Paul's Boutique

IF I WERE TO WRITE A FULL REVIEW IN ALL CAPS, AT FIRST IT MIGHT CATCH YOUR EYE AS YOU SCROLL THROUGH THE LIST. IT'S A COOL EFFECT, ATTENTION-GRABBING, IMPOSING. BUT THEN AFTER A FEW SENTENCES, IT QUICKLY BECOMES TIRESOME. LIKE I'M SHOUTING AT YOU. THAT'S A BIT WHAT LISTENING TO THE BEASTIE BOYS' VOCALS FEELS LIKE. THEY QUICKLY BECOME REPETITIVE AND IRRITATING, WITH LITTLE NUANCE OR DYNAMIC RANGE. IT'S A GOOD JOB, THEN, THAT "PAUL'S BOUTIQUE" HAS SO MUCH GOING ON BEYOND THAT. THERE'S SOME REALLY INNOVATIVE USE OF SAMPLING GOING ON HERE, WITH THE WHOLE BAND SEEMINGLY MINING THEIR PARENT'S RECORD COLLECTIONS FOR INSPIRATION AND COLLAGING IT ALL TOGETHER. IT'S POSSIBLY THE ONLY HIP-HOP BOOMERS COULD ENJOY, BECAUSE THE BEATLES, ZEPPELIN, HENDRIX AND FLOYD ALL MAKE BRIEF APPEARANCES. "EGG-MAN", "THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE" AND "HEY LADIES" ARE THE BEST TRACKS IN THIS REGARD, WITH WELL ACCOMPLISHED SAMPLING AND A TRULY DANCEABLE ENERGY. HOWEVER, THE SUITE AT THE END FEELS DISJOINTED AND ROUGH, LIKE IT WAS COBBLED TOGETHER FROM SOME OUTTAKES. OVERALL, I ENJOYED HEARING SUCH A LANDMARK ALBUM IN HIP-HOP. BUT JUST LIKE THESE ALL-CAPS, THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH OF IT I COULD TAKE. A little more chopping down and experimenting with different flows and delivery would have done wonders.

Somebody greatly overestimated how long I'd like to hear a bunch of white kids shout brags at me.

Though I would consider Hip-Hop to be one of my least favorite genres, I believe Paul's Boutique is an absolute gem. Every single track on here is packed with fitting samples, witty lyrics, raunchy and edgy rap, great pacing and extremly catchy bass riffs. Besides "Car Thief", I think every track on here is an absolute staple in this genre, and Paul's Boutique thus deserves a 5/5.

Nestled on my shelf between the Beach Boys and Beatles the Beasties serve up somatic pleasures as intense as anything by either of those groups. Not only do they apply the art of sampling in a rap setting as gleefully and adoringly as the existing non-rap apotheosis in 1989 (Double Dee & Steinski - DJ Shadow still to come) they sublimate themselves into the music as rappers to put it front and centre. Aside from an occasional "I was making records when you were sucking your mother's dick" and "Homeboy throw in the towel/Your girl got dicked by Ricky Powell" they dial back the lyrical happy-slaps and bear down on nonsense raps that lack a clear beg, mid 'n' end because their main function is rhythm not storytelling--propulsive forward motion via constantly evolving narrative. All highly conceptual, so shout out to the album's packaging, which eschews track titles and presents the lyrics in an unpunctuated block on one side of the liner notes and an extensive panoramic of a New York street with not a B Boy in sight on the reverse. Except wait, is that one of them ogling the camera on panel three? Or is it just a random? All of which is to say their mission--accepted and completed--is to melt into a wall of sound whose main purpose is to make you shake your rump-ahhh. Now shake away.

