Album Review : Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (Remastered)

I don’t really believe that an album ever ‘ages’; a  musical document of a moment or series of moments can’t age. But the listener does. Shed Seven were always crap, it just took certain people a long time to realise it.  Anyway, I should stop opening reviews with cod-philosophy. Point taken.

That said, when Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch was diagnosed with cancer last month, it finally dawned on me that Beastie Boys were old. Previously, I’d seen them in the same way that many see AC/DC or Iron Maiden – timeless fixtures of hip-hop and 20th century culture. Maybe it was the live shows; energetic, exciting and probably up there with the very best I’ve ever seen, but I’d never thought that MCA, Ad Rock and Mike D would ever seem ‘old’ or in any way mortal.

But that’s a bit of a down note to start a review on the re-issue of one of my all time favourite albums. In a funny way, it seems to sum up the Beasties’ career up until that point: Ill Communication might not be acknowledged by all fans as the definitive article, but it took elements from all previous releases (Licensed to Ill, Check Your Head and Paul’s Boutique). This was a group on the crossroads, not worlds away from the avant jazz hop they’d mix together with Hello Nasty, with it’s mix of sharp beats, sharp humour and yet still flat out stupid and entertaining in places. And whilst all that might the ‘Boys had moved away slightly from the rock rap hybrid they had championed with their first two releases, Ill Communication provided maybe the definitive track of that genre with ‘Sabotage’, a track which still sounds as peerlessly rocking as it ever did, perhaps thanks to the immortally hilarious video made to accompany it.

And maybe I’ve cheapened this somewhat by mentioning a funny music video, but humour was always a key component of the Beasties’ madcap adventures with the microphone and the sampler. How else could they ever have got away with a line like “It’s the taking of Pelham, one, two, three, if you wanna a doodoo rhyme then come see me” amongst others? Well, maybe it’s cause the sample of ESG’s ‘UFO’ on ‘Sureshot’ is so tightly executed that we can forgive their style over substance take of wordsmithery. Or maybe it’s because they never pretended that they were riffing on anything deeper than MC battles, chicks and parties; instead focussing on bending the rules of language and playing with the rhyme?

Actually, that’s a half truth, due in part to‘The Update’, when three B-boys showed us that serious wasn’t beyond their ken either. Opening with a muezzin call and then rolling out rhymes taut with genuine skill and guile yet on a subject that wasn’t about sticking dicks in mashed potato, well, that took a bit of balls. And when you come to the frenetic hardcore of ‘Tough Guy’ it might dawn on you that never have the Beasties sounded so disparate in their influences and diverse in their outputs, yet maintained such a high level of quality control.

But most of you will know this already. You’ll remember the hypnotic swirls of ‘Bodhisvatta Vow’ as keenly as the taut chickenscratch guitars of ‘Sabrosa’ – the instrumental that launched a dozen more on later albums – and maybe even be able to rap along to Q-Tip’s lazy call and response in ’Get It Together’. You’ll know that the wardrum tribal beat of ‘Shambala’ might not strut like dumbass funk of ‘Do It’, but equally recognise that they both share an absolutely killer beat, even if only one of them has your favourite brash B-Boy lyric (“I’m a six-point-seven on the richter scaaa-ayle!”).

Fact is I’m not gonna sell this re-issue on the strength of the second disc of material. I mean, it’s the usual mixed bag: there’s a few remixes, live versions and out-takes alongside the basketball court freestyle skittering of b-side ‘Dope Little Song’ (sitting nicely alongside some actual recorded basketball court squeaking) and a few more live instrumented tracks (‘Resolution Time’ and the gnarly sounding hardcore snarl ‘Mullet Head’). Thing is that if you don’t own this already and you’ve read this far, you probably already should. And if you already own it, chances are you’re just about now casting your eyes about your room and looking for your copy. So, treat this re-issue as a reason to pick up an album which is everything great hip hop should be: polished, innovative, witty and above all great fun. And you ain’t doing that, then for god’s sake, listen to Q-Tip and Get It Together.