Paul's Boutique [20th Anniversary] [PA]

Performer: Beastie Boys
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: The Beastie Boys: Mike D, Ad-Rock, M.C.A. In an era when laptop mash-up artists like Girl Talk are praised for the artistry of name-that-tune karaoke DJing, it's even more timely to reissue PAUL'S BOUTIQUE as a 20th Anniversary edition. Admittedly, the repackaging itself is less than revelatory, with final track "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" split up from its original medley (although "A Year And A Day" and "Dropping Names" finally receive their due as breakout singles) (A digi-download card with audio commentary is also included.) But for a generation of younger hip-hop fans casually accustomed to kneejerk sampling and familiar with the Beasties only from "Fight For Your Right" and freeing Tibet, PAUL's giddy psychedelic crate-digging (along with production team the Dust Brothers) will properly blow their minds. When The Beastie Boys hit platinum with their debut album, they were instantly labeled the Elvises of rap, accused of being just another bunch of white musicians stealing from black music. But what was overlooked was that the Beasties actually had some interesting ideas to take hip hop to new levels. While in the years to come other white rappers like Vanilla Ice and Jesse Jaymes would prove they were the true cultural thieves, the Beasties defended themselves by recording a seminal rap album, PAUL'S BOUTIQUE. The record was, in fact, so legit that it eroded their commercial appeal in middle America. PAUL'S BOUTIQUE is a sample-fest--a post-modern epic of cut and splice studio wizardry. Taking snippets of music from sources as disparate as Curtis Mayfield, The Beatles, B.D.P., The Ramones and The Jaws soundtrack (as well as countless others), they built songs out of the debris of modern culture. Over these mind-blowing tracks, they weaved tall tales, self-promotional proclamations and sheer non-sense into a singular vision of inspired lunacy. Besides Public Enemy, no one else was producing albums as complex as this. PAUL'S BOUTIQUE sounds two or three years ahead of its time, perhaps this is why the album was considered such a failure upon its release. Whatever the case, there really is no album that sounds quite like this one does; the Beasties returned to the top of the charts a few years later with CHECK YOUR HEAD, but they may never be able to top the originality and depth of their stunning sophomore effort.

Rolling Stone (p.72) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] high-water mark of hip-hop's golden age of sampling....PAUL'S BOUTIQUE became a dense, dizzying collision of lyrical references..." Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.105) - Ranked #5 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records" - "...Their accidental turn into great artists..." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.134) - Ranked #156 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[I]t ambitiously stitches together song fragments in a way rarely seen before or since." Rolling Stone (2/6/03, p.65) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...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..." Spin (p.95) - "Dense, arty, and with enough production hijinks to fill a junkshop, it honored hip-hop history while predicting the future." Q (1/95, p.268) - 3 Stars - Good - "...betters its Bud-spraying predecessor on all counts: slower, funkier, funnier more diverse in reference....there is upbeat fun...silliness...and brooding invention..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.118) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Put together on samplers with tiny memories, small fragments of staggeringly disparate musics drop in, then are snatched away abruptly; rhythms and melodies remain in focus as textures and sounds constantly shift." Mojo (Publisher) (6/00, p.125) - "...An album which shredded the rulebook. From 'Psycho' to 'Superfly', from Sly Stone to Ringo's dope beats on SGT. PEPPER, there's so much going on here that it sounds like a compilation....one of the most inventive rap albums ever made." NME (Magazine) (11/19/94, p.46) - 9 - Excellent Plus - "...Five years on from its release way back in August '89, [PAUL'S BOUTIQUE] is still an electrifying blast of cool....If you thought ILL COMMUNICATION was cool, check its younger incarnation..." Pitchfork (Website) - "PAUL'S BOUTIQUE is 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..." Record Collector (magazine) (p.79) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[M]usic that seemed to digest all that had gone before it....An astonishing coming of age document..."

In the mid-1980s, the idea of white middle-class Jewish rappers may have provoked laughter or outright disdain, but the Beastie Boys' albums and singles have shown that they are anything but a joke. After hip-hop and rock fused into the music of choice for rebellious American youth, it became increasingly clear that the Beastie Boys deserved to be regarded as true musical innovators. The release of 1989's PAUL'S BOUTIQUE began the Beasties' transition from lewd, party-seeking prankers to sophisticated, party-throwing sonic pioneers, with band members ditching the six-packs and gold chains in favor of Buddhism and social activism. The trio's newfound maturity and good-natured vibe only enhanced their success, leading to a continued streak of hit albums. Not bad for three New York City weisenheimers.

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