Thirty years after the release of Ill Communication, we celebrate the New York trio’s gonzo blend of hip-hop, funk, punk and pop-cultural flotsam
Pasting prank calls and garbled Steve Martin routines on to a delicious ESG-esque garage-funk of their own making, the Beasties’ first swing at hip-hop improbably got these former punk-rockers played at New York nightclubs such as Danceteria and Roxy’s. Meanwhile, a subsequent lawsuit against British Airways, which had sampled the B-side for an ad, paid for Ad-Rock’s first TR-808 drum-machine. Result!
