Shazam and Abracadabra! The Beastie Boys Return with Tribute to NYC: "To the 5 Boroughs"!

"Hello Nasty" was pre-Napster and pre-9/11. A product of the Old Normal. In hip-hop terms, it was pre-Mos Def and pre-"Roots Come Alive." Outkast was a prophecy still waiting to be fulfilled and waiting to fill arenas. Jay Z was contemplating his next success, not retirement. Lil' Jon, Lil' Flip and Lil' Romeo were, well, way lil'er. And Eminem--who had even heard of Eminem? MTV was just one channel.

In other words, a lot has happened in six years. Not the least of which is that the Beasties have entered early middle age. So the question is do the Beastie Boys still have it? After six years, do they still have their mojo?

The anwser is yes ... and no. They've got the mojo--there's no doubt about that. But they're not quite the same Beastie Boys. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.

"To the 5 Boroughs" is the Beastie's sparest, most hip-hop record to date. Its tracks are more focused, tighter, groovier than the group's previous collections. The beats are thicker, heavier and hark to old-school hip hop, though not by emulating the old-school style but rather by sampling old school beats and rhythms and building them into an entirely new and original sound: Call it Beastie Boys 2004.

It is as nearly perfect an album as the Beasties have ever made. But "5 Boroughs" is not without its flaws. And no matter how many times we listen to it we can't help but think there's something missing.

"To the 5 Boroughs" has none of the forays into jazz, folksy ditties, dub or skate-punk that artfully punctuated and successfully relieved the main course of breakbeats, samples and mostly comic rap lyrics of preceding Beastie's albums.

This is not a weakness of the album, but a disappointment. Who can forget Lee Scratch Perry's sweet and poignant reggae-dub number on "Hello Nasty" or Money Mark Nishita's laidback, West Coast jazz-style keyboards on "Ill Communication." These surprises were gems that proved the Beastie Boys were so much more than meets the eye.

And rarely are the 15 tracks on "5 Boroughs" overweight with samples and noise as on earlier discs, especially "Hello Nasty," which--as wonderful a record as it is--at times felt over produced.

Only two tracks sound like they may have survived from the "Hello Nasty"-era repetoire: "Right Right Now Now" and "The Brouhaha," which are built on samples of harpsichord riffs.

The two stand out tracks are "Ch-Check It Out," which debuted a couple of months ago as a single, and "Triple Trouble," an instantly likeable tune sung partially by King Adrock (Adam Horovitz) in an exagerrated faux British accent.

"Triple Trouble" not only comes across as the disc's most polished and catchiest tune, it showcases the Beastie Boys' flow at its best while offering a tempered dose of the group's trademark goofiness. The track is a surprisngly spare number built around a lifted sample from the classic and really old-school hip hop track "Rapper's Delight," complete with funky piano riff and Latin cowbell percussion.

The Beastie Boys have never pulled punches with their lyrics, but more often these were humorous stabs, playful, comically barbed jabs, sometimes crude and borderline offensive. But on "5 Boroughs" the lyrical content is far more explicit in political expression than anything the rap trio has previously recorded. Four tracks into the album on "Time to Build," the Beastie Boys go to school on U.S. foreign policy and President Bush ...

We've got a president we didn't elect
the Kyoto treaty he decided to neglect
And still the U.S. just wants to flex
Keep doin' that wop we gonna break our necks

In the last third of the disc, the serious tone returns in "An Open Letter to NYC," a track that will have a lot of people talking. As with the album's title, the tune is a tribute to the Beastie Boys' home town and filled with references to 9/11 and post-terrorist-attack New York.

Since 9/11 we're still livin' and lovin' life we've been given.
Ain't nothin' gonna take that away from us.
We're lookin' pretty and gritty 'cause in the city we trust.
Dear New York I know a lot has changed.
2 towers down but you're still in the game.

We can't stop playing "Open Letter." It's infectious. Plus we're New Yorkers ourselves, so we're naturally curious given the tune's title. But a couple of things about the track seem off. In some way, the lyrics and rap style misfire. The Beasties' flow on "Open Letter" at moments feels too forced and unnatural and overly-enunciated, though it is precisely this latter quality that has endeared the trio's rap style on more comical turns at the mic. What's more, it's been close to three years since 9/11, so the song's sentiments seem already dated, unintentionally underscoring the fact that for most New Yorkers the collective grieving over 9/11 is long over. We needed this song two years ago. (But, hey, better late than never, right?).

But "Open Letter" isn't really a song about 9/11 anyway; it's a paean to the City That Never Sleeps and on that level it works best. The tune is also a surpisngly innovative recording, reworking sped-up snippets of edgy, undulating guitar riffs, which are offset by a muted, high-pitched hum of electronic feedback that provides the tune's underlying rhythmic tension.

"To the 5 Boroughs" is an enhanced CD, meaning it comes with a bonus digital video, "Rhyme the Rhyme Well," that will play on most computers. The video, directed by Adam Yauch (MCA) under the name of his alter-ego Nathaniel Hornblower, was shot on a Tribeca roof in the middle of a blizzard.

What "To the 5 Boroughs" ultimately proves is that MCA, Mike D. and Adrock can still rock a party and come correct on their mics in 2004. It also proves that rarest of birds in popular music: the ability to achieve longevity and remain relevant within a pop culture landscape that is changing faster than ever.

--Instamatic + Micropundit

RELATED LINKS

Beastie Boys Web Site
Beastie Boys Music Videos Online [BeastieBoys.com]