In the latest episode of the Cult Film Club podcast, we are talking about one of my favorite movies, Krush Groove, from 1985. It’s a fun discussion and a great look back at essentially the genesis of my interest in rap, which was around early 1985 when the first Fat Boys album and Run-DMC’s second album, King of Rock, was released.
Later that year, in October 1985, the movie Krush Groove was released. I did a small review of the movie back in 2010 for the 25th anniversary. Check out episode #36 of the Cult Film Club podcast for my more in depth thoughts on the movie.
What I really want to talk about is, why wasn’t there a Krush Groove novelization? The obvious answer is that it was a movie focusing on the music industry and it may have been hard to translate that since there are at least 3 music video sized interludes in the movie. But that shouldn’t have stopped them. I just finished reading the novelization to Jason X and that book expands the sparse 1 hour and 20 minute movie into a 400+ page novel. You telling me something couldn’t be done with Krush Groove?
So, to correct this rather EGREGIOUS oversight, I created my own Krush Groove novelization based mostly on the design of the soundtrack album cover.
I think it goes without saying that I would have read the sh*t out of this book.
I love music, but TODAY’S music mostly leaves me cold. And not just the music, the artists themselves feel like used car salesman They only want to sell me their product, not actually entertain me with a good song. And the s**t that goes on the radio is 90% crap.
Now, I realize I sound like an old man, but you can’t tell me that vintage Van Halen, Motley Crue, Run-DMC and Beastie Boys aren’t better than anything else out right now. Plus, there really isn’t any “rock and roll” on the radio anymore. It’s all R&B riffs and hip hop filled with astonishingly not subtle euphemisms for sex. And as a rap/hip-hop fan since the early-to-mid 80s, I will unequivocally say that today’s rappers are f**king terrible. Can I get that off my chest? TERRIBLE. Lil Wayne may be the worst rapper I’ve heard in my entire life and the 80s were filled with bad rappers (I’m looking at you Tim Dog). And don’t get me started on Drake, or Kanye West, for that matter. That could be a whole other article.
And how unoriginal are all of these modern rap songs? Where are all the storytellers in hip-hop? The Slick Ricks, the Rakims, the KRS-Ones, the Chuck Ds? There is no one of their skill rapping today. Check out this video from 1991, The Piper by MC Cheba. It’s better than literally 99% of hip-hop released today. It tells a story with a very smooth and slick rhyme and a funky bass line He’s not spending the entire song telling me how much weed he smoked or chicks he’s banged or how much money he has. Which I don’t personally have a problem with rappers doing, but it gets OLD after 300 rappers talk about it on all their songs. Another good story based rap, The Mission by Special Ed.
But I’ve digressed…
Now that this article was high jacked by my rant against modern rappers, let me try to steer this ship back on course. The Grammys.
For the reasons above, I’ve sort of become jaded with the music industry in general. However, did anyone else watch the Grammys? I didn’t. I haven’t watched it in YEARS, but my wife DVR’d it and I wound up watching it with her a few days ago. Wow, I really liked the new format where they mashed up artists into different performances. For the first time in a LOOOOOONG time I felt like the artists were actually on stage having fun performing and not just doing it as a commercial for their song.
The highlight of the night, for me, was probably the closing number with LL Cool J performing his new song with CHUCK muthaf**king D! Chuck is 50+ years old and still gets after it better than any other rapper on the radio (however Cool J should have given him more to do than yell the hook). Cool J was also joined by Travis Barker from Blink-182 and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. It’s actually a pretty great song.
Here’s the performance. If you want to hear the actual single, listen here.
And how cool was it that Cool J gave a shout out to MCA, the recently deceased member of the Beastie Boys? Cool J got his start around the same time as the Beastie Boys on Def Jam records. You can see them together in the movie Krush Groove. I’m surprised they never collaborated, to be honest.
Anyway, while Cool J was the highlight, there were several performances that totally surprised me in how much I enjoyed them. Here are a few of them.