If you ask them, the Beasties will tell you that Hello Nasty is their best album, which makes sense being that it's their most mature, most diverse showcase of their musical talents. Ask nearly anybody else, though, and they'll direct you here, because it's, you know, their best album. The B Boys are cultural sponges, and both records do a great job of showing that in their own ways, but Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA are at their absolute best when they're bouncing off of each other multiple times within a single bar and rattling off left-field references like a musical Family Guy cutaway, and I cannot imagine a better fit for that than what the Dust Brothers pull off in their production work on Paul's Boutique. There's a lot of ground being covered here: Lookin' Down the Barrel of a Gun has a refined (read: less embarrassing) take on Licensed to Ill's metal influence, more than a few tracks are downright funky, and Johnny Ryall even throws in some bluegrass. What all these beats have in common (beyond being dope as shit), however, is the rampant sampling, which builds a scrapbook of sounds that plays perfectly off of the irreverent, reference-laden lyricism. Paul's Boutique embodies the record store scrounging, anything goes spirit of hip-hop, and that it sounds as good as it does is almost a bonus. Key Tracks (B-Boy Bouillabaisse is cheating): High Plains Drifter, 3-Minute Rule, Car Thief

Day 28 of Albums You Must Hear... When Beastie Boys released their debut album, Licensed to Ill in 1986, an album that would go on to sell 10 million copies and become the first rap album to top the Billboard album chart, Rap music had finally began to cross over to a broader audience. Along with Beastie Boys, Def Jam also introduced legendary acts such as LL Cool J, Run-DMC, and Public Enemy. Due to conflict with Def Jam, Beastie Boys would only release one album under the label. When the time came to release their sophomore offering, Beastie Boys had began to lose a bit of their momentum in the eyes of the public, yet expectations were high. Not wanting to be known as a one hit album wonder, Beastie Boys had inspiration to break away from being known as the novelty of “Frat Hip-Hop”. In 1988, no longer having the unique rock inspired production of Def Jam co-founder Rick Ruben, Beastie Boys linked up with production duo, Dust Brothers for their next album Paul’s Boutique. Sampling is as hip-hop as graffiti and break dancing. It’s an art that takes expert timing and next level creativity. Paul’s Boutique is a master class in sampling, maybe only second to De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising. Nearly the entirety of Paul’s Boutique music is all samples, chopped and cut so well that you will miss more than you recognize. There are over 100 songs sampled on this record, 24 on the last track alone. If you listen closely you can hear many clips from a wide variety of artists like, The Beatles, James Brown, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Sly and the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, The Eagles, and that’s just naming a few. The 80’s was the Wild Wild West of sampling before the lawyers and litigation made it an extremely expensive luxury for artists. (Still can’t stream that De La Soul album, largely because of this). While Licensed to Ill is a legendary album and put Beastie Boys on the map, and has more recognizable songs, the depth of Paul’s Boutique is sonically more satisfying to me. I found myself lost in the dense and craftiness of all the sounds that underly the lyrics. I find it difficult to pick my favorite songs because I liked them all so much. What are your favorites from Paul’s Boutique? Please share your thoughts, memories and opinions!!

SO. MUCH. SHOUTING. grating vocal delivery aside, the production on this thing and the sampling is just surreal, if feels dirty giving this a 3 but man those vocals, the sampling and beats and all that jazz is a fucking 5 though

Good background music. Shite foreground music.

I've never been a fan of the Beasties because of their shout-rap, their gaudy party anthems and the fact that white boy DJs at CKCU, who would never think of playing rap, played Licensed to Ill to death. I was therefore pleasantly surprised by this LP, especially the highly entertaining sampling/production. It sounded like it couldn’t be the same guys, and it wasn’t - it was the Dust Brothers. And they still shout.

5 stars. Can you think of a more surprising second album? Licensed to Ill was largely an unserious party rap/rock record that had massive success. This album was an effort to move away from that and to be a bit more serious. That said, this album arrived prior to their later "enlightenment" so it still has some of the things that hadn't aged particularly well in License to Ill. From a production standpoint they got lucky as this album snuck in just prior to the changes in copyright law that would have impacted the heavy sampling. A year or two later and this album could have never happened.

The samples alone, good lord. What an album

Paul's Boutique is both a perfect album and one whose feats can never be recreated. Truly 1 of 1, and maybe the greatest hip-hop record of all time.

I recognise the Beastie Boys' originality. I'm well aware of them breaking new grounds in so many areas. But I just don't like their music

Love the samples, dislike the lyrics.

