Continuing our look at tracks from some of 1998', here's a massively underrated cut from from 'Hello Nasty', the superb LP that introduced me to the Beastie Boys. The Beastie Boys were the first band to introduce hip hop into my musical world, a considerable feat bearing in mind that I hated anything rap-related before the late 90s. 1998's crazily eclectic 'Hello Nasty' was the album that broke down those boundaries, and turned the legendary trio into one of my favourites.
I had never really been keen on hip hop in the 90s. This astonishing single changed all that. The accompanying album 'Hello Nasty' made me realize just how innovative and eclectic hip hop music could be. During the early 90's, I cringed at acts like Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince and Kriss Kross, and during the Britpop years, I fell into despair every time I heard Coolio or Puff Daddy. I was never impressed by the initially blunt lyrics or the unimaginative arrangements. I had come to the conclusion that all these rappers were talentless idiots without a single brain cell to share between them. But this was just commercial rap music, a watered-down variant aimed at the mainstream pop market.
Then one day in 1998, I heard the world exclusive first play of a new song by the Beastie Boys. I'd heard of the group before, but not actually experienced any of their music until hearing this song. For the first time I had realised that there was a big difference between the watered down pop nonsense called "rap" and real hip hop. This was something completely different: it was powerful, exciting and absolutely fucking crazy. This song in question was 'Intergalactic', and had enough of an impact on me for me to purchase their fifth album 'Hello Nasty', which was gaining glowing reviews everywhere in the music press. At the time this was confusing, I hated rap music, yet here I was fascinated by these three nerdy white boys from New York who seemed to have a great love of experimentation and silly, random lyrics that were delivered in a clever enough way for them not to sound too ridiculous.
'Hello Nasty' was the group's fifth studio album, and sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart.
THIS should have been a single.
As well as the fantastic studio cut, we also have a live version.... and after it a mash-up remix that takes in the theme from 'Inspector Gadget'!
The two surviving Beasties have penned a book. 'Beastie Boys Book' is described as a "highly unorthodox memoir" that Ad-Rock and Mike D have spent the last four years writing together.
