On Hello Nasty, the Beastie Boys’ fifth full length release, they decide to kick it the old school way. Gone are the funk jams and slick beats that have been the staple on their two previous efforts (Ill Communication and Check Your Head). The Beasties have returned, more or less, to the simple straight forward raps and sounds of their mega-hit, Licensed to Ill with some Paul’s Boutique thrown in for good measure. And this is good.

The record starts off with “Super Disco Breakin’” which sets the tone for the rest of the record. The Beasties come out in your face, with a phat “bass” line, and yelling like they did on their debut. When they say, “Make no mistake/Nothing sounds quite like the 808”, you know they are kickin’ it old school. The song is sample heavy, as is the whole record. Making the house shake their collective booty is the goal of the Beasties. With songs like “Super Disco Breakin’”, “Body Movin’”, “The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)”, and “The Move”, you can’t help but get up off the sofa and do exactly that: move. These tracks are deep with heavy bass booms, catchy choruses (like “The Move”, “Bboys to the early morn/Bgirls be rockin on and on/Bgirls to the break of dawn/Bboys be rockin on and on”), freaky scratching, and fresh rhymes that only the Beasties could pull off.

This is music to be a karoake sucker MC in the living room. The Beasties know it as well. On “The Move”, King Ad Rock pulls all the Boys together, and in unison they say, “I love it when you spazz out all alone.” When Mike D proclaims, “Breakdancers of the world unite” (on “Unite”), you want to run to the dumpster behind the grocery store hoping to find a phat piece of cardboard.

The first single, “Intergalatic”, is easily the strongest track, incorporating robot voices, old school beats, cheesy keyboards, and simple rhymes (where they continually are repeating the last word of the rhyme). This song typifies the relationship of Hello Nasty to License to Ill versus the last two records. The song flows well, and contains all that makes rap fun: silly lyrics, a sense of fun, and serious beats to make you move.

The rest of the record is simply musical overload. There are so many areas covered, like reggae on “Dr. Lee, PhD” (which features Lee “Scratch” Perry on vocals), trip hop (“And Me”), and even traditional song structure. The example of the latter is “Picture This” that seems to be a melding of post-rock lounge music and trip hop. It doesn’t fit with the record, but definitely shows off the talents of the Beasties.

The annoying thing about the record is the length. At 22 tracks, that clock in at just over 67 minutes, it is simply too much, the record gets monotonous. I don’t understand what possesses rap artists to put out such long albums. Oh I know, Tupac released that double CD and ever since these rappers have been putting out lengthy recordings. That crazy Tupac.

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