Shake, Shake, Shake. Shake your Boutique
I was musing, the other day, on my favourite lines in rap tunes. Not as easy as it sounds without aural stimulation to get the grey matter working (you try thinking of some lines off the top of your head and see how you get on, or maybe it is just me with shocking short term memory). However, one which immediately sprang to mind comes from Car Thief on the Beastie Boys' seminal 1989 LP Paul's Boutique - "I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy Cheeba...I grow it!" Not a cutting metaphor, not a cleverly worded threat, not a diss or a witty sex-rhyme, but clean, simple, perfectly weighted and delivered in the slightly nasal whine that only the Beasties can make appealing.
Swift memory retention of the line was no real surprise as Paul's Boutique is one of those albums that you never really get tired of hearing and as such is never far from top of the playlist. And it is no surprise when you consider (a) how groundbreaking the album is, particularly surprising following the fresh but one-dimensional Licensed to Ill that precedes it in the Beastie canon, and (b) just how many samples are stuffed in there and covered with varied and relentlessly fresh vocals to create an epic soundtrack to the best party you've never been invited to.
As we all know the Dust Brothers' production on the album changed the landscape of hip-hop in many ways, breaking ground in the use of multi-layered samples as a musical art-form in itself. The sample-heavy approach, diversity of selection and frenetic pace could well have been a jumbled mess, but instead it is nigh on perfection. As Chuck D remarked at the time, it was the dirty secret among the black hip-hop community that the album had the best beats around at that time. So why not dig into your own crates again for a slice of beat mastery that opens a window to an eclectically wonderful musical world. And while you're there, try to count the 14 sampled tunes on Hey Ladies. Impossible.
Swift memory retention of the line was no real surprise as Paul's Boutique is one of those albums that you never really get tired of hearing and as such is never far from top of the playlist. And it is no surprise when you consider (a) how groundbreaking the album is, particularly surprising following the fresh but one-dimensional Licensed to Ill that precedes it in the Beastie canon, and (b) just how many samples are stuffed in there and covered with varied and relentlessly fresh vocals to create an epic soundtrack to the best party you've never been invited to.
As we all know the Dust Brothers' production on the album changed the landscape of hip-hop in many ways, breaking ground in the use of multi-layered samples as a musical art-form in itself. The sample-heavy approach, diversity of selection and frenetic pace could well have been a jumbled mess, but instead it is nigh on perfection. As Chuck D remarked at the time, it was the dirty secret among the black hip-hop community that the album had the best beats around at that time. So why not dig into your own crates again for a slice of beat mastery that opens a window to an eclectically wonderful musical world. And while you're there, try to count the 14 sampled tunes on Hey Ladies. Impossible.
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