Heds and Dreds: The Beastie Boys’ Reggae Jones

Words by Jesse Serwer and DJ Gravy—

Being ambassadors for reggae music is not one of the things the Beastie Boys are well known for but the group’s members—Ad-Rock, Mike D and the late, great MCA, Adam Yauch, who died Friday from throat cancer—were all, in their own ways, students and aficionados of Jamaican music. It’s something you can hear on “Beastie Revolution,” from 1983’s Cookie Puss EP—the one that saw the former hardcore punk band develop into a boundary-pushing hip-hop outfit—and on their very last release, The Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. (We just saw Mike D freaking out over vintage dancehall at a Johnny Osbourne show on Long Island last summer.)

Back before the Internet took over, Beastie Boys lyrics were where many teenagers of my generation learned about interesting music we otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Stuff like Rammellzee, Jimmy Smith and Lee Dorsey. I doubt that I knew the name “Lee Perry” before Ill Communication dropped during the last weeks of my freshman year in high school but I can say for sure that it was the references to Scratch on that album and his cover story in the Beasties’ magazine Grand Royal that started me on my journey into dub music. Click through below for some more examples of how reggae has colored the Beasties’ eclectic catalog. And thank you, Adam Yauch, for taking my peers and I on an incredible musical odyssey these last 26 years. —Jesse Serwer

“Beastie Revolution” (1983)

Easily the most stoned song they ever recorded, “Beastie Revolution” is off of the Beasties’ second release, a three-song EP called Cookie Puss, the title track of which is a song prank calling a Carvel—real serious stuff. “Beastie Revolution” has nods to Sister Nancy’s “One, two, operator dat ah you” and Black Uhuru’s “Party In Session” (with the slide whistle riffs). It’s also most likely the first American record to include the phrase, “Ya blind ya bloodclat, fire bun ya” and definitely the only reggae song about a fictional Chinese restaurant. Also note the shout to Kate Schellenbach, the then girl drummer of the Beastie Boys. Bim!

“B-Boy Bouillabaise” and “The Sounds of Science” (1989)

The eclectic Paul’s Boutique is one of the most sample-dense albums of all time, perhaps second only to Public Enemy’s It Takes Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in terms of second-hand beats per minute. Amidst the Beatles and BDP jackage on the tempo-twisting “The Sounds of Science,” the Beasties let Pato Banton communicate (at 17:50 in the above clip) their stance on drugs: “I do not sniff the coke I only smoke the sensimilla.” Meanwhile, the multi-suite “B-Boy Bouilliabaisse,” featured snippets of Scotty’s version of “Draw Your Brakes,” (of The Harder They Come soundtrack fame), and a 1979 Bob Marley interview, on “Stop that Train” (at 42:44 in the clip above) and “Dropping Names,” (48:36) respectively. And can’t forget this line, from “Egg Man”: “Hit the Rastaman and he said ‘Bloodclaat!'”

Beastie Boys x Lee Perry (1994, 1995, 1998)

Beastie Boys – Sure Shot by BeastieBoys-Official

It’s safe to say there weren’t too many American teens with Lee “Scratch” Perry LPs in early 1994. But then the Beastie Boys dropped Ill Communication. It’s opening tune “Sure Shot” had Ad Rock cryptically boasting “I’m like Lee Perry, I’m very…on” while the ’80s hardcore throwback “Heart Attack Man” kicked off with a baffling sample of Scratch’s “Kentucky Skank.” After Perry appeared on the cover of their short-lived but highly influential magazine, Grand Royal, suddenly everyone we knew were buying dub records. Four years later, meanwhile, the Beasties got Scratch in the studio for Hello Nasty‘s “Dr. Lee, PHD.”

Beasties x Santigold (+ Major Lazer) (2011)

The Beasties’ dub/reggae influences came to the fore one last time on “Don’t Play No Game Can’t Win,” a punky ska-core anthem with Santigold and some big Ethiopian horns, from 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. Major Lazer’s moombahton-y remix took things even further, adding airhorns and legendary dubplate intro man Joe Lickshot, to the mix. Bim, indeed!

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Tags: Ad-Rock Adam Horovitz Adam Yauch Beastie Boys Black Uhuru Grand Royal Magazine Kate Schellenbach Lee Scratch Perry Major Lazer MCA Michael Diamond Mike D New York City Pato Banton

13 years ago