If 1991 was the yr that punk (albeit rebranded as grunge) lastly went mainstream, then 1992 was the yr that the grunge takeover was full. Workwear changed large hair and the general vibe of the music was decidedly extra self-aware. Each style of standard music was in a state of change, particularly hip-hop. Whereas gangster rap was dominating the hip-hop panorama and nationwide headlines with tracks like “Cop Killer,” Dr. Dre asserted the blunted G-funk sound of the West Coast with The Continual, Arrested Growth was spitting socially aware rap on their debut, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days within the Life Of…. and Jermaine Dupri launched the world to rap’s first boy band, Kris Kross – instigating numerous style arguments between children and their dad and mom. Again into this combine step the Beastie Boys with Test Your Head, launched on April 21, 1992.
Take heed to Test Your Head on Apple Music and Spotify.
From their early beginnings as a hardcore punk band to their legendary standing as pioneers throughout the golden age of hip-hop, wanting again it appears apparent that the Beastie Boy’s pedigree was the right combine for achievement within the 90s. However on the time, questions lingered concerning the band’s relevance on this period of grunge and gangster rap. Regardless of the album’s now legendary standing (and “Hey Ladies” apart) Paul’s Boutique was initially commercially unsuccessful. Its experimental lyricism and sampling had been too dense for the musical appetites of the late 80s. Their earlier album Licensed to Ailing, whereas a business monster and a rampage of Rick Rubin brilliance, was starting to look dated on this rising age of social consciousness. Celebration anthems and sophomoric humor, nevertheless intelligent or tongue in cheek, weren’t cool anymore.
Proper out of the gate with that Low cost Trick pattern, it was obvious that Test Your Head was going to be a unique form of album. For one, this was one of many first occasions since they turned the Beastie Boys that they performed their devices on a report. Whereas they’d executed so of their punk incarnations, the 2 earlier Beastie’s albums had been largely underpinned by the 808 and modern sampling.
This new sound struck a real steadiness between stay and sampled components. To perform this new sound, they constructed their very own studio in Los Angeles. G-Son Studios in Atwater Village seemed like a cross between Tony Hawk’s yard and Thurston Moore’s condominium. It was there, with out the extremely stylized affect of Rick Rubin or The Mud Brothers, that Mike D, MCA, and Advert-Rock may concoct out a sound extra genuine to their roots.
Test Your Head additionally marked the primary time the Beastie’s collaborated with producers Mario Caldato Jr (Mario C) and Mark Ramos-Nishita (Cash Mark). This collective would go on to make two the following two Beastie Boys albums at G-Son. Whereas each Ailing Communication and Howdy Nasty had been extra profitable commercially, they owe their DNA to the work executed throughout the adolescence of G-Son and the recording of Test Your Head.
Launched two weeks earlier than the album dropped, “Pass the Mic” set the tone for the Beastie’s new experimental sound. The observe itself is traditional Beasties. They pattern EPMD’s “So What’cha Sayin” and in doing so, proceed the delicate shared change sampling between the 2 teams that started in 1988, when EPMD borrowed closely from Sluggish and Low for “Let the Funk Flow.”
Unpacking the samples on any Beasties album is like taking a Coney Island Cyclone experience via Nineteen Seventies popular culture and New York Metropolis lore. The samples on Test Your Head usually are not a lot buried within the combine, as they’re part of the music. The result’s an album that namechecks each affect throughout the musical aisle but doesn’t really feel slowed down by borrowing.
Ted Nugent, Jimi Hendrix, and a Nationwide Lampoon album all get shout-outs, as do Unhealthy Brains, Huge Daddy Kane, and Bob Dylan. Using the Dylan line “I’m going back to New York City, I do believe I’ve had enough,” speaks to the band’s feeling of displacement as latest LA transplants. There additionally appears to be an effort to get away from sampling fully. On “Live at P.J.’s” (a nod to Kool & the Gang’s stay album) the band raps over stay instrumentals. There are additionally tracks like “Pow,” “Groove Holmes,” and “In 3’s” which are purely instrumental.
There’s a hardcore facet to Test Your Head as nicely. “Time for Livin” is a Sly and the Household Stone cowl that borrows its guitar riff from Nineteen Eighties hardcore band Entrance Line whereas “Gratitude” could be considered as an early incarnation of the Beastie Boys largest hit “Sabotage.” The album closes with “Namaste.” Extra spoken phrase than rap, it sees MCA channeling Chinese language thinker, Zhuang Zhou’s most well-known work,“Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly.”
“Yeah, a butterfly floats on the breeze of a sun-lit day. As I feel this reality gently fade away. Riding on a thought to see where it’s from. Gliding through a memory of a time yet to come.”
These rhymes are a far cry from “My name is MCA, I’ve got a license to kill” and this departure wouldn’t be fleeting. The sensibilities that bubbled to the floor throughout the recording of Test Your Head, whereas not absolutely shaped on the time, would finally develop into the driving ethos of the Beastie Boys for the rest of their profession and the blueprint for all rap-rock strivers for the following decade.
Test Your Head could be purchased right here.
