HomeMusicBeastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

bill bodkin reviews the Beastie Boys’ new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, and their short film Fight For Your Right Revisited

The Beastie Boys’ return to the music scene couldn’t have come at a better time. And no this isn’t one of those typical journalistic cries of “with such a dearth of good, original music, it’s a breath of fresh air that this band has returned to grace us with an album of merit!” No, it’s the right time for The Beastie Boys to return to music — they fit in again.

See, The Beastie Boys have always been innovators, at the forefront of fusing rock, punk, hip-hop, disco/electro, jazz and turntablism into works of staggering genius. However since their last “big” album 1998’s Hello Nasty, the Boys have become an odd man out in the music scene. The hip-hop world became addicted to slow-mo Dirty South raps and auto-tuned dance hits while rap-rock fusion of the rock world, one the Beasties helped pioneer, wasted away to turgid mid-tempo nu metal, horn-rimmed emo and eventually a sea of mediocrity. One had to question where new Beastie Boys music fit in the ever-changing world of music.

Now some 12 years after Hello Nasty was released come Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. The current scene has all the trappings of classic Beasties — a resurgence of band-based hip-hop, electro/disco ‘not’ disco beats infused into both hip-hop and indie rock and punk, jazz musicians incorporating b-boy breaks into the jam sessions. Hot Sauce slides perfectly into the current music scene — it’s eclectic, funky, fresh and fun.

Hot Sauce is in many ways the hip-hop version of Metallica’s Death Magnetic. It deftly combines two elements of the band that has made them so popular — beats created by the trio as a band which made Check Your Head and Ill Communication so amazing and the danceable turntable and big beat production that made Hello Nasty legend and Paul’s Boutique an underground classic. The stand-out track of the album is the lead single “Make Some Noise” featuring a killer keyboard-inspired beat. It’s the block-party, break-dancing anthem we’ve missed from the Boys for so long.

Two other stand outs are actually the one two tracks featuring guest vocalists. The first being “Too Many Rappers” featuring the sick rhymes of Nas. While Nas is typically little tougher in his lyrical content than the Beasties, he fits in the song perfectly, evoking memories of Q-Tip’s guest vocals on Ill Communication’s “Get It Together.” The second track is “Don’t Play No Game I Can’t Win” featuring Santigold. The track is a bit of rasta-rasta reggae mixed up with Santigold’s sultry streetwise soul and R&B. These two tracks almost wish the Beasties would do an entire album with them and guest vocalists a la Santana’s Supernatural.

Outside of these three songs, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is an all-around fun and solid record worth dropping your hard earned ducats on.

Leave it to The Beastie Boys to not only return to the music scene with a tremendous album, but they release a 30-minute short film to promote it.

The band has always been known for its amazingly funny videos ranging from “Sabotage” to “Intergalactic.” However, with Fight For Your Right Revisited, the band has absolutely outdone themselves. In the quickest 30 minutes you’ll ever watch, the band — particularly MCA, who wrote, produced and directed the video — poke fun at themselves and the ’80s quite heavily.

And they do it with a cast that includes: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Schwartzman, Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Maya Rudolph, Steve Buscemi, Laura Dern, Stanley Tucci, Shannon Sossamon, Susan Sarandon, Rashida Jones, Rainn Wilson, Adam Scott, David Cross, Chloe Sevigny, Amy Poehler and Martin Starr.

These cameos come fast and furious with Bloom’s and Sevigny’s being some of the more memorable.

However, what makes the video work is the antics of Seth Rogen as Mike D, Elijah Wood as Ad Rock and Danny McBride as MCA as the 80s Beastie Boys and Jack Black (MCA), Will Ferrell (Ad Rock) and John C. Reilly (Mike D) as the Beastie Boys from the future. The natural chemistry these two sets of actors have with each other provides an amazing array of non-stop laughs. Sure, some of it’s crude and lewd, but it’s all in good fun.

If you buy the new Beastie’s album, you have to watch the short film. It’ll make you appreciate The Beastie Boys even more than you may already do.

Bill Bodkin
Bill Bodkinhttps://thepopbreak.com
Bill Bodkin is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Pop Break, and most importantly a husband, and father. Ol' Graybeard writes way too much about wrestling, jam bands, Asbury Park music, HBO shows, and can often be seen under his season DJ alias, DJ Father Christmas. He is the co-host of the Socially Distanced Podcast (w/Al Mannarino) which drops weekly on Apple, Google, Anchor & Spotify. He is the co-host of the monthly podcasts -- Anchored in Asbury, TV Break and Bill vs. The MCU.
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