A Look Back at The Beastie Boys Part 4: 'Ill Communication'

[Ed. Note: Previous chapters of this outstanding series can be found here.]

Never before had a Beastie Boys album been so greatly anticipated. The release of “Ill Communication” was preceded by the single and video for “Sabotage,” an all-out screaming rock song. The video is legen- (waitforit) -dary, an instant classic that featured the Beasties and their DJ, Hurricane starring in spoof/homage of/to 70’s cop shows. Directed with style and wit by Spike Jonze, the video was the source of a little bit of controversy when it lost in every category to Aerosmith and R.E.M at the VMA’s. When Spike Jonze lost best director to whoever won for R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” as his alter ego, Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch bum rushed the stage in full leiderhosen and interrupted Michael Stipe’s acceptance speech. Hornblower claimed that the awards were a farce and that in addition to his great work on “Sabotage,” Spike Jonze had conceived “all the best ideas for “Star Wars.”

With “Sabotage” and the VMA interruption, we were introduced to the Andy Kaufman side of the Beasties. The album was fine, their first number-one hit since “Licensed to Ill.” It was the first Beastie Boys album to sound anything like the last one, and as such, was a bit anti-climatic. It features a few great songs, plus a cameo from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. They managed some funny lines (“Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money.”), but fewer and further between. Yauch had become a Buddhist, and so they included a song about it. I didn’t love it, or the Funky Instrumentals.

Another emerging theme was their newfound respect for women. On both “Licensed to Ill” and “Paul’s Boutique,” women were treated like objects, for the most part (Sample lines: “Girls! To clean up my room!,” “I love girlies, waxin’ and milkin’!”). But themes were far too playful for me to label the Beasties as misogynists.

But on “Sure Shot,” MCA raps that “Disrespecting women has got to be through,” which some would say was politically correct. To this day, there are people who never liked them because they were quote-unquote misogynists, and now hated them more for being politically correct. Personally, I saw it as parallel growth; I wasn’t the same person I was when “Licensed to Ill” burst onto the scene, and it was cool to find my favorite band growing in many of the same ways. Not that I became a Buddhist or anything. Along with the Buddhism, the Beastie’s became staunch advocates for Tibet, mounting a “Free Tibet” concert or two. I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but it felt a little preachy. Leftists embraced the Free Tibet movement but were loathe to admit that the Chinese government is [ahem!] leftist.

Their popularity swelled, and the Beastie Boys were placed on the line-up for Lollapalooza, along with Smashing Pumpkins, George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, The Breeders, A Tribe Called Quest, and Green Day. Nirvana was supposed to have headlined, but Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April of that year. I remember waiting in line for tickets with friends who had made fun of me for liking the Beastie Boys just four years earlier. A part of me wanted them to be the biggest band in the world, but another part of me wanted them for myself. I admired that the Beastie Boys had followed their muse in the wake of their monstrously successful debut, never compromised, and that even though it didn’t translate to immediate success, they were now seeing dividends. But with their debut, they developed a frat boy following that had subsequently abandoned them. As late as 1994, Frat Boys and Sorority Girls on the Milledge Bus line grumbled when that one bus driver played “Paul’s Boutique” or “Check Your Head.” But thanks in part to Spike Jonze’s “Sabotage” video, these same people were standing in line to see the Beastie Boys.

But this moment of mass-acceptance is actually bigger than the Beastie Boys. It had been happening for a couple of years, but with “Ill Communication” and Lollapalooza ’94, the transformation was complete: there was no longer any such thing as “Alternative” music. It was a shaky label to begin with, and I don’t claim to have been one of the cool kids with regard to any aspect of it other than B.E.A.S.T.I.E., and even in that case, it’s a complete accident. But alternative music had gone completely, irreversibly, legit and mainstream.

That was my second Lollapalooza. I saw the first one, with Jane’s Addiction, Ice-T, and The Violent Femmes (them again!), and had regrettably missed the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ice Cube in 1993. The Beastie Boys didn’t disappoint. While I still contend they should have been headlining, they instead warmed the stage for Billy Corgan. It was my second time seeing the Beastie Boys live with my girlfriend. They launched an arena tour in 1995, and my wife and I were engaged by now, but by no means mature, and we saw them together at the Omni, which would soon be a pile of rubble. It was a great show in a venue that I contend was very under-appreciated.

In the wake of the successful album and tour, the Beastie Boys stayed on the radar. Look for next week’s column on 1998’s “Hello Nasty,” an album that for my money, is all kinds of…[more next week]

Ill Communication, 1994

Best Songs: Sure Shot, Sabotage, Get It Together, Root Down, Heart Attack Man, Flute Loop

Cool Samples: Grand Funk Railroad, Kurtis Blow

Political references: None, I think, but lots of stuff about Buddhists and peace and getting along.

Cam’s rating: In 1994, 4 stars. In 2010, 3 stars