



From their debut and onto to other landmark records like Paul’s Boutique and Check Your Head, Beastie Boys had made a journey from being a party band (fighting for their right to do so!), to a group that borrowed from a wide variety of musical sources in order to create songs and albums with plenty of hooks, but also revealing each member’s interest in the details, the subtleties of what made the music great, whichever kind of music happened to be in their sights. This was a band who paid no attention to genre. As such, there was no telling what they would deliver next, which was one of their key strengths.

Luckily, the musical climate of the early to mid-90s was with them, with the gates to all kinds of music opened by the success of alternative scenes all over the country and beyond. By the ’90s, there were bands on major labels that would have been unheard of in the 1980s, exploring textures and genres that defied easy categorization. The Beasties were a part of the vanguard of that shift, never fitting in with any one scene even when they started. They had built a following from the ground up. This was in part thanks to their relationship and work with Rick Rubin and Def Jam, not to mention the New York hip hop scene in general that had lured them away from being a hardcore punk band. Speaking of Rick Rubin, I think his work on Run DMC’s take on “Walk This Way” as an early, and certainly most widely known example of rap style against rock instrumentation must also be mentioned as a specific formative influence!

Beastie Boys, 1992 (image: Masao Nakagami )

Over their catalog from their debut and up until this point, their varied musical interests in hip hop and in punk rock energy would serve them well. But, it would be Ill Communication where they would gain the ground that would solidify them as a singular force to establish themselves in several musical camps all at once, charting on the rock charts, urban charts, and dance charts the year it came out. And “Sabotage” is one of their defining statements from that record. This is a petulant and defiant rock assault mixed with the acrobatic vocal punch of rap, a stand-up example of what made them great.

The impact of this single is erroneously blamed for souless and cynical cash-in bands trying to mix these same influences of rock and hip hop in order to capture markets, rather than to make art. But, “Sabotage” was always the real thing. It was honest, and never to be duplicated in quite this way. What they do on this song, and on many others, could not be imitated because it is a very, very difficult balance to strike. They own this sound even today.

Beastie Boys would break up in 2012 upon the death of founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch. They served as one of the longest lasting hip hop act in history.

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