Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique"

GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
edited March 2018 in Music Talk
Just wondering what the hip-hop scholars (no snark!) of this board think of:

Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique"

Is it a legit top 10 hip-hop album or at least worthy of discussion? Is it still ahead of its time as far its innovative sampling? I'm not a producer, am I wrong for referring to its innovative sampling?One of my favorite albums ever. I don't how much nostalgia plays a part in that. But I can still go back to it and it sounds as good as ever.
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  • theory9theory9 1,128 Posts
    Top 10?
    Possible. But I never thought of the sampling as all that innovative--they were label mates with PE and I'm sure they talked about different kinds of production. Its like having Picasso in your art class and doing your own version of the same thing.

    Still, a killer album.

  • crossingscrossings 946 Posts
    that album could come out today and still sound fresh.

  • DjArcadianDjArcadian 3,632 Posts
    Love it. Still one of my favorites.

  • thropethrope 750 Posts
    so if your roomates were bumping this at 3am that would be chill?

    I KEED I KEED

  • Is it a legit top 10 hip-hop album or at least worthy of discussion? Is it still ahead of its time as far its innovative sampling? I'm not a producer, am I wrong for referring to its innovative sampling?

    Great album, although not one of my favorites.

    Technically, the way the Dust Brothers sampled things was pretty rote-- as much as they layer, they never approach the chaos of PE's "Nation of Millions" from the previous year.

    However, the samples they used were fairly innovative. At a time when pretty much everyone else was still reliant on UBBs, they drew on not only then-untouched jazz-funk nuggets like Idris Muhammed, Funk Factory and Gene Harris but lots of cheerfully random shit, from rock and country stuff (e.g., David Bromberg, Beatles, Johnny Cash) to a ton of old-school hip hop samples (Lovebug Starski, Fantasy Three, Wild Style OST, etc.). De La Soul had gone pretty far afield with some samples on "3 Feet High", which came out earlier that year, but "Paul's Boutique" went further.

    Still ahead of its time? Hell no.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    i love bars that have cd jukeboxes where you can pick album songs. i always look for spottieoatiedopalicious and beastie-boy bouillabase....thats right, my dollar is gonna hold shit hostage for an hour!!!

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    Is it a legit top 10 hip-hop album or at least worthy of discussion? Is it still ahead of its time as far its innovative sampling? I'm not a producer, am I wrong for referring to its innovative sampling?

    Great album, although not one of my favorites.

    Technically, the way the Dust Brothers sampled things was pretty rote-- as much as they layer, they never approach the chaos of PE's "Nation of Millions" from the previous year.

    However, the samples they used were fairly innovative. At a time when pretty much everyone else was still reliant on UBBs, they drew on not only then-untouched jazz-funk nuggets like Idris Muhammed, Funk Factory and Gene Harris but lots of cheerfully random shit, from rock and country stuff (e.g., David Bromberg, Beatles, Johnny Cash) to a ton of old-school hip hop samples (Lovebug Starski, Fantasy Three, Wild Style OST, etc.). De La Soul had gone pretty far afield with some samples on "3 Feet High", which came out earlier that year, but "Paul's Boutique" went further.

    Still ahead of its time? Hell no.

    agree. but the sequencing of all the funk factory elements (was that on car thief?) is beautiful.

  • i love bars that have cd jukeboxes where you can pick album songs. i always look for spottieoatiedopalicious and beastie-boy bouillabase....thats right, my dollar is gonna hold shit hostage for an hour!!!


  • DJBombjackDJBombjack Miami 1,665 Posts
    Never has and never will leave my Top 10.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    i grew up on the beastie boys, but i really think this was their last solid vocal effort. i know that sounds weird....they were never really any kind of mcs with crazy skills or dope voices...

    but lisence to ill was carried by their drunken raucusness (anfd the tracks were good)
    pauls boutique, they were all dusted out and kinda funny.still rockin out with they cocks out.

    i loved check your head, but this was the definite decline. too much money? they grew up a little bit? the music was dope on CYH, but maturing beasties lost some of the magic that they had on the first two records of irreverent immaturity. know what i mean? they had to start relying on being cool and even later on being socially conscious and none of that really worked too well and all their shit became unlistenable. sorry.

  • Anything after License is unlistenable. and License kind of sucked apart from the fact that it was my underage drinking and stealing car logos soundtrack. That and Raisin Hell.

    Beasties are only really important because they were there. None of their shit's stood the test of time.

  • i grew up on the beastie boys, but i really think this was their last solid vocal effort. i know that sounds weird....they were never really any kind of mcs with crazy skills or dope voices...

    but lisence to ill was carried by their drunken raucusness (anfd the tracks were good)
    pauls boutique, they were all dusted out and kinda funny.still rockin out with they cocks out.

    i loved check your head, but this was the definite decline. too much money? they grew up a little bit? the music was dope on CYH, but maturing beasties lost some of the magic that they had on the first two records of irreverent immaturity. know what i mean? they had to start relying on being cool and even later on being socially conscious and none of that really worked too well and all their shit became unlistenable. sorry.



    So "Ill Communication" is yr cutoff? I could probably still listen to that one, but wouldn't enjoy a fraction as much as I did when it was released. CYH is ill.

  • Phill_MostPhill_Most 4,594 Posts
    Is it a legit top 10 hip-hop album or at least worthy of discussion? Is it still ahead of its time as far its innovative sampling? I'm not a producer, am I wrong for referring to its innovative sampling?

