Beastie Boys’ sophomore album, Paul’s Boutique, turned 35 this year, and without it, the band would’ve faded into oblivion
Paul's Boutique Album Cover (1989)
For those of you who've been following my writing in The Riff on Medium, you're not wrong if you think I've written about this album before. I have. It was published on February 21, 2021, and you can read that article here if you'd like.
I'm a sucker for album anniversaries, though, and 35 is a big one. Not only has Paul's Boutique stood the test of time (it was released on July 25, 1989, by Capitol Records), but I would argue that had the Beastie Boys not made this album, their career would've quickly and quietly ended and they would've been remembered as a one-hit wonder, fratboy rap act.
After Licensed to Ill, the debut album (released on November 15th, 1986 on Def Jam/Columbia Records) by New York City trio Beastie Boys, rap music changed forever. Dubbed by some as "goofball" and "fratboy" parody rap, the reception to the record was largely positive by fans and critics alike, despite the band's look and antics on stage, video, and in interviews.
I was 13 years old when this record came out, and like millions of other white kids accustomed to listening to hard rock, heavy metal, and punk, I was simultaneously stunned, confused, and excited about what I was hearing.
The only black music I was familiar with then was blues and Motown, which I was a fan of. Neither genre was popular with my generation in the 1980s however and those sounds were considered "old music", and not something teenagers were talking about at school. Rap, though, was the complete opposite. It was the most unique-sounding music I'd heard at that point in my life and I knew I immediately wanted more.
Living in Brooklyn, NY, rap music had entered my consciousness earlier than most back then. Rap music is a product of the streets of New York, specifically The Bronx and Queens, eventually making its way to the three remaining boroughs. By the time Beastie Boys burst onto the scene, I had already owned cassette tapes by bands and artists such as Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, Kurtis Blow, and Doug E. Fresh. Beastie Boys were something altogether different though. They utilized heavy guitar and rock drum samples which were different in style from other bands using drum machines and samples by disco and R&B records. Run-D.M.C. used rock music at times as well, but not as often as the Beasties did. The fact that they were white rappers, performing a new style of music that was created and performed exclusively by black artists was unheard of at that time. Because of this, and because of the prevailing sentiment then that rap music was just a fad, some people did look at the Beastie Boys as nothing more than a novelty act.
Licensed to Ill achieved both commercial and critical success. It was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 chart and the second to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Raising Hell by Run-DMC was the first.
At the time of its release, Licensed to Ill was one of Columbia’s fastest-selling debuts of all time. Despite its extreme popularity with fans and most rap artists alike, the sophomoric lyrics and, perhaps even more so, the band’s antics in their music videos, misogynistic stage presence, and overall clownish behavior looked like a recipe for a precipitous fall from grace. Even the members of the Beastie Boys agreed with this assessment.
Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz wrote a letter to Time Out New York decades after their debut, publicly apologizing for the homophobic lyrics in the trio’s first album.
Regarding Licensed to Ill (which was originally supposed to be titled ‘Don’t Be a Fa**ot’):
“I would like to formally apologize to the entire gay and lesbian community for the s — ty and ignorant things we said on our first record. There are no excuses. But time has healed our stupidity…. We have learned and sincerely changed since the ’80s…. We hope that you’ll accept this long overdue apology.” — Adam Horovitz/Time Out New York
Adding to this sentiment, Rick Rubin, famed producer, label owner, music guru, and one of the creators of the Beastie Boys had this to say in XXL Magazine:
“The fact that so many people liked it was really a shock to us because it’s such an inside album. There’s so many inside jokes and it’s such a personal album. And it’s ridiculous. The stuff they talk about is really ridiculous, and it entertained us, but we never imagined that it would entertain anyone else.”
Produced by The Dust Brothers (E. Z. Mike and King Gizmo), along with the Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique, the much-anticipated follow-up to Licensed to Ill, was released almost three years after the band’s massive debut on July 25th, 1989. The record was a complete departure from everything on its debut, confusing the fan base and disappointing their new label, Capital Records. Compared to its predecessor, Paul’s Boutique was a commercial failure. The album peaked at #24 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #14 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Critically, though, the album was a huge success. Lauded for its mastery of using samples (105 in total) and its experimental sound and lyricism, Paul’s Boutique eventually became an all-time classic record.
Mojo would say about Paul’s Boutique, “It shredded the rulebook” and called it “one of the most inventive rap albums ever made”.
Pitchfork called the album, “A landmark in the art of sampling, a reinvention of a group that looked like it was heading for a gimmicky early dead-end, and a harbinger of the pop-culture obsessions and referential touchstones that would come to define the ensuing decades’ postmodern identity”.
Not to be outdone, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone would add, “A celebration of American junk culture that is still blowing minds today — even fourteen years of obsessive listening can’t exhaust all the musical and lyrical jokes crammed into Paul’s Boutique.” While Mark Kemp of the same magazine simply stated, “hip-hop masterpiece” when describing the effort.
