Beastie Boys
To the 5 Boroughs
Capitol Records

I will admit, I was one of the few people who actually doubted this CD would ever come out. Just because The Beastie Boys have been sporadic in terms of releasing CDs. Their last album came out when I was a freshman in college. So here I am, graduated and they just released a new CD. I guess they don't like to flood the market with crap like 99% of rap artists today.

"To the 5 Boroughs" is a bit different than previous releases in that, MCA, AD Rock, and Mike D decided on making this record entirely a hip hop album. Which isn't a bad thing at all. Unfortunately, nothing gets better than their single "Ch-Check it out". And even that song is mediocre at best.

"To the 5 Boroughs", just from the title would make you think this is an album to celebrate New York City but instead we got a political hip-hop album from them, declaring that George Bush is unfit to be president, the war on Iraq was not justified, and that war in general is not the answer. Unfortunately I could have told you that, and i'm not charging $17.99 to every person who asks or wants my opinion.

The songs are just silly. And not silly in a good way. An "Open Letter to NYC" is a prime example of a song that is a serious attempt to enlighten the citizens of New York City, but the message is lost because of lyrics that really are not that good.

The wait for this CD was definitely not worth it. It should make you wonder what happened to the group that had "Fight for your Right" and had blow up male genitalia on stage with them, because this is clearly not that band.


Reviewed by: Chris Buehler
Reviewed on: October 26, 2004