A love offering for New York

Despite the hard-hitting rap sound, the Beastie Boys are in reality sentimental dudes at heart. I say this because these guys–MCA (Adam Yauch), Mike D (Mike Diamond) and Adrock (Adam Horovitz) – who make up what must be the leading hip hop group in the world today, made their latest album a love offering to the city of New York. Now isn’t that sweet? Titled To the 5 Boroughs, this is B Boys’ first album after a long, long six years and it is dedicated to the five boroughs that comprise New York City. These are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island.

Now the Beastie Boys may indeed be putty in the hands of NYC and they are now much older than when they stunned the world by becoming the first white hip hop group to hit number one in the albums’ chart with Licensed to Ill in 1986. But make no mistake about it. These guys can still pull the punches. To the 5 Boroughs, which they wrote and produced all by themselves, is every bit as irreverent, caustic and fun as any they have done before.

Maybe it’s also because their fans have also grown older, the music of the B Boys now covers lots more ground. I see 11-year-olds grooving with the rhymes. That is if their parents are not too strict with the language their kids listen to. I see yuppies enjoying the great beats they can party to and smiling over the stupidity in their secret time. Then I think we should include the older intellectual who might be able to see a purpose and pattern in the seemingly mindless shout-outs and poetry that came straight out of the streets of America.

They do take on George Bush, "a president we didn’t elect" in several cuts. "Is the US gonna keep breaking necks? Maybe it’s time that we impeach Tex," they say in It Takes Time to Build. They speak out for peace with "Step outside the cone of silence. Too much hatred and violence. It’s time to rewind. We need a military decline…" in We Got The. But To the 5 Boroughs is really all about NYC. It is there in the wistful pen drawings of New York landmarks on the album cover. The Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and the two towers of the World Trade Center. It is also there in the bits and pieces of memories about the city where they grew up in that litter the tracks.

"Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan, Asian, Middle-Eastern and Latin, black, white, New York you make it happen, brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers, writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders. We come together on the subway cars. Diversely unified. Whoever you are. We’re doing fine on the One and Nine line….," the Beastie Boys rap in "An Open Letter to NYC. Sweet. And you thought all this time that only Billy Joel writes and sings with a New York state of mind.

To the 5 Boroughs debuted in Billboard Magazine’s top 200 albums list in number one three weeks ago. It is now ranked at number six. The top ten albums in the list are as follows: The Hunger for More by Lloyd Banks; Confessions by Usher which has been in the top 10 for 15 weeks, several of them as number one; Afrodisiac the latest by Brandy; Kiss of Death by Jadakiss; Tha Carter by Lil Wayne; To the 5 Boroughs by Beastie Boys; The Cure by The Cure; Here for the Party by Gretchen Wilson; Spider-Man 2 the motion picture soundtrack featuring various artists; and The Gorge by the Dave Matthews Band.

Usher’s Burn and Confessions Part II occupy the number one and number two slots in the Hot 100 Singles Chart. The others are: Slow Motion by Juvenile featuring Souija Slim; The Reason by Hoobastank; If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys; I Believe, the first single release by American Idol winner Fantasia; Move Ya Body by Nina Sky featuring Jabba; Freek-A-Leek by Petey Pablo; On Fire by Lloyd Banks; Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle featuring Sparagga Benz. Right below the top 10 is Yeah! also by Usher and featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris.