I Don't Know Why You Say "Goodbye," I Say "Hello"

I will be on a bit of an hiatus until July 10, when hopefully my health is in check and school is under control.  So, please check back Tuesday, July 10 for one more song and why it's great.

Phone Is Ringing—Oh My God

“Get It Together,” Beastie Boys feat. Q-Tip

MCA’s passing shocked away the latent aspect of my devotion to one of the most approachably cool groups ever.  The Beastie Boys started off as jokey punkers in the early ’80s and now enjoy a place as one of hip-hop’s most formative and aspirational acts.  Working in a genre that often seems fueled by bravado, MCA, Mike D, and Ad-Rock came to temper their boasts with game-changing humility.  They exhibited a growth in both form and content that I can’t really say I’ve seen in another artist.  With an impressive capacity for innovation, the trio shrewdly mined the past to shape the future.  Their sound evolved to resist career-spanning definition, but is perhaps best characterized by an enduring playfulness that made irreverence weighty.  Who else has managed to be ever the same, yet continuously progress?

“Get It Together” is off the Beasties’ 1994 essential, Ill Communication, and will always be the track that is my fave of so many faves.  What other hip-hop joint references an antitrust lawsuit in such a cleverly impish way—“Ma Bell | Who’s that”?  The cut features A Tribe Called Quest legend Q-Tip, whose swaggery baritone is a satisfying counterpoint to the Boys’ cartoonish spitting.  

The splicing and dicing that created this song is so skillful that none of the samples slap you in the face.  Rather, they are integrated with a subtlety that makes you feel like you’re part of an inside joke.  James Brown and Biz Markie are along for the ride with cough-and-you’ll-miss-them snippets.  A two-line lift from Eugene McDaniel’s “Headless Heroes” is deftly transformed into an unlikely chorus.  Tip’s guttural harmonics frame the track, leading in and out of the beat that loops a taste of The Moog Machine’s “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In”.

I love this song because it has a little bit of everything that is best about the Beasties.  There are inspired borrows from other records.  There is a driving beat that propels, but doesn’t force, the heavy sonic layers.  There are memorable quips like Ad-Rock’s take on his then-wife (“She’s the cheese and I’m the macaroni”).  The raps snap.  And, of course, there is MCA.

Question:  My all-time favourite Beastie Boys lyric is probably “Educated—no, stupid—yes | And when I say stupid I mean really fresh”.  What’s yours?