instincttolegacy

SONGS

  • “Three Murals for Some of That”: Why the Wild Style Sample at the Start of “Professor Booty” Matters

    “Three Murals for Some of That”: Why the Wild Style Sample at the Start of “Professor Booty” Matters

    Before “Professor Booty” really begins, the Beastie Boys take us somewhere else. Not to G-Son Studios or even to 1992. They take us back roughly a decade, to the streets of New York City captured in Wild Style—Charlie Ahearn’s extraordinary 1983 film about the still-forming culture of hip-hop. We hear a group of guys arguing…

    Read more: “Three Murals for Some of That”: Why the Wild Style Sample at the Start of “Professor Booty” Matters
  • There is a category of Beastie Boys song that probably deserves its own genre.

    There is a category of Beastie Boys song that probably deserves its own genre.

    Not rap. Not punk. Not rap rock. The scream-along. These are the songs that make normal singing seem inadequate. You do not quietly mouth the words. You do not nod thoughtfully while appreciating the production. You wait for the right moment and then yell something at the stereo, preferably with several other people yelling it…

    Read more: There is a category of Beastie Boys song that probably deserves its own genre.
  • “Yo Paul, This Is Allen”: How a Beastie Boys Voicemail Reached “Exit Planet Dust”

    “Yo Paul, This Is Allen”: How a Beastie Boys Voicemail Reached “Exit Planet Dust”

    The strange path from a Brooklyn answering machine to “The Maestro,” “In Dust We Trust,” and the Chemical Brothers’ lifelong fascination with Beastie Boys. There is a great piece of Beastie Boys history buried inside the Chemical Brothers’ 1995 debut album, Exit Planet Dust. It is the furious voice of a stranger who called a telephone…

    Read more: “Yo Paul, This Is Allen”: How a Beastie Boys Voicemail Reached “Exit Planet Dust”
  • “Jimmy James” & “Rockin’ It” by Fearless Four: The Harlem Rap Classic that Turned Kraftwerk Human

    “Jimmy James” & “Rockin’ It” by Fearless Four: The Harlem Rap Classic that Turned Kraftwerk Human

    The Fearless Four’s “Rockin’ It” occupies a distinctive place in early hip-hop history. Released as a twelve-inch single on Bobby Robinson’s Enjoy Records in 1982, it joined the communal routines of first-generation rap crews to an electronic riff derived from Kraftwerk’s “The Man-Machine.” The result sounded simultaneously like a Harlem party and a transmission from…

    Read more: “Jimmy James” & “Rockin’ It” by Fearless Four: The Harlem Rap Classic that Turned Kraftwerk Human