15 years ago, Beastie Boys gave a perfect farewell

By late 2010, the plan had changed significantly. In an email update shared with fans, the group explained that, essentially, Part 2 had become what was initially envisioned as Part 1 but with some minor changes. “We just kept working and working on various sequences for part 2, and after a year and a half of spending days on end in the sequencing room trying out every possible combination, it finally became clear that this was the only way to make it work,” they explained. That remained the case when Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was finally released on May 3rd, 2011. This was a major moment for Beastie Boys, as it was their first proper rap album since 2004’s To The 5 Boroughs—their fourth album to reach #1 overall and third consecutive. But that was nearly a decade ago. In 2011, did a trio of rappers in their mid-to-late forties still have it?

However winding the road to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was, it was successfully navigated. Critical reviews were positive, like the one from The A.V. Club, which read in part, “Like the Boys’ curiously underrated last album, 2004’s To The 5 Boroughs, Hot Sauce is rooted in the good-time party-rocking rhymes and dusty grooves of old-school hip-hop, though the group finds ways to expand its sound without deviating from retro fundamentals.” It was a commercial hit, too, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200. It’s tough to call missing the top spot a failure, considering they were up against Adele’s enormous 21, which spent thirteen non-consecutive weeks at #1 in 2011 and was the year’s defining album.

Beastie Boys don’t have a “Rolling In The Deep” here, but the album is solid. The project’s standout song is the first one in the tracklist: “Make Some Noise.” The alternative, synth-based production is memorable, and the fun lyrical gymnastics returned, with Mike D rapping early in the first verse, “Leggo my Eggo while I flex my ego / Sip on Prosecco, dressed up tuxedo / Sipping coffee, playing Keno in the casino / Want a lucky number, ask Mike Dino.” That said, the song itself wasn’t a huge hit, missing the Hot 100 chart (although it peaked near the top of Billboard‘s Alternative Songs rank). The tune’s biggest impact came with its music video. 

Really, it’s more of a short film than a music video. The cast speaks for itself, a list that has a level of star power usually reserved for such esteemed productions as Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, and Danny McBride play the rap trio, and also making appearances, some significant and others passing cameos, are: Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon Adam Scott, Alicia Silverstone, Amy Poehler, Chloë Sevigny, David Cross, Jason Schwartzman, Kirsten Dunst, Laura Dern, Mary Steenburgen, Martin Starr, Maya Rudolph, Orlando Bloom, Rashida Jones, Rainn Wilson, Shannyn Sossamon, Steve Buscemi, Ted Danson, and Will Arnett.

The twenty-five-minute video is dubbed “Fight for Your Right Revisited” and functions as a sequel to the original “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” visual from the Eighties. The morning after the 1986 video took place, Rogen, Wood, and McBride get into some inebriated situations on the streets, eventually culminating in a dance-off against their future selves (played by John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, and Jack Black, to add even more wild names to the already giant list). Things get out of control, ending with everybody peeing on each other, and getting arrested, with the officers played by the actual Beastie Boys. The song is in the video (and there’s a shorter version for fun-haters who want just the music, for some reason), but it’s mostly an extended, incredibly fun comedy sketch.

It was the perfect tribute to the Beastie Boys, heavily nodding to their immeasurable impact and legacy. It showed they still had it with a rock-solid song, and it spotlit the humor that had been there since the beginning. All the celebrities who chose to be involved also added gravitas, imploring the world once again to give the trio the attention they deserved. And the timing of this was both appropriate and bittersweet. Almost exactly a year after Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was released, Yauch succumbed to his cancer, dying at 47 years old on May 4, 2012. Was the project intended to be the group’s parting words? Who knows, but it’s hard to imagine a better goodbye. Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D made one final project and it was awesome. It was recognized as such, too, and their big pop culture moment with “Fight for Your Right Revisited” was a goofy, high-profile reminder of why the world came to love them so much in the first place.