One of my favorite albums ever. If I remember the 33 1/3 correctly, the dust brothers recorded all the samples on the album (104 of them, according to Wikipedia) directly to tape, meaning they’d have to rewind the tape and line up the timing exactly right to layer another sample or vocals on top of it. The care that went into this production is incredible. And they almost got sued by the Beatles, so they’ve got that going for them. Favorite couplets: There’s more to me than you’ll ever know / And I got more hits than Sadaharu Oh Washing windows on the Bowery at a quarter to four / ‘cause he ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more I’m doing 120, plowing over mailboxes / radar detector, to tell me where the cops is Cash flow getting low, so I had to pull a job / found a nice place to visit, but a better place to rob Because it’s all high spirit, you know you got to hear it / Don’t touch the mic, baby, don’t come near it Because I got more stories than JD’s got Salinger / I hold the title and you are the challenger

What a masterpiece, I can't believe that I hadn't listened to the whole thing before now. The samples, the production, hot-potato hand-off rhymes, the ridiculous lyrics--you could listen to this for years and not catch everything.

I don't listen to Beastie Boys nearly often enough.

The Beastie Boys make fun music with great production. You can just feel the connection between all the boys. There's also some pretty innovative production through sample choices and the beats that they rap over. I can see the influence in modern rappers like Denzel Curry's production. Best Songs: Egg Man, Hey Ladies, What Comes Around, B-Boy Bouillabaise Worst Songs: Johnny Ryall, Shadrach,

This album is an insane powerhouse of sampling and just pure confidence, but not in a way that comes off as smug, rather something more fun to be around that knows its hot shit and you agree. Nothing like this could be made today, and even if it was, it would cost millions to clear, and ain't no way there would be a whole song of Beatles samples. Despite it being a party album through-and-through, just like Licensed to Ill, it has a new sense of maturity to it that comes with the expert level production and flow of each verse that's shared so perfectly between Mike D, Ad Rock, and MCA that it doesn't have the choppiness issue many rap groups tend to have. Everything here is so professional despite how loose it is, and it just feels like the pinnacle of hip-hop in the 80s. Everything changed after this record, sadly for better and worse, but the fact that we got something so funky just in time really feels like a gift more than anything. Flaws include that it feels a tad long, and due to its nature it can feel repetitive tonally, but the change-ups instrumentally are well worth seeing this album through, especially with some of the best beats coming from the last stretch in B-Boy Bouillabaisse. I can now see why this is considered Beastie Boy's crowning achievement.

If there was an instrumental version of this album, I'd probably love it. It looks like you can find some of the instrumentals on Youtube. They're great. The Dust Brothers do not disappoint.

To all the people who are like “tHeY’rE jUsT sHoUtInG??”: 1. I’m sorry, are we in a library or something? 2. As resident of the Tri-State Area, I can tell you with 100% certainty: They are not yelling, they’re just from New York. 3. Really? Your biggest criticism is that they are shouting during this upbeat and raucous party music? Go listen to the National or something…

GOAT

So amazing and under-appreciated

Masters of sampling. This album is often overlooked.

“It’s a trip, it’s got a funky beat and I can bug out to it”

7/10. Had some really fun moments, but an entire album-length session of listening to their voices is a lot.

I can easiliy speak in absolute terms for this one: It's the worst album I've ever heard! Having said that I should probably add that I only listen to albums that I immediately like, so I never would have listened to this in the first place. Although I don't like HipHop or Rap in the slightest, I have to at least give them some credit for the quality of some of their sounds (and I'm not talking about their singing). My favorite part of the album is at 25:40 - that intermission at the halfway mark genuinely surprised me and made me laugh, giving me enough mental strength to listen to the rest of this "music".

