filler are interesting: this is the sound of the Beastie Boys expanding their horizons even further. Second only to "Paul's Boutique" (and possibly "Hello Nasty") in the Beastie catalog.

Since everyone in the entire world is stupid except me, and Paul's Boutique was NOT the commercial blockbuster smash that the Beastie Boys' record company had hoped, the boys went back into the studio and thought, "Well, we gotta try SOMETHING new. Otherwise we'll get dropped again and it'll be over for good." So they started playing their own instrunents, something that hadn't been done in rap EVER (at least I can't think of anything off the top of my head that sounds like this). Yes you get several awesome wonderful fuzzed-out riff rockers like "Finger Lickin' Good" and the two MTV megahits "So Whatcha Want," and "Pass The Mic." HOWEVER, you also get some lazy "dub" and "funk" instrumentals like "Lighten Up." Now I know that these instrumentals offer a nice break between the rockers, but the fact remains that there are simply too many of 'em. I also don't really like the Sly Stone cover. But it's only like two minutes long, so as soon as you get sick of it, it's gone.

Coolest sample on the album: RIGHT THERE at the end of "Finger Lickin' Good" the Beastie Boys rap about something and end it with "stuff," and then Bob Dylan's voice comes out of nowhere and sings "I'm goin' back to New York City I do believe I've had enough" (from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"). A great moment.

The first three Beastie Boys CDs were solid masterpieces. I can't decide which of the three is the best--LICENSED TO ILL, PAUL'S BOUTIQUE or, this, CHECK YOUR HEAD. Does it really matter? They're all marvels of funk, rock, and hiphop. What set this CD apart were the jazzy sections, played by the boys themselves (with some critical help on keyboards). For more than a decade, this CD has earned a permanent spot on my tray, and has quite easily held its place on my "What ten albums would I want if I were stuck on an island (preferrably Manhattan island)?" list.

My personal favorites are "So What'chu Want?", "Pass the Mic" and "Something's Got to Give". One of the shining moments to me, as for several other reviewers, is hearing Dylan's voice singing "I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough" on "Finger-Licking Good". Which brings me to one other observation: The Beastie Boys are to New York as The Beach Boys were to California. CHECK YOUR HEAD, like all other Beastie CDs, is a tribute to their hometown, and they projected an image of it that is uniquely theirs.

If you're a Beastie Boys fan, you probably know about the changes they went through. In the 80's alone, they went from a hardcore punk-rock band to a rap group. After the commercial failure "Paul's Boutique" in '89 (even though it was a brilliant record), the Beasties picked up their instruments in '92 and recorded Check Your Head, the album that would secure the popularity of the Beastie Boys once and for all.

With Adrock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D on the drums, the Beasties recorded "Check Your Head", an hour-long album full of witty rhymes, trippy instrumentals and crazy samples. The album starts out with the heavy bassline of "Jimmy James", definately a great opener. The next track, "Funky Boss" is almost the contrary to Jimmy James - very light and funky. After only two tracks, you already notice, "Man, the B-Boys aren't rapping too much in this album". And it's true - rhyming in the album is used quite sparingly compared to their previous albums. The next tracks, "Pass The Mic" is an excellent blend of rock and rap, and "Gratitude" has Adrock screaming over a really nice bassline. Other standouts include the tag-team rhyming on "Finger Lickin' Good", which also containts the funniest Bob Dylan sample I've ever heard, the warped vocals and heavy beats of "So What'Cha Want", the trippy organs on "Groove Holmes", the funky horns on "The Maestro", and the B-Boys showcase their rhymes on "Professor Booty".

If you're a rap fan and not so much a fan of rock, this probably won't be your favourite Beasties record because of the lack of raps on here, and you really have to be a rock fan to appreciate some of the instrumentals on here. The fact is, the Beastie Boys went back to their rock roots without having to give up their clever rhymes, and it paid off dearly for them. Can't forget about the hilarious Biz Markie cameo on "Biz Vs. The Nuge" - that's classic. It's not for everyone, and it's not as accessible as, say, Licensed to Ill, but it's still a four-star classic for sure.

When the Beastie Boys first signed to a major label and came out with Licensed to Ill, their hilarious lyrics and energetic attitude escalated them to the top, but the sophomore album, Paul's Boutique, failed to match its predecessor's success. But in 1992, the boys came out with Check Your Head, completely changing their pace into a new world.

It was a masterpiece. The Beasties completely grew up from their drugs-school-mischief days, and while their lyrics may not be funny like their earliest stuff, they're more mature, and that's a great thing since it would make me cringe to hear 27-year-olds talking about how they don't want to go to school. Whether they're dissing whack emcees or just having fun, the Beastie Boys can always pull things off marvelously.

But it's not necessarily the lyrics that TRULY make this CD brilliant - it's the sound. On Check Your Head, the Beastie Boys unleash their creative minds and look more towards the art of music, as this album goes beyond experimentation. They prove that they're much more than just rappers by actually playing their own instruments! Since they use a drum set, electric guitar, and bass, Check Your Head is actually more like a hip hop album that uses instruments that are stereotypically used for rock music. A huge innovation to their sound is the inclusion of several instrumentals (sometimes with a few vocals) that use a 70's-funky-groove genre. These relaxing tunes can be found in just about any section of the CD and provide an excellent break to some of the hip hop. "Time for Livin'" brings the Beastie Boys back to their speed-punk roots and sounds like "Egg Raids on Mojo" with a pumped-up bass. "Gratitude" is also more of a punk song, but it's much slower than "Time for Livin'". They haven't given up on using tons of samples to mix around for the interludes of their songs, and in "Stand Together" and the biggest hit from the CD, "So What'cha Want", an electro-voice effect is used to make them sound a bit different (this would later be used heavily on Ill Communication).

There are plenty of gems to be found on here, like the hardcore "So What'cha Want", the catchy "Professor Booty", the trippy "Finger Lickin' Good", and the bold "The Maestro". The last track (a funky jam), Namaste, has one of my favorite lines, listed as the title of this review. Really, nothing could've been left behind, leaving Check Your Head as perhaps the Beastie Boys' best album, and that's saying quite a lot, since they've got plenty of great stuff. Excellent for parties (the hip hop) and relaxation (the funky jams) alike, this is easily worth the price and belongs in any music fan's collection.