Teach me the ways of the Beastie Boys.

December 4, 2016 7:40 PM

I'd like to learn more about the rapping techniques of the Beastie Boys, specifically the way MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike D would break up lines and rhymes and bounce the lyrics back and forth. Are there any articles or interviews that analyze how they did this? At the very least, are there any sites that break down the lyrics and show who exactly rapped which words on a given song (maybe by color-coding)?
posted by Faint of Butt to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Genius breaks the lines down by performer. For example, No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn
posted by sacrifix at 7:44 PM on December 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I found this NYMag write up interesting.
posted by susiswimmer at 8:24 PM on December 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I linked to the page that discusses the roles a bit, but the whole thing is an interesting read.
posted by susiswimmer at 8:25 PM on December 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks! I wish Genius did that for more songs.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:35 AM on December 5, 2016

Their voices were so distinct that I feel like if you listen to them a lot, you'll start to pick it up. MCA's voice was the deep and rough one, the easiest to recognize. The other two voices are more similar, but Ad-Rock is usually doing that bratty nasal whine while Mike D's voice is just a little higher pitched and not whiny. They also often introduced themselves in the lyrics or called themselves out by name during the song, so that helps too.
posted by aabbbiee at 9:15 AM on December 6, 2016