Paul’s Boutique It already feels like a big step forward from Licensed to Ill just from the organ sample on To All The Girls, a bit of instrumentation and a sense of musical influences beyond the frat boy party rap of the first album. Shake Your Rump then kicks in, initially a little like something from Licensed to Ill, but then pulls the rug with a cavalcade of samples as the track careens brilliantly all over the place, all with their customary sense of humour. Things continue in that vein; meticulously layered tracks based around brilliantly eclectic samples, all tied together with fun, excitement and just an overall sense of sonic inventiveness. It’s worth going track by track through Who Sampled, as the list is incredible, Macca and Dylan on Johnny Ryall, Superfly, Bernard Hermann and Jaws on Egg Man, Eagles, The Band, Star Wars on High Plains Drifter, and of course 5 different Beatles songs on The Sounds of Science….I mean I could go on. Lyrically it’s also a major step forward from Licensed to Ill, they still have the same sense of humour, but the scope is much wider, full of stories and characters and it has a real sense of New York. I don’t think there are any particularly weak songs, but the run from To All the Girls to The Sounds of Science is particularly superb, barely putting a foot wrong with great stories, great samples, beats and grooves. It hardly lets up after that though, Hey Ladies is excellent, I love the the heavier Mississipi Queen sample on Barrel of a Gun and the Jackson 5 sample on Car Thief gives it a great funky atmosphere. Shadrach is great too, a brilliantly diverse set of samples all adding up to a brilliantly percussive track. And then B-Boy Bouillabaisse is a musical and production tour de force in sampling, like a mini concert. Things that were very innovative and influential at the time can often sound dated, but this doesn’t at all, 35 years later it still sounds fresh and exciting and is just a great album. Maybe because sampling at this scale became prohibitively expensive not long after this was never imitated or diluted to death, so it remains along with 3 Feet High and Rising as the apogee of this type of thing. Anyhow t’s rightly a classic and a seminal album, nothing but a 5. 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚 Playlist submission: Could be a few, but Sounds of Science for the Beatlesness.

Just a couple years from the best two albums of the 90s and this is still a 5 star albbum

This gets better with each listen.

Slaps. Sick beats that take sampling to it's upper extreme. Jam-packed rhymes with all three members jumping in to flow together. Over-the-top facetious macho bravado that is hilarious. Super creative. Understandable why it wasn't a commercial/pop hit like their debut album but it's still so good regardless. Standouts are "Sounds of Science" (really the second half of that track), and "Shake Your Rump", with a shoutout to the goofy banjo-driven "5-Piece Chicken Dinner" interlude.

Incredible beats and production for an '80s hip hop album. The lyricism and flow is not incredible, and the lyrics are sort of inane and sexist, but the energy and personality that they're delivered with makes them enjoyable nonetheless.

Oh hell yeah dawg, you think you know hip hop? These dudes made it

in my humble opinion this isn't the greatest Beastie Boys record but still scores 5 stars, imagine how good the other ones are!!! go listen to To The 5 Boroughs and Hello Nasty, you can thank me later.

Man what a record. While previous Beastie Boyd albums were good - this was the first truly awesome album out of quite a few.

excellent bbq music!

Another masterpiece. Trying to think of other artists who did anything like this - MAYBE Run DMC? - just can't think of any. Killer rhymes, sweet-ass grooves, so much funk, always tongue-in-cheek, pure entertainment. A huge step from their first album, which was a blast in its own right. Loved it.

They named this album after my boutique. Ill. 5

sampling done at its finest. it adds to the track, but doesn't overshadow. lyrics are fun, irreverent, and Beasties don't take themselves too seriously. fantastic album. love this album

Banging record. I had listened tonnes of times to 'Licensed to Ill' but was unaware of this album. Beastie Boys never letting anyone down. Even though this record doesn't have as many hits as 'Licensed to Ill' it is so fun to listen to and just so good. The samples here are out of this world. Somehow Beastie Boys are above any hip-hop record I listen to.

Absolute classic. I love this album from start to finish.

One of the greatest hip hop albums of all time? Yep. Best Tracks: Shake Your Rump, Egg Man, Hey Ladies

You know, I said License to Ill was the BBoys at their best, but this may be better. Their sampling game is on point here, and a lot of their most juvenile lyrics have gone away. I'm not sure if this deserves a 5, but I gave License to Ill a 4, and this album is definitely much better than that. SO IT MUST BE.

This whole album is kind of a fever dream but in a good way. Don't think I'd actually heard any of these songs before...but liked them all! Fun to have shorter songs

Long time Beastie Boy fan - one of my favorite albums...not at first but really embraced it over time.

