Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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 excellent, off-the-wall fusions--the metalloid bump that forms the funk pulse of "So What'cha Want," Sly Stone's "Time for Livin'" transformed into a hard-rock bomber--but they don't have to prove how clever they are any more, and they're stronger and more humane for it. --Douglas Wolk Amazon.com essential recording

If only there was more music like this

You probally wouldn't expect much from The Beastie Boys after releasing Paul's Boutique. After all, it pretty much was a king of sampling, and there's no real way to top that album, especially since sampling wasn't going too well after the album being released. So instead of panicking, The Beastie Boys decided to employ their own beats more, and add some of their early rock influence, and live funk courtesy of keyboards.

It works, extremely well. Whether Mike D (that's my guess, since he usually played drums) or a sample was backing the beat, I can't help but feel this may be the most organic rap album as far as beats, always heavy, funky, great. Oh, and there's the percussion too. They still sample, but it's not very dominated with samples like Paul's Boutique. Plenty of other stuff, but have a listen for yourself.

They really isn't a bad song on here, nearly all of them rule in different ways. Lighten Up Groove Holmes and Namaste are laid back funk tracks, some of them rock, like Time For Livin'. They still rap and shout over some of the coolest beats made in a rap album, but yeah, there's a lot of variety. There's really not much else to say but to check it out. There's plenty of stuff that would take foerver to describe like this, and I don't feel like doing a track listing because it would be just redundant. Still though, Beastie Boy listeners can't pass this one up. Seriously. Not much else to say anyway.

9.5/10 February 14, 2008

One of the great hip/hop albums

The Beastie Boys' third album, Check Your Head, would reverse their commercial fortunes that happened with their best release, Paul's Boutique. Although now revered as a milestone in hip/hop, Paul's Boutique's sales were disappointing at first because it was such a departure from their beloved yet sophomoric debut, Licensed to Ill. Paul's Boutique was a quantum leap forward in both its raps and samples and Check Your Head would expand their horizons further.

Check Your Head is the album where the band started playing their own instruments (later their early punk recordings would be released as Some Old Bull****). While the band won't ever be renowned for their musicianship, it added a new dimension to their sound. Mark Ramos Nishita (Money Mark)'s keyboard playing was also a large reason for this dimension as he brought elements of `70s R&B and jazz to many of the songs. Tracks like "Jimmy James", "Gratitude", "Live at P.J.'s", and the appropriately titled "Funky Boss" are cool sloppy funk tunes while "Time for Livin'" returns them to their punk roots. "Pass the Mic" and "So What'cha Want" would gain decent airplay, especially on college radio, and are two of the band's best tracks. The eclecticism continues on the pseudo funk instrumentals "In 3's", "Groove Holmes", and "Pow", the hypnotic lazy groove that is "Something's Got to Give", and the seductive dreamlike atmosphere on "Namaste." The songs "Professor Booty", "The Maestro", "Finger Lickin' Good", and "Stand Together" are also top notch and feature some of their best rhymes. As for the samples, the Beasties still reign supreme as they represent a smorgasbord of music ranging from Sly and the Family Stone to Bob Dylan to Cheap Trick to Ted Nugent to even black metal band Venom. All told, Check Your Head is an awesome album from the Beastie Boys, just slightly behind Paul's Boutique as their best work. Highly recommended to all fans of hip/hop.
January 8, 2008

Still A Favorite

This album was released when I was sixteen,I was already a big Beasties fan but this album simply blew me away.As original and awesome as Paul's Boutique is,this is the one I keep going back to.I have listened to this album literally hundreds of times and it still gets played often.It always cheers me up.One of the best ever. February 20, 2007

Flawless

There is not a single track on this cd which is not absolutely brilliant. It is a true masterpiece and listening to it always brings joy to my soul, even after listening to it literally hundreds of times over the years. December 1, 2006

raw energy

in my opinion, this album is their most energentic. After two albums of rappin' over beats, they finally dust off their instruments and jam out. At first, this was going to be just an instrumental/hardcore punk album, but good ol' Mario C convinced them to lay down some raps. This album really allows you to see the depth of the Beastie Boys. They've got some great hip-hop tracks (Pass The Mic, So What'cha Want, Stand Together), rock tracks (Gratitude, Time For Livin'), instrumentals (Something's Got To Give, In 3's) and some just jam tracks (a little hip hop mixed with just lettin' loose on with the instruments) (Jimmy James, The Maestro, Live At P.J.'s). All the hip-hop tracks are done over pre-recorded instrumentals they laid down. This album also has one of the most underrated Beastie Boys songs of all time, Professor Booty. In my opinion, this is their most diverse album. Ill Communication is very similar, it just lacks the energy of Check Your Head. Must have album.

tracks to check out:
Jimmy James
Gratitude
So What'cha Want
Something's Got To Give
Live At P.J.'s
Professor Booty November 8, 2006

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