Beastie Boys “Beastie Boys Music” 2020. Today, November 20th, is Mike D’s 55th birthday (b. Michael Diamond, 1965) so I’m spinning my newly acquired double LP retrospective, a companion to the Beastie Boys Story documentary (2020) and the Beastie Boys Book (2018). It’s only been out a few weeks so the chart positions may not be final/accurate: #64 Top 200 album chart, #34 R&B/Hip Hop chart, #12 Rock Albums chart. A couple of months ago, after watching the excellent documentary, I made my own Beastie mixtape/playlist (we don’t have much of their music in our library and almost none on vinyl as they mostly recorded during the digital-only age) and pretty much every song on my mix is on this comp (plus others like their first hit “Fight For Your Right” which I still have a hard time listening to: it reminds me of high school and high school assholes). My favorites (in chronological and Beastie Boys Music album order): “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” (Licensed to Ill, 1986); “Shake Your Rump” and “Shadrach” (from Paul’s Boutique, 1989); “So Watch’Cha Want” and “Jimmy James” (from Check Your Head, 1992); all of the featured tracks from Ill Communication (1994): “Sure Shot,” “Root Down,” “Sabotage” and “Get It Together” (I became a Beastie convert in ‘94 when Ill Communication came out; prior to that I thought I didn’t like them…see “Fight For Your Right” reasons); “Body Movin’” and “Intergalactic” (from Hello Nasty, 1998);  “Ch-Check It Out” (from To the 5 Boroughs, 2004); and “Make Some Noise” (from Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, 2011). It’s an excellent way to have the best of the Beasties on vinyl.