The New Style

Gotta give these (Beastie) boys credit: They did come up with a new style, even if it was based on what their labelmates Run-DMC were up to. Both groups were signed to Def Jam records and produced by label owner Rick Rubin. Run-DMC pioneered a flow where their two MCs (Run and DMC) would trade lines back and forth, bucking the convention of each rapper getting a full verse. Their DJ, Jam Master Jay, would use samples, but would typically keep the same loop going throughout the song. Beastie Boys cribbed Run DMC's vocal delivery, but had three MCs to trade off lines. And instead of working one sample as the main beat throughout a song, they would throw in a compost pile of shifting sounds, changing the beat with impunity. It was indeed a new style, made possible by their rampant sampling at a time when the legal issues over clearing samples hadn't been sorted out.

Beastie Boy Mike D called this song "a fantasy version of our actual lives." They really were hanging out, making music and drinking beer, but they weren't armed or dangerous.

"The New Style" was released as a single in November 1986 around the same time the group's debut album, Licensed To Ill, was issued. Two singles from the album had already been released: "Hold It Now, Hit It" and "Paul Revere." Reaction was positive, and it looked like the group was on their way to landing a Gold record, a huge leap forward, as their previous singles were mostly played in clubs and hadn't sold very well. But then their jokey afterthought song "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" was released as the next single, and they suddenly went big-time. Soon, they were a headline act and all over MTV. The album went to #1 in America, where it sold a staggering 10 million copies, the equivalent of 20 Gold records.