    I don't know about top 10 all-time- there's been a lot of good albums that have come out since then, stuff with good beats and good rhyming (hey, I love my Beasties schitt for what it is but let's be honest- they weren't real emcees). I might put PB in my top 20, but mostly because of the Dust Brothers' production, which was incredible to me back in 1989 and is still incredible to me today. Maybe even more so today, because I know that nobody's ever gonna be able to make an album like this again. Although your average hip hop fan honestly disregarded PB when it first dropped, I can tell you for a fact that almost EVERY hip hop dude who was making beats back then was in awe of that schitt. De La, Tribe, Biz, Prince Paul, Bomb Squad, etc.... trust me, those dude were big fans of that album. Real beatheadz knew the deal.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts


    So "Ill Communication" is yr cutoff? I could probably still listen to that one, but wouldn't enjoy a fraction as much as I did when it was released. CYH is ill.

    really check your head was the cut off. their rhymes had already got stale on that album...although the live music was absolutely on point.

    "in sound from way out" was off the hook too

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    Although your average hip hop fan honestly disregarded PB when it first dropped,

    people barely even knew that it came out. it was real strange how quietly it dropped considering that half the girls in middle school had gone to the liscened to ill tour with the ten foot dicks popping up on stage.

  • rawyouthrawyouth 112 Posts
    My friend bought this within a few weeks of it coming out, and me and my friends bumped it all of the summer of '89, when I was 15, (although I was more into the Fight The Power cassette single I bought the same day-that epitomizes the summer of 89 for me!). Not too many albums I've ever enjoyed more in my life. I still think it sounds great, but too much name-drop rhyming for me now. I still love it, but probably haven't listened to it without someone else putting it on for many years. Maybe I'll listen to it tonite...

  • DjArcadianDjArcadian 3,632 Posts
    Although your average hip hop fan honestly disregarded PB when it first dropped,

    people barely even knew that it came out. it was real strange how quietly it dropped considering that half the girls in middle school had gone to the liscened to ill tour with the ten foot dicks popping up on stage.

    As I recall PB's didn't get much label support. Did they even have an official single on it? I think this was the primary reason the Beastie Boy's created Grand Royal.

  • ja_bruceja_bruce 295 Posts
    Never has and never will leave my Top 10.

    It's up there high on my top hip hop albums ever , what I like about it is you can pop it in the cd player (oof), if you dont have the vinyl and listen to the album straight through, no skipping around (well maybe a song or two) but overall I love the Dust brothers beats on it, the Beasties all rhymin together, and at the end you get one of the dopest songs that changes the beat like 10 times on you. I like how it goes to the intro on the end of B-boy bouilliabaise (sp?) and then the intro comes on and they sort of come together, sort of a full circle thing. I always thought that was cool. This album would basically be impossible to make today, with sample laws and whatnot, unless you had big bank to pay off all those people and then it wouldn't even be commercially smart to do. My favorite Beasties album.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    hey ladies was the video. it was mad

  • BigSpliffBigSpliff 3,266 Posts
    the Fight The Power cassette single I bought the same day-that epitomizes the summer of 89 for me!).

    ha, I bought the Do The Right Thing soundtrack for that and after the first track (PE) I was all "What the fuck is all this Ruben Blades shit about??"

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    sounds of science with all the beatles samples

  • rawyouthrawyouth 112 Posts
    the Fight The Power cassette single I bought the same day-that epitomizes the summer of 89 for me!).

    ha, I bought the Do The Right Thing soundtrack for that and after the first track (PE) I was all "What the fuck is all this Ruben Blades shit about??"



    I think I didn't buy the whole thing because it had Redhead Kingpin and the FBI?, if I remmember correctly. That cassette single is one of the best things I ever bought, if only because my younger brother (age 11-12 at the time) and all of his friends were bumping it three months later in the bedroom next to mine. Probably one of the first hip hop songs I remember him ever getting into, outside of Raising Hell.

  • vajdaijvajdaij 447 Posts
    I hated it when it came out because it didn't have any big guitar rawk hooks. "I can't tell which song is which!"

    I had a lot to learn. Incredibly dope album.

  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    Dope but terminally overrated.

    Partly because 'innovative' is the most boring and largely innaccurate thing to say about it. If anything it was a satisfying creative cul de sac.

    I like it because it sounds noisy, urban, and like my idea of walking through certain parts of new york, or a street festival or something where you hear like 6 different sources of music clashing, feel the summer heat, smell charred food etc.

  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    this is not so hot....


  • BlightyBlighty 225 Posts
    Although your average hip hop fan honestly disregarded PB when it first dropped,

    people barely even knew that it came out. it was real strange how quietly it dropped considering that half the girls in middle school had gone to the liscened to ill tour with the ten foot dicks popping up on stage.

    As I recall PB's didn't get much label support. Did they even have an official single on it? I think this was the primary reason the Beastie Boy's created Grand Royal.

    Yeah there was just two EPs off it ('Love American Style' and 'An Exciting Evening With Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego') but no proper singles. 'Hey Ladies' came out as a 45 in a few countries though and obviously there were several videos but there wasn't a huge amount of promotion and they didn't tour. Generally no one cared though. The Beasties were post LTI megahype and people thought you were a dork if you liked the Beasties in 1989. Their loss though. That album brings back happy Summer memories.

    I have the 'Paul's Boutique' demos if people want to hear them.

  • some dude in montreal has a crappy record store called "paul's boutique" on mont royal st and he even wears a stupid oversized cap (circa license to ill) with oversized sunglasses.

  • ja_bruceja_bruce 295 Posts


    I have the 'Paul's Boutique' demos if people want to hear them.

    Mmmm, Yes please

  • theory9theory9 1,128 Posts


    I have the 'Paul's Boutique' demos if people want to hear them.

    Mmmm, Yes please

  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts


    I have the 'Paul's Boutique' demos if people want to hear them.

    Mmmm, Yes please
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