Beastie BoysCheck Your Head

All three Beasties picked up instruments: Horovitz on guitar, Yauch on fuzz bass run through a Univox Superfuzz, Diamond on drums. 'So What'Cha Want' is metal-infused rap-rock with a monster groove. 'Pass the Mic' is lo-fi, garage-riff-loaded, and builds to a distortion-fueled finale. 'Gratitude' is pure fuzzed-out punk. Recorded at their own G-Son Studios in Atwater Village, LA, where old-school raps give way to furious punk and cheerfully gritty jazz jams. The album that repositioned them from frat-rap icons to alt-rock innovators. 2009 reissue on 2 x 180g vinyl in gatefold.