Beastie Boys - 'To The 5 Boroughs' (Brooklyn Dust / Parlophone)
4/5
By: Toby L
Nothing provides more merriment to rockfeedback than the sleeve-artwork of a hip-hop rekkid (yes, we need more joy in our lives, that much we concede); just how f**king ridiculous and shameless the extensive lists we're proffered of the featured samples cannot be considered. (Aussie dance mavericks The Avalanches perhaps upstaged everyone in the genre, however - featuring no fewer than 1,000+ lifts from others' musical blarings on their debut-LP - Geeky Ed.)
But Beastie Boys, 500th album in, are still putting up a valiant fight. Their latest 'To The 5 Boroughs' may sample and steal from more than a healthy share of classics and obscure delights alike, but this - unlike others that can't muster the blend - is very much the yapping New York rappers' own. It's a true sign of artistic (re-)invention - inspired from the trio's predecessors to fuel something new; rock 'n' roll does it consistently through way of borrowed chords and compositional structure. Hip-hop, or good hip-hop we hasten to add, simply lays down the phattest arse-cheek tearers and enhances, develops upon what we've already heard with new lines. Et voila.
Cunning. That's why the mark of a Beastie Boys record - the finest, most intricate rhymes; the best scratch-work (Mixmaster Mike); and those three distinct voices: spitting and churning more anthemic wit than you could care to contest - remains so pertinent, so poignant even to this day (they first joined us twenty years back). And, the joy? You don't need to be from New York to give a f**k. With matter this accessible, hard-hitting and timelessly influential, all are part of the craze.
One qualm: we've been here before. Beastie Boys haven't furthered anything.
The up-side: we're provided a new record of such extortionate consistency and churning thrills that we can't stop shaking: as much numbed from the encounter as striving to rearrange our hip-hop collection so it begins (and ends) with 'B' in their honour.
'... 5 Boroughs' is, largely, a funkier assessment of their template - examine the shoulder-bopping, West Coast(!)-esque sleekness of 'Crawlspace', or, heck, their utilising of 'Rapper's Delight' in 'Triple Trouble': the gospel creator of rap; that's how cocky our threesome have got. Yet you suspect it all purposefully builds to the whirling abrasion of 'An Open Letter To NYC' (which goes out to 'Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten/From The Battery to the top of Manhattan...', no less). It's possibly one of the collective's most definitive moments to date.
But they still do the hits, though - you'll have heard their top-ten return, 'Ch-Check It Out' - while 'Right Right Now Now' and 'Hey F**k You' are lessons in infectious, effective rapid-fire poetry-aerobics. They even maintain the velocity and feelgood, upbeat empowerment that others more concerned with narcotics-dealing and hoe's would do well to adopt - unlike 'Open Letter...', 'We Got The' is a rallying call to not just their home-state, but one and all: 'Who got the power to make a difference?/Who got the power to make a change...? We got the... We got the...'
As incendiary and playful as ever, though the Boys may well have seen more heated receptions to material than that of a presently rock-dominated climate, don't let the lack of hyperbole surrounding their latest detract you from one of 2004's most fulfilling, powerful purchases. You'd be the one the worse off.
Artists in this article: Beastie Boys
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