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One reason nobody knew what the Beastie Boys were going to do for
an encore is that Licensed to Ill redefined rap as music.
In a cutthroat world predicated on the insult, you don't do that
twice. But if Paul's Boutique (Capitol) doesn't
jump you the way great rap usually does, it also announces that
these guys aren't about to burn out on their vaunted vices--not
cheeba, not pussy, certainly not fame. With Rick Rubin producing
hard rock full-time, Paul's Boutique doesn't
pick up on the expansive pop-metal hooks that made them rich and
famous. It's not as thick and threatening as Public Enemy or as
waggish as De La Soul. But the Beasties and Tone-Loc's Dust Brothers
have worked out a sound that sneaks up on you with its stark beats
and literal-minded samples, sometimes in a disturbing way, and while
I don't hear a "Fight for Your Right," I also wasn't smart enough
to handicap "Wild Thing" as the biggest rap single in history. Bearing
down on the cleverest rhymes in the biz--"Expanding the horizons
and expanding the parameters/Expanding the rhymes of sucker m.c.
amateurs"--the Beasties concentrate on tall tales rather than boasting
or dissing. In their irresponsible, exemplary way they make fun
of drug misuse, racism, assault, and other real vices fools might
accuse them of. And because they're still bad boys, other bad boys
might take them seriously.
Dayton's Royal Crescent Mob are bad boys on a middle American tip.
The subgenre is white funk, but just like the Beasties the Mob obviously
look to pop metal as well, especially those closet funksters Aerosmith.
Spin the World (Sire) is one of the rare white funk albums
that gets by on groove when the hooks go thataway. It's one of the
rare garage-rock albums that generates the fun garage-rock is supposed
to substitute for good playing and good tunes. And it's one of the
rare stoopid albums that's as smart as it thinks
it is.
Playboy, May 1989
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Apr. 1989 |
June 1989 |
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