One of my favorite albums! Best use of sampling; Beasties are pioneers!

Simply one of the greatest Hip-hop albums ever created.

Really enjoyed. BB are a solid group I've been meaning to listen to. Really upbeat and fun listen. Lyrically sound but kinda cheesy, but I think that's the point.

Certainly pushes the boundaries of hip hop. Worth the listen.

Not their best album but still glorious

- love the jammyness of the syncopation - vocals kinda give musical theatre rap - some rlly cool percussion parts w woodblock and bongos

Comedy Rap. Not interested.

I guess instruments can be replaced by a mouse. And this was technology 30+ years ago. I didn't get through the entire LP. After 5-Piece Chicken Dinner I figured they couldn't possibly do anything better so double clicked an early demise to Paul's Boutique. (The B-Boys must understand that the mouse giveth and the mouse taketh away.) While I couldn't finish the job, I still think  that this album is a lot of fun. I hate to say this and wouldn't want the word to spread, but I liked it -  kinda - a little bit - sorta - maybe.

It was alright, it's not really my kind of music but it kept me entertained throughout. This is the first time I've listened to any music from them and I get their appeal but as I said, it's not really for me.

You know you’re listening to art when they say ‘humpth dumpty was a big fat egg’ Some cool rhythm bits buts cannnnootttt enjoy this type of vocals. Somewhat enjoyed ‘looking down the barrel of a gun’.

This one was leagues better than the other two Beastie Boys albums we had the misfortune to listen to. Now, leagues better means 2 stars instead of 1 in this case. But I actually listened to the full album while only skipping half of 2-3 songs. That's a really massive improvement over the other two B-Boys albums!

Paul’s Boutique by Beastie Boys (1989) I listened carefully to this album from start to finish, and I read through about half the lyrics, and I tried to discern all the one hundred eleven credited samples. It sure seems like these guys are having a good time. The sampling is intricate and wide ranging, with more than a few snippets that are recognizable from other popular recorded music (from Led Zeppelin to Johnny Cash), sometimes entertaining, sometimes distracting, always worth researching. All this is laid down over heavy but un-evolving beats and musical grooves, providing background to the dominant yelling of the three male ‘vocalists’. If it’s not high art, it’s certainly a well developed craft. For those who are in on their party scene, I suppose it’s good fun. But for those like me who aren’t part of that scene, it rather evokes a regret that we weren’t invited. 2/5

Better than Ill Communication, but not by much...

I think...I think I might hate the Beastie Boys. Well...I hate their music. Which actually is pretty upsetting for me, because they all seem like pretty good dudes, and I wish I liked their stuff.

Kinda corny and annoying

Not for me. having heard Ill Communication back in the day, and hating it, I'll always been told that subsequently they evolved into a serious, more mature and credible act, but hadn't heard anything by them. Just listened to this, better produced yes, but still shouty white boy rap.

I like that this project makes you listen to music you wouldn't normally listen to. So I understand that this album is basically constructed from samples which is cool and quite clever. I like to that it's fun and would probably appreciate it at a house party or something of that ilk. I'm not really keen on rap, like don't get me wrong it's ok for a song or two. Would I choose to listen again? Probably not, sorry.

The style of this whole album just wasn't for me. I'm torn between 1 and 2. I was gonna be generous, and actually, I will be, I made it the whole way through

Man I dont think I liked this one at all. This kinda hip hop not my thing. Funky for sure, just not my funk.

im not enjoying this at allllll. what are they doing.. nice transition into the third track. okay, lyrics are fun sometimes. the psycho song in egg man was fun. high plains drifter: music is great but i cant with their whiny voices. okay im done and the previous sentence applies to the entire album basically. didnt hate it but i wouldnt want to listen to it again.

I was under the impression I was really into Beastie Boys so I went in with expectations high. Disappointed with the rhymes, disappointed with the rhythms. This ain’t the hip hop I’m gonna turn to in the future.

Probably my least favorite of their albums I have listened to. Some catchy bits but there were a few I outright skipped and nothing was that memorable. Shake your Rump was the only one I saved. And cool album cover, I've never seen a busy New York street corner as an album so very inventive and creative.

