Beastie Boys
To put the following in context, I remember reading an issue of MAXIMUMROCKNROLL in the early 1980s in which many letter writers emphasized that the Beastie Boys could not be hardcore because they were Sexist and that was Not Allowed according to the stringent rules of hardcore. Needless to say, they survived.
Incidentally, "Girls" is not one of my favorite songs from the Beastie Boys, to say the least. The Beastie Boys are kind of like Madonna - starting off OK, then really blowing your mind with their later efforts.
Again, from amg:
Diamond and Yauch formed the Beastie Boys...in 1981....The following year...the band met Horovitz....By early 1984...they had abandoned punk and turned their attention to rap.
In 1984, the Beasties joined forces with producer Rick Rubin, a heavy metal and hip-hop fan who had recently founded Def Jam Records with fellow New York University student Russell Simmons. Def Jam officially signed the Beastie Boys in 1985, and that year they had a hit single from the soundtrack to Krush Groove with "She's on It," a rap track that sampled AC/DC's "Back in Black" and suggested the approach of the group's forthcoming debut album. The Beasties received their first significant national exposure later in 1985, when they opened for Madonna on her Virgin Tour. The trio taunted the audience with profanity and were generally poorly received. One other major tour, as the openers for Run-D.M.C.'s ill-fated Raisin' Hell trek, followed before Licensed to Ill was released late in 1986. An amalgam of street beats, metal riffs, b-boy jokes, and satire, Licensed to Ill was interpreted as a mindless, obnoxious party record by many critics and conservative action groups, but that didn't stop the album from becoming the fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records' history, moving over 750,000 copies in its first six weeks. Much of that success was due to the single "Fight for Your Right (To Party)," which became a massive crossover success. In fact, Licensed to Ill became the biggest-selling rap album of the '80s, which generated much criticism from certain hip-hop fans who believed that the Beasties were merely cultural pirates. On the other side of the coin, the group was being attacked from the right, who claimed their lyrics were violent and sexist and that their concerts — which featured female audience members dancing in go-go cages and a giant inflatable penis, similar to what the Stones used in their mid-'70s concerts — caused even more outrage....
While much of the Beasties' exaggeratedly obnoxious behavior started out as a joke, it became a self-parody by the end of 1987, so it wasn't a surprise that the group decided to revamp their sound and image during the next two years....While in California, they met the production team the Dust Brothers, and they convinced the duo to use their prospective debut album as the basis for the Beasties' second album, Paul's Boutique. Densely layered with interweaving samples and pop culture references, the retro-funk-psychedelia of Paul's Boutique was entirely different than Licensed to Ill, and many observers weren't quite sure what to make of it....
Despite its poor commercial performance, Paul's Boutique gained a cult following, and its cut-and-paste sample techniques would later be hailed as visionary, especially after the Dust Brothers altered the approach for Beck's acclaimed 1996 album, Odelay....Alternating between old-school hip-hop, raw amateurish funk, and hardcore punk, Check Your Head was a less accomplished than Paul's Boutique, yet it was just as diverse. Furthermore, the burgeoning cult around the Beasties made the album a surprise Top 10 hit upon its spring 1992 release. "Jimmy James," "Pass the Mic," and "So Whatcha Want" were bigger hits on college and alternative rock radio than they were on rap radio, and the group suddenly became hip again....Essentially an extension of Check Your Head, [Ill Communication] debuted at number one upon its release, and the singles "Sabotage" and "Sure Shot" helped send it to double-platinum status....
Little snippets from icebergradio.com:
Horovitz, it transpired, was the son of dramatist Israel Horovitz, indicating that far from being the spawn of inner-city dystopia, the Beasties all came from privileged middle-class backgrounds....
Their debut album revealed a collision of bad attitudes, spearheaded by the raucous single "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)", and samples of everything from Led Zeppelin to the theme to Mister Ed. There was nothing self-conscious or sophisticated about the lyrics, Diamond and Yauch reeling off complaints about their parents confiscating their pornography or telling them to turn down the stereo. Somehow, however, it became an anthem for pseudo-rebellious youth everywhere, reaching US number 7 in December 1986, and UK number 11 in February 1987....
By the time follow-up singles "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (number 14, May 1987) and "She's On It" (number 10, July 1987) charted in the UK, the Beastie Boys had become a media cause celebre....
By the time they reassembled on Capitol Records in 1989, the public, for the most part, had forgotten about them. Rap's ante had been significantly raised by the arrival of Public Enemy and NWA, yet Paul's Boutique remains one of the genre's most overlooked pieces, a complex reflection of pop culture that is infinitely more subtle than their debut....
The Beastie Boys' 1994 album Ill Communication was another successful voyage into inspired Beastie thuggism....The long-awaited Hello Nasty (a title inspired by their agent's telephone greeting), their first full studio album in four years, was a return to a more sparse, hip-hop-dominated sound after the funky feel of Ill Communication. The album debuted at US number 1 in August 1998, staying at the top for three weeks. It also became their first UK chart-topper....
The Beastie Boys returned after a six-year recording sabbatical with 2004"s To The 5 Boroughs. The album demonstrated the trio's enduring critical and commercial standing, receiving good reviews and debuting at the top of the US charts at the end of June....
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