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Production Credits:
Pass The Mic
Click for Lyrics
First Appearance: Check Your Head LP, 21 April 1992
Written by: Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato
Performed by: Beastie Boys
Production Notes: Engineered by Mario Caldato, produced by Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato. Recorded and mixed at G-Son Studios, Atwater Village, CA. Sequenced at PCP Labs.
Behind the Beats and Lyrics...
Samples:
- "Choir" by James Newton - Axum by James Newton
- "Big Take Over" by Bad Brains - Bad Brains by Bad Brains
- "So What'cha Sayin'?" by EPMD - Unfinished Business by EPMD
- "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" by Dr. John - Gris-Gris by Dr. John
- Ron Carter
References:
- Jimmy Walker - 70's TV show "Good Times" actor who played ladies-man character "J.J. Evans"
- Walt "Clyde" Frazier [1945-] - New York Knick hall-of-famer, nicknamed "Clyde" after well-dressed gangster Clyde Barrow
- "You think we'll ever meet Stevie?" "One of these days, D" is similar to lyrics from "Dreamin'" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: "Hey Flash, do you think we'll ever meet Stevie?" "I hope so"
- Stevie Wonder [1950-] - award-winning singer, composer, producer and instrumentalist
Sample & Reference Breakdown:
- "Dy-no-mite!" sample: trademark phrase spoken by Jimmy Walker
- "So what'cha sayin'?" sample: "So What'cha Sayin'" by EPMD
- "I'm like Clyde and I'm rockin' steady" references Walt "Clyde" Frazier's 1974 autobiographical book Rockin' Steady
Commentary:
Beastie Boys
"One memorable thing about recording this song was the drums. We had heard that [Led Zeppelin drummer] John Bonham had used a really long kick drum on something and thought it would be interesting to put his technique to the test. Taking full advantage of the size of the G-Son live room/basketball court, we wrapped a long piece of cardboard from a refrigerator box around the kick drum and then put a mic at the far end of it. Mike played the beat, and we looped it. The upright bass line was part of a Ron Carter improvisation that Mario had sampled. I played a little terminator fuzz bass line on the end of the song...but the thing I always liked best about this cut was the sample of the intro to the Bad Brains song "I." There's something cool about sampling a hardcore record to make a hip-hop record, especially when that record happens to be the Bad Brains" - Adam Yauch, 1999
Press & Print Media:
"...fuzzadelic bass and great pots-and-pans drum dynamics" - Boston Herald, 1992
"...a putdown of rival rappers" - Newsweek, 1992
"The old school flavored [Pass the Mic] shows and proves that [the Beasties] still have what it takes to make heads nod on the MC'in tip" - The Source, 1992
"[An] old-school-flavored track [that] underscores the group's rhyming skills" - Rolling Stone, 1992
"[Pass the Mic] feature[s] bass from Modern Jazz Quartet and guitar from Bad Brains..." - Alternative Press, July 1994
"[Adam] Yauch laments the current state of the art, decrying rappers whose subject matter seemed limited to material acquisitions, and explains something of the journey he and his band mates are undertaking" - excerpted from Rhyming & Stealing: A History of the Beastie Boys by Angus Batey, 1998
Live:
Performed in 201 known Concerts.
First known Performance:
17-May-1992 : Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
Last known Performance:
12-Jun-2009 : Great Stage Park, Manchester, TN, United States
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