Label: Grand Royal / Capitol
Reissued 2009, Originally released 1998
Hello Nasty, the BEASTIE BOYS’ fifth album, is a head-spinning listen loaded with analog synthesizers, old drum machines, call-and-response vocals, freestyle rhyming, futuristic sound effects, and virtuoso turntable scratching. The BEASTIES have long been notorious for their dense, multi-layered explosions, but Hello Nasty is their first record to build on the multi-ethnic junk culture breakthrough of Check Your Head, instead of merely replicating it. Moving from electro-funk breakdowns to Latin-soul jams to spacey pop, Hello Nasty covers as much ground as Check Your Head or Ill Communication, but the flow is natural, like Paul's Boutique, even if the finish is retro-stylized. Hiring DJ MIXMASTER MIKE (one of the INVISIBL SKRATCH PIKLZ) turned out to be a masterstroke; he and the BEASTIES created a sound that strongly recalls the spare electronic funk of the early '80s, but spiked with the samples and post-modern absurdist wit that have become their trademarks.
Track listing:
- Super Disco Breakin'
- The Move
- Remote Control
- Song for the Man
- Just a Test
- Body Movin'
- Intergalactic
- Sneakin' Out the Hospital
- Putting Shame in Your Game
- Flowin' Prose
- And Me
- Three MC's and One DJ
- The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin')
- Song for Junior
- I Don't Know
- The Negotiation Limerick File
- Electrify
- Picture This
- Unite
- Dedication
- Dr. Lee, PHD
- Instant Death