Overall an entertaining album, definitely overstays it's welcome. The vocals are pretty different from most other music I've listened to but I appreciate the beat on most of the songs. Also some sick Dylan, Hendrix, and Cash references in there.

Were the Beastie Boys lame or cool? I can't tell . The internet says they're a rock bank.. what!?

Ah, so I see where KidRock got his inspiration now. You know, I didn’t hate this, but so many of the songs just sounded the same to me. It didn’t really inspire me. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t make it through, but it just really isn’t my thing.

It says something that my favourite track on this album is a 23 second skit that's basically only samples with 2 lines of vocals. Not exactly my style but a good album nontheless. Apparently it's been very influential in rap/hip-hop world and I can see why.

The swagger sounds laboured and false. Not my cup of tea.

For all of the clever little samples, this is just Beavis and Butthead trying to be hard.

I assume is supposed to be clever satirical stuff or an immature joke. Which ever it intended to be was lost on me. It was not remotely funny or engaging. Basically a mess.

Sounded like a bunch of year 7's showing off and trying to be hard I never want to hear this album again 1 ⭐️

It sounds like a collection of Smosh songs (2005-2009 Smosh). My recommended music on Spotify is never recovering from this.

Terrible, I listened to about half of it and couldn't stand it anymore.

It’s certainly noise.

hated it. honestly one of the worst albums i've ever listened to. some cool samples, but this was like nails on a chalkboard to me

I did not like this. i had to stop it in the middle. i understand the appeal, but absolutely not for me

It's just random yelling over shitty beats.

Wow, that was way more irritating than I thought it would be.

Honestly, don’t know if I can get through this one. Beastie Boys have never really been my thing, or my dad’s (I feel like it’s dad music). I never listened to them growing up, so they don’t elicit any feelings of nostalgia, which I think is the only way I would appreciate this album.

I suffered through it. I tried to see what people like about this. The rhythm, the rhymes. But for me, the voices are annoying, the topics are not interesting, and half the time I was trying to decipher what they actually meant by this phrase or that--usually unproductively, sometimes with regret.

Quite like the music until they sing

Whiny is the best way to describe this

Sounds like a lot of noise, they aren't good at rapping either. Extremely repetitive flow and rhyming scheme. The sound and everything is grating and repetitive. Struggling to even listen to the whole album. Extremely overrated. This stuff is genuinely bad.

Can’t listen to it - really not a fan

With the disclaimer that hip-hop and rap are not my favorite genre, I loved this album. The vocal style is not my favorite but the magic here is the amazing use of samples. These guys were truly some of the early pioneers in sampling and they get it right. The layers going on behind the vocals here are amazing. And the lyrics are creative and catchy. I like it best when they alternate lines as you get a true sense that they could rip, mix, and burn on the fly as well as anyone. But really, the sampling is what pushes this whole album to the 5/5 range for me.

All I have in my head is Shake your Rump stuck in my head because of the Goldbergs

best beastie boys album

I've been wrong my whole life about these guys. I still don't like their vocal style, but this is brilliant. It's an absolute master class in sampling.

Classic

An instant classic. The rhymes, the beats, classic BBs.

This was a fun listen, as expected with a Beastie Boys album. Great production, performances, writing, and sampling to be found here. Among the Beastie Boy’s best work, and this probably is their best. I recommend it!

Really fun to try and recognise as many of the samples as you can. I really like this album, but it's not the Beastie Boys album I keep coming back to. Lots of great music on here though.

One of my favourites of all time. So inventive and interesting.

Absolute classic. Great production. Lots of fun.

I was 16 when this album came out and I hated it back then. I wish I could go back in time and punch my 16 year old self for not realizing what an absolute masterpiece this album is. All the samples hit hard. The beats are dope. The rhymes are the bomb. This works so masterfully that it can't be duplicated. And this isn't even their best album. Check Your Head is beyond incredible and somehow didn't make this list. Still, 5 stars and then some for this glorious recording.

I have enjoyed this as much or more than any hip-hop/ rap album that I have listened to. Musically it’s more than just a beat- fun lyrically and It actually has a bit of complexity.