This was a memorial tribute to Levon Helm, the deceased drummer of The Band. This group probably had the least star power of any of the other performances, but damn, it might be the best performed song on the whole broadcast. Elton John, Zac Brown, Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons and Alabama Shakes singer Britney Howard brought the house down with an awesome performance of “The Weight”. This was definitely an eclectic collection of talent but the end result was bonkers it was so good. I’ve actually been looking up Zac Brown and Alabama Shakes songs on YouTube because of this. And this performance in particular is the blueprint for why this new “mash up” format works.
Bruno Mars’ performance was fantastic. He normally does, but he looks like he’s having so much fun. And then Sting comes out and does his thing, then out comes Rhianna and the Marley brothers for a tribute to Bob Marley and it just looks like everyone is happy and really enjoying the performance. I know I was.
I’ve been thinking about doing this for a few months. Usually ideas like this kick around for awhile until I finally have to say, “ENOUGH, VOICES IN MY HEAD! YOU WIN, I’LL WRITE THE DAMN ARTICLE!” And writing the article will silence the voices…for a little bit. This is how my three part article on New Coke was written. You’re welcome, by the way, for that little “peek behind the curtain”.
So, the Beastie Boys released their first album, License to Ill, in Nov 1986. I bought that album, on tape, either later that year or early 1987. I had just started getting into rap at the time. I listened mostly to Run-DMC and The Fat Boys. I liked both group’s rap style, which wasn’t surprising since both of them were on Def Jam Records, famously portrayed in the movie Krush Groove. And, not surprisingly, The Beastie Boys were also a part of the Def Jam family. They even had a track on the 1985 Krush Groove soundtrack that I had completely forgotten about when License to Ill was released. That first album blew me away. I loved it and listened to it non-stop until I completely wore the tape out and had to buy another one. I have been a fan of the Boys ever since.
The Beastie Boys released 8 official studio albums beginning with that first one in 1986. There were also several other compilations, EPs and video albums that were released at various times throughout their career. However, I’m going to focus on the main 8 studio albums.
Here we go, The Beastie Boys albums in order of my personal preference.
1. License to Ill (1986) – Their first studio album and, to me, their best. You will never convince me otherwise. I learned pretty much every song back to front. It is still the album I listen to first when I want my Beastie Boys fix. You can tell they are very much influenced by Run-DMC on this album to the point that their song Slow and Low is a cover of an unreleased Run-DMC song. Some of my favorite tracks include Fight for your Right (To Party), Paul Revere, No Sleep till Brooklyn, She’s Crafty, Posse in Effect, The New Style, and Hold It Now (Hit It). Essentially, the whole album is a classic.
2. Check Your Head (1992) – This, their third album, is amazing. Whereas Paul’s Boutique (see below) was a more experimental rap album, this one is a grittier version of License to Ill. This is the album where the Beasties abandoned synthesizers and began playing all their own instruments on every track. They also started using on this album the “echo voice” effect for which they’ve become known. The soundscape of this album is just awesome and I love it to death. Classic tracks include So What’cha Want, Pass the Mic, The Maestro, Jimmy James and Professor Booty. Just so you know, I think So What’cha Want is probably my favorite Beasties song of all time. This album was remastered and re-released in 2009. This re-release added a bonus disc which featured extra tracks like The Skills to Pay the Bills which was the B-side of the So What’cha Want single.
3. Paul’s Boutique (1989) – It may be a bit controversial that Paul’s Boutique is not higher on the list. This was the B-Boys’ second studio album and the one magazines like Rolling Stone love to pretentiously put as a “greatest album”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really good and offers a nice variety of traditional and “experimental” rap. The singles Hey Ladies and Shake Your Rump are really good as are the tracks The Sounds of Science, High Plains Drifter, B-Boy Bouillabaisse and Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun. The Beasties were really stretching themselves to try something new on this album, but the important thing is that they didn’t overreach. An almost perfectly formed experimental rap album. Perfect parts traditional + experimental rap.
4. Hello Nasty (1998) – This is a great album. The Beasties turn back to the synthesized sound for this record. Most of the songs sound highly processed like they were run through a computer. It’s a fun one to listen to and I keep forgetting how much I really do enjoy it. Songs I like from this album include Super Disco Breakin’, Put Shame in your Game, Unite, Remote Control, Intergalactic and Three MCs and One DJ.
Cavalcade of Awesome 