Hidden Gem: The Beastie Boys Landmark Album Paul’s Boutique turns 30

Today on Hidden Gem we are going to look at a landmark album that not only turn 30 this year but also reinvent and save the musical careers of a hardcore punk band to become hip hop legends, and they are The Beastie Boys with their second album Paul’s Boutique.

After their 1986 first album Licensed to Ill, many people believed that the group was a “One Hit Wonder” and the group went to Los Angeles as some form of a self-imposed exile from the east coast. During this time they met the Dust Brothers, and with their help, they went on to create the group’s second album Paul’s Boutique.

What made the album so special is the use of the sampling the was used throughout the whole album. Sampling was a very new concept at the time when the album was released, and over the next 30 years, it has become the standard of how to do it right and it shows because it ages very well. Not only that but the lyrics also showed that the boys took in what was going on in the west coast and gave it an east coast feel to it, and that to the music and you got what many people calling this album the “Sgt. Pepper of hip hop.” With classic songs like “Shake Your Rump,” “The Sounds of Science,” “Hey Ladies,” and “B-Boy Bouillabaisse,” this is one of the few hip hop albums any hip hop fan must have in their collection.