|
|
|
Licensed to Ill
: essential recording:The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover--that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin'--serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ear-splitting mix of rock and rap is an even better joke. And funniest of ...
|
|
|
The Dana Owens Album
:Album Description:'...a collection of timeless classics chosen and covered by the Queen herself' :Everyone grows up... even rappers. Pioneering female MC Queen Latifah shows a newfound level of maturity on The Dana Owens Album. A set of standards the rapper/actress decided to cover, the album features a host of jazz classics and R&B favorites. Latifah is at her seductive best when playing the sultry siren on Al Green's 'Simply Beautiful.' With a little help from Green himself, Latifah's vocals slide ...
|
|
|
What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective
:Album Description:'Brilliant.' -- URB 'A masterpiece.' -- Salon.com 'Jaw-dropping. Perfectly paced, clever, funny, and down-right funky.' -- The Wire Steinski (advertising writer, DJ, and record collector Steve Stein) produced his first record in 1983. In response to a nationwide remix contest by Tommy Boy Records, he and partner Double Dee (engineer and studio wizard Douglas DJ Franco) produced 'The Payoff Mix.' A panel of ten judges--including Afrika Bambaataa, Shep Pettibone, Jellybean Benitez, and Arthur Baker--unanimously chose the mix as the ...
|
|
|
All World: Greatest Hits
: essential recording:The very epitome of 'been there, done that,' LL Cool J also has the distinction of having originated (or, at least, being the most proficient at) half a dozen rap styles. On the hits collection All World, all the phases are represented: he was 'hard as hell' on 1986's 'Rock the Bells' and again on 1991's 'Mama Said Knock You Out'; on 1987's 'I Need Love,' he was the painfully sappy precursor to Boyz II Men, but he ...
|
|
|
Paul's Boutique
: : Beastie Boys Photos More from Beastie Boys The Sounds of Science Check Your Head IIll Communication Hello Nasty Awesome, I Shot That DVD Video Anthology - Criterion Collection Amazon.com essential recording:After the out-of-nowhere success of Licensed to Ill, the Beasties had to prove they were more than one-album wonders, and they hit it out of the park with this follow-up. The Boys' lyrics are a hysterical deluge of cultural allusion (Ponce De Leon, Sadaharu Oh, and ...
|
|
|
Solid Gold Hits
: : In celebration of Beastie Boys' 24th anniversary, Capitol Records has decided to pay tribute to Michael 'Mike D' Diamond, Adam 'Adrock' Horovitz and Adam 'MCA' Yauch-- known collectively as Beastie Boys, with the release of Solid Gold Hits. (No, the group is not breaking up.) The infomercial-worthy 15-track compendium distills the NYC trio's storied career into an ADD-friendly digest format: Covering the Boys' first platinum-mining expeditions with 'No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn' and 'Fight For Your Right' through west coast ...
|
|
|
Check Your Head
: essential recording:With their third album, the Beasties transformed themselves from smart-ass punks with a hip-hop jones into a playful live funk band with some solid rhymes, assisted by the extraordinary keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita. A couple of tracks look back to their old school rap roots, and they still deploy goofy samples like nobody's business, but they're mostly making their own grooves (including some instrumentals worthy of being sampled in their own right). Their universalist world-view results in some ...
|
|
|
The Best of the Moments: Love on a Two-Way Street
: essential recording:With their third album, the Beasties transformed themselves from smart-ass punks with a hip-hop jones into a playful live funk band with some solid rhymes, assisted by the extraordinary keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita. A couple of tracks look back to their old school rap roots, and they still deploy goofy samples like nobody's business, but they're mostly making their own grooves (including some instrumentals worthy of being sampled in their own right). Their universalist world-view results in some ...
|
|
|
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
: :After he gained legendary status rapping on Doug E. Fresh's 'La Di Da Di,' it was only a matter of time before the world would clutch British-born Ricky Walters to its heart. Rick had already fancied himself a rabid storyteller (and a mighty good one) on Fresh's track 'The Show,' and Great Adventures became Slick Rick's novella. Not content with one perspective, Slick Rick often employed tag-team rhyming with himself as his own partner ('Mona Lisa,' 'Teacher Teacher'). His cautionary ...
|
|
|
Hello Nasty
: 's Best of 1998:It's been a dozen years since the Beastie Boys broke, and on Hello Nasty, they show that--though they've grown up, matured, and just gotten older--they're still in touch with the inner brat that always made them so much fun. Turns out that the brat's turned into an ace record collector with choice taste in collaborators, too. --Randy Silver Amazon.com essential recording:On their previous album, Ill Communication, the Beastie Boys expanded their parameters yet again, melding cutting-edge hip-hop ...
|
|
