Hip hop lifers and genre-defiant pop art blenders The Beastie Boys deliver the Hot Sauce – either their 8th or 9th album in 25 years, depending on how you count the Mix Up instrumentals set – and it sounds to us like a return to the good times hip hop funk style-hopping that the Boys flaunted so brilliantly in the period from Check Your Head to Hello Nasty! Hot Sauce was initially solicited as Part 1 to be followed by a Part 2, but the album was put on hold while Yauch battled cancer, which gave the Beasties plenty of time to finess the material and release it as the definitive project we have here. It's solid stuff and a Beastie Boys album through-and-through – and they're as immune to trends as ever. Guests include Nas, Santigold and Switch. Tracks include "Make Some Noise", "Nonstop Disco Powerpack", "Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries Version)" with Nas, "Lee Majors Comes Again", "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" feat Santigold, "Tadlock's Glasses", "The Lisa Lisa/Full Force Routine", "Here's A Little Something For Ya" and more.
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