There are not many good things about being old as shit. One of the things that is, at least you were around when some all-time, balls-out classic LPs like Licensed to Ill dropped in 1986. Your humble author was barely in double digits. The Beastie Boys absolutely nailed and in no small part shaped the sound of hip hop with that one.
Exhibit A:
Brass Monkey would be Exhibit B. Or Rhymin’ and Stealin. Or just listen to the whole thing.
In the case of Licensed to Ill, it’s the exception to the rule that proves its status. A tune set to a melody played on a kid’s xylophone, Girls is almost a perfect self-parody. Assuming it wasn’t intentionally a parody poorly-executed, assuming the best rather than the worst.
Either way, further down the track, and with the benefit of hindsight, the Beasties all came to their senses. MCA even made a point of apologising lyrically on the Ill Communication LP.
On Sure Shot, the opener, he says: ‘The disrespect to women has got to be through. To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends. I want to offer my love and respect to the end.’ It sets the tone for the entire album.
As an impressionable youth of tender age at the time Girls dropped, I don’t recall taking the lines particularly seriously, personally. If you’re excited about girls, you can take them just about anywhere and it would be better than the laundry. It sounded stupid. I mostly don’t write anything that isn’t garbage, personally, far be it for me to point fingers at shit anyone else writes.
Again personally, I got into 2 Live Crew around the same time as well, but somehow managed to avoid turning into a pimp. Public Enemy were releasing tunes like Revolutionary Generation not long afterwards anyway. I did listen to Ice-T and figure out what my lethal weapon was but.
It’s interesting to think about, I think, The Beastie Boys released a questionable at best, and regrettable otherwise, tune on an otherwise balls-out classic LP. On the face of it, its lyrics sent an acutely misogynist message devaluing and instrumentalising women. The Beastie Boys have a history.
The Beastie Boys were also allowed to do something positive and constructive about it. They were allowed the freedom to err, to be able to make mistakes and do harm, then make efforts to rise above those mistakes, and make efforts at repair and renewal. The Beastie Boys were better off for it. Everyone else was better off for it. Music was better off for it.
And we have a catalogue full of their successive albums for good measure, Ill Communication being not the least of which. The title even speaks to their purposes in rising above their own history; Sure Shot is the first track on the album.
We would never have had it without the freedom to err.
MCA Rest in Power
