The Check Your Head Archive is an independent project devoted to the stories behind the Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head—the songs, samples, musicians, collaborators, studios, influences, and circumstances that shaped the album.
The archive grew out of research for a forthcoming book about how the Beastie Boys made Check Your Head and how the album marked one of the most important creative transformations of their career. The site provides a home for stories, discoveries, photographs, source material, and details that expand on that research.
Rather than retelling the album’s history, the archive follows its individual threads: where a sample came from, who played on a particular track, how a song developed, what happened inside G-Son Studios, and how the people and music around the Beastie Boys influenced the record.
The project is written and researched by Matthew Lerner, a longtime Beastie Boys listener and independent writer and researcher.
This is an independent editorial and historical project. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by the Beastie Boys or their representatives.