One of my favorite quotes regarding Paul’s Boutique, however, has to be from music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine (former senior editor for AllMusic), in which he said:
“Musically, few hip-hop records have ever been so rich; it’s not just the recontextulations of familiar music via samples, it’s the flow of each song and the album as a whole, culminating in the widescreen suite that closes the record. Lyrically, the Beasties have never been better — not just because their jokes are razor-sharp, but because they construct full-bodied narratives and evocative portraits of characters and places. Few pop records offer this much to savor, and if Paul’s Boutique only made a modest impact upon its initial release, over time its influence could be heard through pop and rap, yet no matter how its influence was felt, it stands alone as a record of stunning vision, maturity, and accomplishment”
As you can see, the record was largely seen as a creative and influential masterpiece by the critics, even if the beer-spilling, fratboy contingency wouldn’t or couldn’t get on board with the Beastie’s new and improved brand of hip-hop.
It’s rare in modern music to find a band or artist that will shun just about everything that made them famous, risk alienating their original fan base, and financially take a gamble that, if lost, could wreck your career. Beastie Boys did all of this on Paul’s Boutique.
Too often, we forget, or just won’t take the time, to think about the circumstances that go into making an artistic statement (music, books, film, paintings, etc.) and releasing it to the public. Most of the time, the individuals who do this are quite young the first time they appear in the public eye. The Beastie Boys, for example, were 14/15 years old when they met Rick Rubin, who was just a college student then. The Beastie Boys were all between 20 and 22 years old in 1986 when Licensed to Ill was released. Most of the material on the record had roots in the years before the release. They were kids.
I am not making excuses for some of the content and behavior displayed on the record; I’m simply stating facts. We can all probably think back to when we were between the ages of 14 and 20(ish) and be glad our lives were not known to a global audience.
By the time Paul’s Boutique was written, produced, recorded, and released, the Beastie Boys had some time (about three years) to think about their direction, hone their craft, and yes, even mature…a bit.
This record could have only been made once the band found this new direction and purpose. They had left NYC for the chiller, more laid-back vibes of L.A., switched record labels, and had new people around them. All of that played a role in creating Paul’s Boutique.
According to Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boy producer, DJ, insider & friend) in 2003,
“The songs were really about the life we were living. Staying at fancy hotels, eating at fancy restaurants, renting Beemers, chucking eggs at people…a lot of those stories are true. On “Egg Man” the words go, Chuckin eggs from the Mondrian Hotel at the cars goin by” and they did that. “Chillin’ with Bob Dylan”…yeah we were. We went to a Christmas party Dolly Parton had at her house. There were all these celebs, and there was Bob Dylan! We were like, “Fuck, let’s spark a joint! So we sparked a joint with Bob!” (Rolling Stone )
Although it's a Beastie Boys album, Paul's Boutique could've been a Dust Brothers album featuring the Beastie Boys. The Dust Brothers or Mike Simpson and John King, or E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo (or other aliases they may or may not have) had made the bulk of the music that landed on the album before ever meeting the Beastie Boys.
The story of how the factions came together goes like this. Matt Dike, CEO of Delicious Vinyl Records had heard two tracks by the Dust Brothers and for all intents and purposes, lost his mind over them. Dike loved the tracks so much that he included them on albums by his artists, Tone Loc and Young MC.
In addition to those tracks, there were others with endless samples that just didn’t make sense for other rap artists or songs out at that time.
They were these crazy megamixes with tons of samples and scratches. Most of them were too dense to fit another rapper on them. — Mike Simpson/HHV Mag
The Beastie Boys knew Matt Dike as a DJ in the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s. They were enamored with his ability to make people go nuts with a strange mix of punk rock, hip-hop, metal, and obscure music. When Mike D and MCA were invited to Dike’s apartment in ’88 to hang out, Dike played two of those Dust Brothers mega-mixes for them: “Full Clout” and “Dust Joint” which became “Shake Your Rump” and “Car Thief” respectively, two of Paul’s Boutique’s better-known songs.
Those two tracks were harbingers for things to come. Between the Beastie’s newfound creative ideas and wanting to distance themselves from Licensed to Ill as much as possible, the Dust Brothers’ ridiculous beats, samples, and production skills, and Matt Dikes’ never-ending record collection, the stage was set for the magic to happen. The world would be witness to that magic soon enough.
Back then, music was sampled, or more accurately described, lifted, and stolen, without the proper accreditation.
Paul’s Boutique is the exception. The Dust Brothers did get licenses for each of the 105 songs they sampled, which cost them around $250,000 at the time. Although they did everything right, they and the band were still sued. Estimates suggest that those same samples today would cost over $20 million for an album that went on to sell just over 2 million copies worldwide. Ouch.
Whatever the investment, the record wound up on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and SPIN’s 100 Greatest Albums from 1985–2005.
Everything that took place regarding the creation of the masterpiece that is Paul’s Boutique had to have happened exactly as it did for the Beastie Boys to fulfill their musical and artistic rebirth and pave the way for one of the most important careers in music history.
This piece was first published in The Riff Magazine and can be found on my Medium profile.
My first book, SLACKER — 1991, Teen Spirit Angst, and the Generation It Created (Inspired By You Books, 2024) is now available for pre-order here.
You can follow everything I write about on my website.
Comments