EDIT: This post is fucked and there's no downloads left because I don't feel like getting hassled by copyright police anymore, go give your money to iTunes! or better yet go to discogs and pick up a physical copy....fuck mp3 collecting
I don't care if you like rap or not, because these guys are simply not just a rap band. Their history is as epic as the evolution of single celled organisms all the way up to the primate. They went from being a relatively simple yet extremely fun hardcore band to a very simple rap band to some very sophisticated all around musicians and songwriters. I got to see them at the San Diego Sports Arena in about 1994 when I basically lived a block away and they completely ripped it up. I could still score the best Humboldt had to offer and I got my whole section so stoned some of the people started to trip out. Bad Brains openned up for them and they showed that almost fifteen years into their existence the could still crank it out. When the Beasties played with live instruments they really tore it up and proved they could be funky and do hardcore at the same time. I suppose that's one of the many things I like about the band is that they mix it up with the DJ and live instruments. Very busy stage show going back and forth between playing their instruments and running all over the stage rapping away. It's funny because back in high school in about 1986 when Liscensed to Ill came out, I couldn't stand them and to be honest with you to this day that's a record I could do without. I tried to listen to it again and I could see that the record was important but I just can't get the vision of these rich white boys blasting that album out of their brand new cars and lifted trucks. Still makes me kind of laugh when thinking about it. Anyway what I wanted to focus on for this post was their more hardcore tunes. The Some Old Bullshit compiles the first 7", Pollywog Stew, a true NYHC classic and their second output, Cooky Puss, which was an almost experimental forray into the hip hop rap realm. I included that second one just because it was on the disc and it was interesting even though it represents an extreme departure from their hardcore roots. Be careful because if you're a little nuts like me, the tune Egg Raid On Mojo gets stuck in your head very easily, and may casuse you some agitation. After that is the Aglio E Olio 12"ep, which showed that over a decade after their departure from hardcore they could still crank it out. Give em a listen and tell me what you think.
Other hardcore type tunes off the Ill Communication album. Heart Attack Man really shows that these guys could play hardcore with the best of their contemporaries in the mid 90's.
Two random favorite raps just because I do realize that today these guys are a rap band, although like none other, that happen to play different types of music every now and again (I think there's even some country and instrumental stuff out there).
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