T.I.R.M. CERTIFIED CLASSIC
CHECK YOUR HEAD
THE BEASTIE BOYS

What a barrier stereotypes can be.

They come in so many different forms: pigeonholing, typecasting, whatever you want to call them. They are such a part of our culture and fabric as Americans. Most people had come to know the Beastie Boys as a rogue trio of punk-rock hip hoppers. But in 1992, the Beastie Boys dropped an unabashed classic album showing no regard for the box that critics and fans imposed on them.

Check Your Head, which followed Licensed to Ill and Paul’s Boutique, is the third of what is widely held as the Beastie Boys’ trilogy of classic albums, an album layered with profound musical diversity and sophisticated instrumentation that seemed inconsistent with the Beastie Boys archetype of “punk rock heavy metal B-boyism”.

In full disclosure, the first segment of this album is done in traditional Beastie Boys fashion. “Pass the Mic”, “Gratitude”, and “Time for Livin” are the intense Sex Pistols-meet-Run DMC-meets-Animal House odes that we have all come to love from the trio. Tracks like these formed my appreciation for the group, but also caused me to typecast them in the same breath. Images of the “Fight for Your Right to Party” video invade the subconscious when hearing this initial part of the album.

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But then something very interesting happens.

If the first segment of the album is a drunken tirade, the latter part is a smoked-out funk jam session.

Somewhere around “Something’s Got to Give”, the album takes a supremely instrumental and musical turn as the Beasties strap up their guitars, basses, and organs to create a brand new version of funk, loosely borrowed from progenitors like Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament and the newer hip hop incarnations of that day. This sound is distinctly different from Licensed’s china-smashing riffs and Paul’s revolutionary use of samples. By the time Check Your Head dropped, the use of sampling had become front page news and was being deemed controversial and illegal, which made this recording as defiant as it was ingenious. It was as if the Beasties said to the recording industry, “OK, we can’t sample? Well, then we’ll kill you with these live instruments.” This sentiment is evidenced by “POW” and “Groove Holmes” - smoothed-out cuts with new-funk and soul-jazz foundations.

The album is interspersed with a lot of good ol’ fashioned mic rockin’ as well. “Finger Lickin’ Good”, “Stand Together”, and “So Whatcha Whant?” make one wistful and a bit dejected about the current void of the traditional hip hop group in today’s musical landscape. In tracks like these, Mike D, Adrock, and MCA bounce and vibe off of each other like the legendary hip hop group they are. No wonder VH1 Hip Hop Honors deified the group as pioneers in hip hop lore.

The impact of Check Your Head is immeasurable. Besides directly influencing nu-metal/rapcore that follow (see Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, etc.), this album is an early example of Bridge music in that it melds a lot of traditional genres taking music to a stratospheric level. Years later, it still sounds current, while demolishing the stereotypical box in which you might have put the Beasties.

Travis Larrier

LarryT@thisisrealmusic.com