The Beastie Boys have long been heralded as hip hop's first great white hope. But while the group lived up to said label's every expectation by personifying and perfecting frat boy idiocy on their debut Licensed to Ill, they soon after dropped their rowdy beer swilling image in favor of selling themselves on their artistic merit alone.

From the time of Paul's Boutique onward, the Boys took on a completely different life of their own and would ultimately emerge as the most innovative and groundbreaking act of the 1990s. Check Your Head and Ill Communication dizzied listeners with their diverse musical arrangements and seemingly drew just as much influence from the likes of Lee Dorsey and Curtis Mayfield as they did from Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash.

Given the fact that much of the band's post "Fight For your Right" pre "Intergalactic" output lends itself to improvisational free jazz and funk, the emergence of an album like Boogaloo to Beastie Boys should come as little surprise.

Released through the L.A. blues label Scufflin' Records, Boogaloo pays soulful homage to an assortment of Beasties classics. The collaboration and interplay between organ player Reuben Wilson, funky keyboardist Bernie Worrell and other session players pulls through in its ability to put wholly unique twists on the material without straying too far from their source of inspiration. Trey Anastasio eat your heart out.

The record starts out with a salute to "Sabotage" that's as campy and faithful to the 1970s spirit as the original, centered upon Worrell's bass playing and Beals' sax. "Hey Ladies" is the most faithful and readily recognizable of the record's takes, and the trade-off between the organ and the sax during the versus adds a nice touch that allows listeners to follow along with the lyrics in their heads.

While there's plenty worth sinking your teeth into on Boogaloo, not every track resonates when brought into new territory.

Ironically, cuts that would seem ideal for this sort of project, particularly "So What'cha Want," fail to transcend genres and get lost in musical translation. Aside from Wilson's unmistakable organ intro, the song loses its way and offers little semblance of the original.

Others such as "Cooky Puss" and "Egg Raid on Mojo," both early tracks from the Beasties' punk days, prove to be less than ideal targets for a jazz makeover. Moving from hip hop to jazz is one thing, but going from punk to jazz is a whole other story.

Shortcomings aside, Boogaloo to Beastie Boys has its eyes on the prize and its heart in the right place, and it's easy to overlook the occasional bads in favor of the overwhelming good points. Crossing over to different genres can often times prove difficult, but the players here take it on as a welcome task.

Grade: B

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 24 2005.