Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 19, 1989)
• Original Release Date: July 25, 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002UUN
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (204 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,042 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #32 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Old School
  • #81 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Experimental Rap

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Hip Hop Album Of Them All, January 28, 2000

By 

Evan Streb - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paul's Boutique (Audio CD)

They just don't make albums like this anymore. This would be IMPOSSIBLE to make today, what with all this controversy over sampling and whatnot. THIS is what sampling should sound like: Artists taking bits of found sound from various sources and incorporating them into their own unique creations. The problem with today's sampling is that rappers will take one catchy melody and loop it over the course of the song so that it never changes texture (e.g. "Will2K", "I'll Be Missing You", "Role Model"). Well there are at least 400 samples on this entire album (no hyperbole! ) and most of the time like three or four at once. During "EggMan", the themes from "Psycho" and "Jaws" are played... simultaneously! I've heard this album at least forty times since I "discovered" it like a year ago and I STILL hear something new with each listen. This is the ultimate "Oh! That part came from ____ by ____!" The Beastie Boys have basically sampled from every album they can get their hands on: the Beatles, The Ramones, Curtis Mayfield, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Cash (!), a Bob Marley interview, about 50 billion different Sugar Hill records, AND the "KICK IT!" scream from the Beasties' own "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)". Once during "Car Thief", Ad Rock screams the words "I'm the wretched old bum/A Hurdy Gurdy Man", and then right as he's saying that, they sample the John Bonham drum fill from the actual song "Hurdy Gurdy Man"! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW COOL THAT IS!

And the lyrics? Best they ever did. Snotty rap doesn't get any better than this, folks. Here's my favorites:

- "A lot of parents seem to think I'm a villain, but I'm just chillin'. Like Bob Dylan."

- "Tom Thumb, Tom Bushman, or Tom Foolery, I'm datin' women on TV with the help of Chuck Woolery."

- "Sometimes hard-boiled, sometimes runny. It comes from a chicken, not a bunny, dummy!" (as in the Cadbury creme egg)

- "Long distance from my girl and I'm talking on the cellular/She said that she was sorry and I said yeah the hell you were"

- "People always asking what's the phenomenon. Yo what's up know what's going on?"

- "Walking high and mighty like she's #1 and She thinks she's the passionate one." ("She thinks she's the passionate one." is, of course, a sample from "Ballroom Blitz".)

And the all time champ:

- "I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it, I don't buy cheeba, I grow it! "

Ha!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Funky, February 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Paul's Boutique (Audio CD)

Yes, Paul's Boutique is the best Beastie Boy Album. Yes, the Beasties would be hard pressed to ever top it. Yes, it is one of the greatest albums of all time. Yes, every music critic is willing to give it's the recognition it deserves now. The question becomes: WHY DID IT FLOP IN 1989? As an owner & worshiper of the album, since the day it was released, I'll go back in time to explain it's "failure".

A misconception is that people didn't understand it back then, but Rolling Stone magazine gave it a 4 Star rating, and Spin gave it an equally flattering review. The first problem was that Licensed to Ill was a wonderful, hilarious album which happened to upset a lot of squares. Paul's B received an angry backlash by the mob who hated LTI.

Second problem: as rich and as textured as the sample smorgasbord of Paul's B. was, a few months earlier, De La Soul, debuted the first sample smorgasbord, "3 Feet High & Rising". So "Paul's B." wasn't the ground breaker. (Note: If you're a Beastie fan of "Paul's B.", you owe it to yourself to go buy "3 Feet High & Rising".)

Third problem: In 1986-1989, there was only one rap dynasty: Def Jam Records. Home of LL Cool J, Public Enemy, etc., the Def Jam label gave the `white' Beastie Boys street credibility. LTI had a large black audience. But the Beasties had left, and Def Jam pres. Russell Simmons started ripping the Beasties, saying he `created' them. They were seen as fakes, and they lost their large urban fan base. They would never regain them. In some ways, the Beasties had to become `alternative', because the rap world had disowned them.

Fourth problem: Having lost their urban fan base, the Beasties would lose their white "metal head" fan base because `Paul's B.' wasn't LTI 2. There was no rock slamming of "No Sleep till Brooklyn".

The fans that the Beasties had left, we white kids who liked rap & understood the humor of LTI, were able to purchase 500,000 copies. A generation didn't "shake their rumps" or laugh with the brilliant "Egg Man". Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Really Fricking Great, April 5, 2001

By 

J. Lieberman "Jonny" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paul's Boutique (Audio CD)

Being a huge fan of Liscensed To Ill, I was about 14, July 25th 1989 was a big day for me. I had been waiting for years for the Beasties follow up record. I had managed to track down the Cookie Puss EP on tape and couldn't believe how different it was from L. To Ill. When I finally got Paul's Boutique, the first CD I ever bought, I couldn't understand what I was listening to. There were no anthems, no poppy top 40s. This was very different and very new. Little did I know that 12 years later, it would still be in my top five list of records. And I don't listen to other Beasties stuff at all anymore. But this...

I think there is very little question that this is the best album by far the Beastie Boys have ever done. The incidences of coincidences - all the variables - that were at play when this puppy got tracked would be very hard to duplicate. A bunch of superstar, super-rich genre breaking Jewish rappers move from New York City to Los Angeles, get a briefcase full of cash from from Capitol Records, hook up with the brilliant Dust Brother and do drugs. Lots of drugs.

This is a perfectly conceived and executed album. It is a rollercoaster, covering all the bases. With an appeal unlike any other record. I remember Charlie Benante, the drumer for Anthrax, saying that it was his favorite album. That was from an interview about ten years ago. If you like music, you will love this album. I am sure anyone reading this, already knows. Tell your friends that Paul's Boutique is one of the greatest pieces of work ever to be put on record.