Beastie Boys — Ill Communication
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Remastered, Reissue, 180 gram, Gatefold, 2009
It wasn’t “Sabotage,” which in and of itself was such a weird Beastie Boys song that it became a cultural phenomenon — both because of its video (that nostalgic callback to early police procedurals, the predecessor of our beloved Law & Order) and because it wasn’t even a rap song.
It wasn’t “Root Down,” which still stands as the single that should have been a monster hit, the crackle of the vinyl in the background, the deep baseline that would have felt at home on a Beck record. It wasn’t “Flute Loop” or “Bodhisattva Vow,” the deep cuts that make this album more than just its singles. It wasn’t “Sure Shot,” which is the most Beastie Boys song on the record. It wasn’t even “Sabrosa,” a song that gets me more riled up to write than most other instrumental pseudo funk songs.
It was “Get It Together,” the song that made me fall in love (again) with the band, that cemented my opinion of Q-Tip, that served as the best example of how good hip hop could be and the reason my dumb little punk rock mind could accept anything outside of three chords and an underground recording.
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Here are the things we all love about “Get It Together:”
- Q-Tip rapping like he’s in the Beastie Boys, and not, you know, one of the greatest jazz-backed rap groups of all time.
- This is the ONLY time the “n-word” appears in a Beastie Boys recording. Q-Tip brought that, too.
- lolololololololol john starks right
- The phone is ringing, “Oh My God.” A not-that-subtle nod to the Busta Rhymes backed song from Midnight Marauders.
- Shout outs to wives (as macaroni noodles) and grandmas (Hazel, Tilly) and Scorpios (me).
- Life is taxing, so let’s get it together and see what’s happening.
I’ve got nothing else, really. This is a work of art, and one of my favorite five minutes in the world. Nothing introspective here: just pineapple Now and Laters.
