Check Your Head | 
| Artist: Beastie Boys
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy Used: $0.81
You Save: $11.17 (93%)
New (48) Used (81) Collectible (4) from $0.81
Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 6268
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 98938
UPC: 077779893829
EAN: 0077779893829
ASIN: B000002V1I
Publication Date: 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Jimmy James | | • | Funky Boss | | • | Pass The Mic | | • | Gratitude | | • | Lighten Up | | • | Finger Lickin' Good | | • | So What'cha Want | | • | The Biz Vs The Nuge | | • | Time For Livin' | | • | Something's Got To Give | | • | The Blue Nun | | • | Stand Together | | • | Pow | | • | The Maestro | | • | Groove Holmes | | • | Live At P.J.'s | | • | Mark On The Bus | | • | Professor Booty | | • | In 3's | | • | Namaste |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
With their third album, the Beasties transformed themselves from smart-ass punks with a hip-hop jones into a playful live funk band with some solid rhymes, assisted by the extraordinary keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita. A couple of tracks look back to their old school rap roots, and they still deploy goofy samples like nobody's business, but they're mostly making their own grooves (including some instrumentals worthy of being sampled in their own right). Their universalist world-view results in some excellent, off-the-wall fusions--the metalloid bump that forms the funk pulse of "So What'cha Want," Sly Stone's "Time for Livin'" transformed into a hard-rock bomber--but they don't have to prove how clever they are any more, and they're stronger and more humane for it. --Douglas Wolk
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
Hey, Professor, what's another word for pirate treasure? October 28, 2000
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Well, after you have phenomenal chart success with your first album ("Licensed to Ill") that you will never see again, and you make a cut-and-paste masterpiece with your second album ("Paul's Boutique") that nobody has equaled since, what do you do for the third? Apparently, if you're the Beastie Boys, whatever you want. Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA actually picked up their instruments for this album and created a lot of funk and punk instrumentals, and then added some rap along the way. Of the rap songs, the high points are "So What'cha Want", "The Maestro", and "Professor Booty", and some of the non-rap songs that are really great are "Gratitude", "Funky Boss", and "Time For Livin'". Even parts of the album that would normally be filler are interesting: this is the sound of the Beastie Boys expanding their horizons even further. Second only to "Paul's Boutique" (and possibly "Hello Nasty") in the Beastie catalog.
One of my favourite CDs July 1, 1999
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
"Check Your Head" is, simply, the Beastie Boys' best album. They have done nothing better (only Paul's Boutique comes close) and I find it doubtful they ever will. Although this is awesome to listen to at any time, I personally prefer putting it in my walkman and listening while I'm walking or on the bus. It just puts you in an irrepressable groove. As the Boys say "Life ain't nothin' but a good groove, a good mix tape to put you in the right mood" and that was their intention with this album, which they undoubtedly succeed at. "Pass the Mic", "So Watcha Want", and "Professor Booty" are all hip-hop perfection. They take the genre to its absolute height. All of the other hip-hop songs are excellent too. The instrumentals are better than on any other of their albums, mostly because they're the most funky. I will always love to turn the gain up on my bass amp and play the riff from "Gratitude". This album is also Money Mark's first, and he makes his presence known, ruling most of the instrumentals. I can not say enough good things about this album.
 Get this one for sure. June 19, 2001
Evan Streb (ohio)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Since everyone in the entire world is stupid except me, and Paul's Boutique was NOT the commercial blockbuster smash that the Beastie Boys' record company had hoped, the boys went back into the studio and thought, "Well, we gotta try SOMETHING new. Otherwise we'll get dropped again and it'll be over for good." So they started playing their own instrunents, something that hadn't been done in rap EVER (at least I can't think of anything off the top of my head that sounds like this). Yes you get several awesome wonderful fuzzed-out riff rockers like "Finger Lickin' Good" and the two MTV megahits "So Whatcha Want," and "Pass The Mic." HOWEVER, you also get some lazy "dub" and "funk" instrumentals like "Lighten Up." Now I know that these instrumentals offer a nice break between the rockers, but the fact remains that there are simply too many of 'em. I also don't really like the Sly Stone cover. But it's only like two minutes long, so as soon as you get sick of it, it's gone.Coolest sample on the album: RIGHT THERE at the end of "Finger Lickin' Good" the Beastie Boys rap about something and end it with "stuff," and then Bob Dylan's voice comes out of nowhere and sings "I'm goin' back to New York City I do believe I've had enough" (from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"). A great moment.
Hat trick! May 22, 2004
Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The first three Beastie Boys CDs were solid masterpieces. I can't decide which of the three is the best--LICENSED TO ILL, PAUL'S BOUTIQUE or, this, CHECK YOUR HEAD. Does it really matter? They're all marvels of funk, rock, and hiphop. What set this CD apart were the jazzy sections, played by the boys themselves (with some critical help on keyboards). For more than a decade, this CD has earned a permanent spot on my tray, and has quite easily held its place on my "What ten albums would I want if I were stuck on an island (preferrably Manhattan island)?" list.My personal favorites are "So What'chu Want?", "Pass the Mic" and "Something's Got to Give". One of the shining moments to me, as for several other reviewers, is hearing Dylan's voice singing "I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough" on "Finger-Licking Good". Which brings me to one other observation: The Beastie Boys are to New York as The Beach Boys were to California. CHECK YOUR HEAD, like all other Beastie CDs, is a tribute to their hometown, and they projected an image of it that is uniquely theirs.
Ecclectic Genius February 16, 2002
Zach Dramus (St. Cloud, MN United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Check your Head has to be my favorite Beastie Boy album of all time. In this album, the beastie boys blur the lines between hip-hop, jazz, funk, and rock. All this genre-switching upsets alot of people because their too stupid too realize that the Beastie Boys are far too ecclectic and well versed in music to just stick in one category. What i love about the album is that it's a completely untraditional hip hop album. Since when have you seen people rap and play their own instruments? This album is just another display of their excellent skills as artists. Some favorite songs of mine, are "Pass the Mic" ,"Professor Booty", and "Somethings got to Give".If you've ever heard of the Bad Brains (a black punk rock group) the Beastie Boys give a nod to them and their own punk rock background by sampling the guitar riff in "pass the Mic". Other than that, it's a great album in it's own right, and a must if you ever consider getting into the Beastie Boys.
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