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Lyrically, this is probably the most inventive album I've ever heard, as the Beasties will rap about ANYTHING. Pop-culture references include "The Brady Bunch", "The Flintstones", Donald Trump, Humpty Dumpty, Houdini, Ben Franklin, Ponce De Leon, Jack Kerouac, Vincent Van Gogh, Rapunzel, and "Amazing Grace", among others. They're simply hilarious. However, the real highlight of the album is the music, which is unbelievably rich and creative. "Paul's Boutique" contains a mind-numbing **400+** samples, including: Johnny Cash, the Ramones, the Beatles, Isaac Hayes, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Chic, Public Enemy, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, the theme from "Psycho", Sly Stone, Alice Cooper, James Brown, and so many more. The samples are layered and used so creatively that they're never simply theft; instead, they create something new out of something old.

"Paul's Boutique" is not just one of the best rap albums of all time, or one of the best "alternative" albums of all time, or one of the best dance albums of all time. It is one of the best albums ever, period. If you don't own it, it needs to be the next CD you buy.


The Greatest Hip Hop Album Of Them All   January 29, 2000
Evan Streb (ohio)
63 out of 67 found this review helpful

They just don't make albums like this anymore. This would be IMPOSSIBLE to make today, what with all this controversy over sampling and whatnot. THIS is what sampling should sound like: Artists taking bits of found sound from various sources and incorporating them into their own unique creations. The problem with today's sampling is that rappers will take one catchy melody and loop it over the course of the song so that it never changes texture (e.g. "Will2K", "I'll Be Missing You", "Role Model"). Well there are at least 400 samples on this entire album (no hyperbole! ) and most of the time like three or four at once. During "EggMan", the themes from "Psycho" and "Jaws" are played... simultaneously! I've heard this album at least forty times since I "discovered" it like a year ago and I STILL hear something new with each listen. This is the ultimate "Oh! That part came from ____ by ____!" The Beastie Boys have basically sampled from every album they can get their hands on: the Beatles, The Ramones, Curtis Mayfield, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Cash (!), a Bob Marley interview, about 50 billion different Sugar Hill records, AND the "KICK IT!" scream from the Beasties' own "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)". Once during "Car Thief", Ad Rock screams the words "I'm the wretched old bum/A Hurdy Gurdy Man", and then right as he's saying that, they sample the John Bonham drum fill from the actual song "Hurdy Gurdy Man"! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW COOL THAT IS!

And the lyrics? Best they ever did. Snotty rap doesn't get any better than this, folks. Here's my favorites:

- "A lot of parents seem to think I'm a villain, but I'm just chillin'. Like Bob Dylan."

- "Tom Thumb, Tom Bushman, or Tom Foolery, I'm datin' women on TV with the help of Chuck Woolery."

- "Sometimes hard-boiled, sometimes runny. It comes from a chicken, not a bunny, dummy!" (as in the Cadbury creme egg)

- "Long distance from my girl and I'm talking on the cellular/She said that she was sorry and I said yeah the hell you were"

- "People always asking what's the phenomenon. Yo what's up know what's going on?"

- "Walking high and mighty like she's #1 and She thinks she's the passionate one." ("She thinks she's the passionate one." is, of course, a sample from "Ballroom Blitz".)

And the all time champ:

- "I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it, I don't buy cheeba, I grow it! "

Ha!


Explosive   February 20, 2004
Davey G (Washington, D.C.)
43 out of 67 found this review helpful

This album gives me explosive diarrhia. I love explosive diarrhia


Paul's Boutique...one of the greatest of all-time   August 11, 2003
Andrew (Columbus, Ohio USA)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful

Paul's Boutique is possibly the most ground breaking hip-hop album of all time. It and De La Soul's Three feet high and rising were the first rap albums to use mass sampling. Who new it would come from 3 jewish white kids from NYC...heres some information about the tracks.

1. To All the Girls- good ..but not great opening samples "Loran Dance"

2. Shake your Rump- Starts with an explosive drum roll. samples everything from Led Zepplin to the Sugarhill Gang to Funky 4+1 "it's the joint!"

3. Johnny Ryall- Song about an NYC bum. The Blues guitar licks are from David Bromberg's "Sharon." The beats r from Paul McCartney's "Momma Miss America"

4. Eggman- Gangsta rappers rap about drive by shootings....the Beasties rhyme about drive-by eggings. The bass is Curtis Mayfield's "superfly." Public Enemy is also sampled.

5. High Plains Drifter- Mostly from the Eagles "those shoes" The Ramones r sampled too.

6. Sounds of Science- Listen to the whole song...starts out slow but speeds up with the Beatles guitar part from "the end." BDP offers the line "right up to your face and dissed u"

7. 3 minute rule- Badass song.... the drums are from Steve Millers "Take the Money and run"

8. Hey Ladies- Only mainstream song on album. tells about the B-boys and the opposite sex. Afrika Bambaattaa and James Brown are sampled.

9. 5-piece chicken dinner- This song is country..background music is from a song called "shuckin the corn"

10. Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun- another badass song by the Beastie Boys This one is a little Metal.

11. Car Thief- A great track which is pretty funky... "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and a song by Funkadelic are sampled.

12. What Comes around- The begining drums are from Led Zepplin's "Moby Dick" The piano is from Gene Harris. This is a good song.

13. Shadrach- A bouncy track featuring Lyric's about biblical figures and samples from Rose Royces "Do your Dance" The end Drums r from James Brown's "Funky Drummer"

14. Ask For Janice- Not really a song...Pauls Boutique was not a real place...if u didnt know

15 B-Boy Boullabaisse- A crazy mix of many songs and unique samples..the last words sum up the album.."Its a trip, its got a funky beat, and i can bug out to it."

......by the album


I must have been living in a cave   August 29, 2001
J.A. (Mountain View, CA)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Could you imagine what it would be like to hear this album for the first time in 2001? For years, I listened to nothing but rock, folk, jazz; only stuff with real instruments. And finally, I ran out of new albums to buy. Maybe I'm getting old, but it seems to me like most new music [isn't that good]. So, I decided to go back and buy albums I'd never owned but heard great things about. Which brings me to Paul's Boutique.
This album is still so fresh, so completely brilliant; even listening to it over a decade after it was first released, it still seems hip and cool. I think it still defines what is hip and cool. Witty lyrics, very clever use of samples, incredible knowledge of pop culture. This album is an achievement on the same order as "Sgt. Pepper" or "Dark Side of the Moon" or "Kind of Blue." Everyone should own this.