One of the key elements of the Beastie Boys’ music that remains so enjoyable is the humor they injected into their songs. Incorporating slang, references to pop culture and its obscurities, and good old-fashioned disses and cipher fodder, the Beasties entered the public consciousness as the clown princes of hip-hop (remember Licensed to Ill?) and maintained a healthy sense of the absurd as their music matured over the years.
Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz was the clowniest prince of all, mostly because of his high-register, occasionally unhinged delivery. And while the trio traded off lines with speed and finesse, it often seemed that the goofiest ones were reserved for Ad-Rock. It’s hard to count the number of laffers he delivered across the group’s 25 years of recording; here are a handful of our favorites.
“Get It Together”: This Ill Communication jam with Q-Tip is hilarious, like four friends messing around and there just happens to be a mic recording it all. At one point, Tip praises Ad-Rock’s relationship with his then-wife Ione Skye, ending with the line “Gotta do it like this, like Chachi and Joanie,” to which Ad-Rock replies:
Cause she's the cheese and I'm the macaroni ...
Yeah, you know I'm getting silly
Got a Grandma Hazel and a Grandma Tilly
That’s right – he compared his marriage to pasta and then shouted out his grandmothers.
“Ch-Check It Out”: To the 5 Boroughs may well be the Beasties’ most overlooked album, but this cut, its first single, was inescapable in 2004. Ad-Rock opens verse by introducing himself, noting his genitals are unprotected, and executing a perfect falsetto impression of everyone’s favorite porcine Muppet:
Now, I go by the name of the King Ad-Rock
I don't wear a cup nor a jock
I bring the sh*t that's beyond bizarre
Like Miss Piggy (Who, moi?)
“Hey Ladies”: As far as goofy lines go in this Paul’s Boutique single, take your pick; the song is full of them. Our favorite is:
Well, me in the corner with a good-lookin' daughter
I dropped my drawers and said, "Welcome back Kotter"
We was cuttin' up the rug, she started cuttin' up the carpet
In my apartment, I begged her please stop it
“Shadrach”: Another dope Paul’s Boutique cut is this comparison of the Beasties to the Biblical trio who survived being thrown into a fiery furnace. Ad-Rock kicks off more literary comparisons, starting a fire of his own:
Because I've got more stories than J.D.'s got Salinger
I hold the title, and you are the challenger
I've got money like Charles Dickens
I've got the girlies in the Coupe like the Colonel's got the chickens
“Make Some Noise”: The final Beasties record, 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, kicks off with this re-introduction of sorts (as if we’d forgotten who they were). Ad-Rock jumps in on the second verse with these crazy couplets:
Can't do me nothing, can't tell me nada
Don't bug me now because I'm doing the lambada (bada!)
The forbidden dance, here's my chance
To make romance in my B-boy stance