The Beasties dropped this master jam in the summer of 1998, back when release dates really mattered, and for a week or two it was all you heard, anywhere you went. It's the last of their big Nineties statements, with Mike D summing it up in the electro-boogie hit "Intergalactic": "I am known to do the wop!" The Beasties stir-fry all kinds of beats in their wok, from old-school hip-hop and head...

Topping the charts upon its release in 1994, Ill Communication found the Beasties out-cooling almost all other alt-rock acts. The New York trio mixed up hooky beat science, hardcore punk and cerebral but brassy rhymes — a sound they had trotted out on 1992's Check Your Head but simply did better here. Jazz-funk instrumentals complement party-ready sure shots like "Get It Together" and the...