Although a commercial failure when released, The Beasties Boys- "Paul's Boutique" is still one of the greatest and most influential albums, not just for Hip-Hop but for all of Popular Music. Due to current Copyright and sampling laws you will never here an album quite like it again.(The closest you'll come to it is Girl Talk's free releases). To this day, when I throw on "Paul's Boutique" I still discover something new. It is an amazing collage of samples which may not sound like a big deal now but you have to understand, Producers, The Dust Brothers, were doing it all on multi-track analog tape. Way before digital editing systems like Pro-Tools made it a quick and easier process. It was an long and painstaking effort to layer the samples to create the music. You can read more about it in Dan Leroy's book for the excellent 33 1/3 series.
Now, The Solid Steel crew featuring DJ Food, Cheeba, and Moneyshot have lovingly crafted a restructuring of "Paul's Boutique" using the source music for all the samples, as well as some interview clips and demos from the Beasties Boys themselves. Solid Steel Radio's Caught In The Middle Of A 3-Way Mix is an amazing hour and done with much respect. Headphones are highly recommended.
