What year did you start listening to the Beasties?

[pesto pizza]

Im interested in what year and how you got into listening to the Beastie Boys?

For me it was Feb 1987 l was 13 and my sister a few years older than me would play taped recordings off the radio and top of pops uk.
After a couple of months of listening to them through my sisters bedroom wall, l went out and bought licensed to ill on vinyl from Woolworths for £5.99.
Me and my best friend would then play them every weekend and drink beers, while rapping along to them.
After licensed to ill my sister stopped being a fan, after Pauls Boutique my friend stopped being a fan ......but l never stopped and they have always been my favourite band.
I listened to HSCPT2 today to me this album could be released with its style and sound in this day and age, the Beasties were always ahead of the curve.

[Brother McDuff]

1998. i had tried them on for size before that, but just thought they were obnoxious. i had an epiphany watching the intergalactic video, realizing “these dudes are fucking hilarious”. i always appreciated artists who didnt take themselves too seriously. so i dipped back in through a diferrent lens, and realized how they alchemized all of my favorite genres, with a trademark lightheartedness. and here i am.

[Micodin]

Dec 1986. my dad took me and my best friend to the record store. my purpose for that trip was to get a copy of Run-DMC Raising Hell. my buddy Jeff took a chance on License to Ill after it was recommended by the guy behind the register. we went back to my house and listened to both while we dubbed each other a copy. that day changed my life.

funny enough i put on the latest remaster of LTI on wax on when i got home from work.

[dust monkey]

'85 krush groove / she's on it

they just made laugh in that stupid stupid video for that god awful song. but they made me laugh

[pesto pizza]

Im liking these stories, more please

[cAm]

Early summer of ´87.
Remember me and my friend went to the record store and bought Licensed To Ill. Went straight back home and blasting it loud on my dads new stereo in the living room.

I had heard a snippet of No Sleep somewhere before so we put Side B on first..
Their voices, attitude, beats and samples made us laugh out loud and from that day my musical journey changed!

[ClarenceAlabama]

1985 - She's On It / Slow & Low... Between 85-87 getting excited when they released 12 inch singles Hold It Now Hit It, The New Style, and Paul Revere. Picked up Licensed To Ill on the first day it was released. Heard Rock Hard and I'm Down on a college radio station (finally heard I'm Down again when I got on the internet in the 90's). Picked up Paul's Boutique a few days before it was released from a friend who worked at a record store. I always continued to picked up their new releases the day of release ever since.

[fonky pizza]

It was '86 or '87 on a tv channel called VideoMusic playing video clips h24 that I first listened to the Beastie Boys. I loved FFYR and No Sleep till Brooklyn videos a lot! The album was played at every party and the record was shared by all kids at school. I remember I had a picture of them in my diary. Then time went by and didn't hear about them untill '94 '95 when my best friend made me listen to instrumentals from the InSound and CYH and I just didn't believe him at first I was like what these guys can play instruments?! I was like woahh! Then I started liking the root down ep a lot and then Paul's Boutique, Ill Communication and finally got to see them live for the Hello Nasty tour! Never missed a tour since!

[Sir SkratchaLot]

I would guess summer of 87. That would have made me 11. My friend's older brother had LTI on tape and we would listen to it while he was out doing "high school stuff".

I'll admit that I didn't understand Paul's Boutique when it came out. I watched the videos on MTV but didn't get the "disco" thing. So, aside from whatever was played on MTV I completely slept on that album.

When Whatchawant dropped in 92 I was hooked on that track and Pass the Mic. Loved the punk aspect too because I was already listening to a good amount of DC hardcore at the time. At that point I revisited Paul's Boutique and got hooked on that.

Then I found out about Pollywog Stew. I was in high school and a teacher's assistant for my English class was this punkrocker dude. I went to see a band at a college house and it turned out to be the teacher's assistant's house. He had Pollywog Stew on cassette (the one with the sticker label) and I was like "whaaaat is this?" It was really intriguing to find out they had been a hardcore band before LTI. Now Check Your Head made a lot more sense. That summer I found Pollywog Stew and Cookie Puss on cassette in an indie record store in DC (I want to say Smash Records in Georgetown but maybe it was Orpheus). I had no idea was Cookie Puss was going to be like.

After finding out that there was a back catalogue prior to LTI it was kind "off to the races" and I was trying to find everything. Between 92 and 96 I tracked down a nice Pollywog Stew 7", a sealed copy of Rock Hard, MCA and Burzootie, etc. etc. I started buying all the singles and EPs. This was pretty much pre-internet for most of this period so I would go to various record stores and find out what Beastie Boys records they had gotten in stock in the past. From there I found out I could get on lists at places like Reckless Records in Chicago and they would call me when something came in and mail the record to me! I would find people at College who had some of the out of print singles and EPs from Check Your Head and Paul's Boutique on tape or CD and I would buy their copies from them. The radio station also had promo stuff.

By 95 I was pretty much buying everything I could get my hands on. eBay was for sure a game changer. I'm sure I was competing with a lot of you guys on auctions back in those early eBay days.

[dust monkey]

Originally Posted by Sir SkratchaLot

I'll admit that I didn't understand Paul's Boutique when it came out. I watched the videos on MTV but didn't get the "disco" thing.

After finding out that there was a back catalogue prior to LTI it was kind "off to the races" and I was trying to find everything. Between 92 and 96....

everything you wrote is cool but to these two specific comments...

most everyone in my orbit disliked PB, it was the walking with a panther backlash. everyone loved i'm bad then he drops i'm that type of guy and the people around me were like nah. PB instantly resonated due to the hey ladies video. i was 16 and really into 70's movies; serpico, dog day afternoon, godfather, mean streets, taxi driver and saturday night fever. hey ladies video was ripped straight from sat night fever and i instantly got it. but nobody around me got that and that made me like it all the more.

to your 2nd comment that was me too in those years, i just tried to get everything. i even called the def american office, asked for rick and begged them to send me a copy of the TTL completed version of desperado. i prob called that damn label 5 or 6 times. it didn't work obviously but it's a good memory

[pesto pizza]

I loved walking with the panther and Pauls Boutique when they came out.
Those two albums l still LOVE, Pauls Boutique being my favourite album of all time.
Makes me think people back then only liked Hip Hop they felt they were allowed to like.

I know in England 1989 it was not the done thing to still like the Beasties, l got grief off my friends for still liking them, until l played them Pauls Boutique and then two of my friends went out and bought it, which was a rare thing we mainly just copied on tape albums off each other, but they wanted an original copy and they were both hardcore hip hop heads.

[Micodin]

Originally Posted by pesto pizza

I loved walking with the panther and Pauls Boutique when they came out.

Same. If you trim Walking’s 20 tracks down to 11 or 12 it’s a classic imo. some fantastic production on that record.

[dust monkey]

Originally Posted by Micodin

Same. If you trim Walking’s 20 tracks down to 11 or 12 it’s a classic imo. some fantastic production on that record.

yea walking with a panther is classic imo. that song you're my heart is one of the best rap "love" songs ever right next to teenage love. at 16 when you only listen to hip hop and fall for one of the cheerleaders, there weren't many choices in '89. but even if there were that song just hits, love his cadence and flow on that cut. ll had an amazing 4 album run, not many solo artists have matched it. not many groups can do 4 in a row.

[Micodin]

Originally Posted by dust monkey

yea walking with a panther is classic imo. that song you're my heart is one of the best rap "love" songs ever right next to teenage love. at 16 when you only listen to hip hop and fall for one of the cheerleaders, there weren't many choices in '89. but even if there were that song just hits, love his cadence and flow on that cut. ll had an amazing 4 album run, not many solo artists have matched it. not many groups can do 4 in a row.

Ice Cube did the 4 album run if you include Straight Outta Compton and his first 3 solo records. Super rare tho.

[dust monkey]

Originally Posted by Micodin

Ice Cube did the 4 album run if you include Straight Outta Compton and his first 3 solo records. Super rare tho.

i'm prob missing something obvious but off top of my head imma say

epmd
ice t
PE
LL
RTJ
tribe
beasties of course
run dmc

jay/nas/ghost - ehhh i'm not sure i can say 4 in-a-row
can't include WU right with the W and/or iron flag, or can you
kendrick ???
eminem - not really my thing so i can't really say but i'm wondering if Em fans think his 4 are worthy

oh eric b & rakim, i think you could say yes...maybe

[Micodin]

El-P never missed. Co Flow plus 3 solo albums and 4 RtJ albums. dude is pretty much untouchable.

[3stooges]

'86 shortly after LTI came out. We had been listening to Raising Hell all summer and when LTI came out my friend got it and played it for me in his Camaro. We were parked behind a gas station. First thing I remember was "Coolin on a corner on a hot summer day, me and my posse and MCA...". I was like"they sound kinda like Run-DMC" and my friend said "yeah they're friends with them". And then he said "oh yeah, these guys are white" and I was like "what?....no way..."

[3stooges]

De La first four about as good as anyone. Gang Starr, so fuckin good. I would say Tribe, but Beats has too much Consequence on it, don't like that one nearly as much as the first three.

[pesto pizza]

I liked all of BDP albums too

[cj hood]

2015

[pesto pizza]

Originally Posted by cj hood

2015

?