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Originally Posted by noisereductions
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty - 1998 - Capitol
Released after a lengthy hiatus, the fifth Beastie Boys album is a bit of a reinvention. Whereas the previous records - Check Your Head, Ill Communication and the Aglio E Olio EP felt a lot more like the work of the Beasties as a band, Hello Nasty highlights the Beasties as MC's. And there's a very good reason for this - Mixmaster Mike. With Mike behind the wheels of steel, this album has a very old school (see: "Three MC's and One DJ") feel to it. If you were a fan of those other records, it may feel a jarring shift, but at the same time it's also a bit of a shift back to the feeling of Licensed To Ill and Paul's Boutique except brought up to the sound of the late 90's. And it's damn good. Although it feels a bit front-loaded as well. The opening stretch of "Super Disco Breakin'," "The Move," and "Remote Control" is just fucking ridiculous. And then things shift a bit with the pretty out-there "Song For The Man." But this won't be the first shift in tone throughout the record. Indeed over the course of 22 tracks you're going to hear all kinds of styles. And in that sense, it plays out like some crazy mixtape of the Beasties' favorite songs, where no genre is off limits. And truth be told that's fun as hell, but also slightly frustrating as sometimes the sequencing doesn't feel optimal. Sticking some of the more experimental or meandering tracks between "Intergalactic" or "The Grasshopper Unit" may have been a bit more beneficial than throwing some of the less-than-three-minute experimental excursions together in bundle. But at the end of the record, it all seems to make some kind of weird sense in the blendered world that the Beasties always created. Sure closing the record with what basically feels like three outro tracks is kind of baffling, but ultimately nothing here sounds like a throwaway either. Even the slightly failed experiments are worth experiencing. Maybe it's not the best Beastie Boys album, but they're one of those rare bands where even at their worst they're still worth listening to. And even if I personally adored the sound they had been exploring on Check Your Head and Ill Communication, the fact that they are so willing to switch gears from album to album is a reminder of why I love them. |
The Beasties have always had a lot of really exciting and diverse moves hidden up their sleeves. It's really the one thing that makes them a band of lasting influence. Hello Nasty was a big album for me. It's actually my favorite Beastie Boys album, I think.. And not because of “Body Movin'” or “Intergalactic” (I hear the videos are great, but if I ever saw them, I quickly forgot them) but because the album seemed to play to their strengths... In the late '90s the Beasties didn't represent hip hop, so it was wise to make this album a more alternative affair.
Didn't they tour with Rage Against the Machine or something around the time this album was dominating radio? I seem to recall some drama about the B-Boys finding themselves stick with the overly aggressive crowds of some co-headliner, and not being terribly into it. If it wasn't RATM then I have no fucking idea. But they should have been comfortable sharing stages with the Blurs, Becks, Lips & JSBX's of the world by that point.
But I digress .. I just really liked the whole vibe and feel of this record. I liked the mish mash of future sounds and old school rhymes. I can't really believe it got as much play as it did, but I'm glad it got it. What a weird couple of years for hip hop.. Honestly... I'm so glad the Beasties were around to handle damage control during this period.