To celebrate the deluxe edition reissue of Beastie Boys' 2004 album To The 5 Boroughs, an animated video has been commissioned for It Takes Time To Build.
Track four, side one, twenty two years old and still sounds like it could be a brand new single release.
I was listening to To The 5 Boroughs just last month and it's up there with their best. A response to the 9/11 tragedy, a love letter to New York, a scathing indictment of the US government, it still resonates today. It Takes Time To Build in particular could easily swap out Bush for Trump and remain relevant.
Videos were as much a part of Beastie Boys' world as their music, and Ad Rock, MCA and Mike D always brought their A game. It Takes Time To Build does a good job in it's unavoidable animated format, but I've included the four singles from back in 2004 as a reminder of how each new release was essential viewing.
If you don't like the news then press eject
Baby Davis getting older can't take a rain check
It's time to let'em know what we expect
Stop building SUV's strung out on OPEC
Hold up wait up you know we come correct
You wanna change things up, well hey just get set
It's easier to sit back than stick out your neck
It's easier to break things than build it correct
We've got a president we didn't elect
The Kyoto treaty he decided to neglect
And still the US just wants to flex
Keep doin' that wop we gonna break our necks
It takes a second to wreck it
It takes time to build
You gots to chill
Hate filled people wanna keep us in check
Tearin' down each other is what they expect
If you want love well hey that's a bet
We've got to give before we can get
Waiting like a batter who is on deck
When it's time to wreck shop then shop I'll wreck
So let's calibrate and check our specs
We need a little shift on over towards the left
I don't really know but I suspect
I think it's due time that we inspect
How they get their information and their facts are checked
Another press conference someone's talking out their neck
It takes a second to wreck it
It takes time to build
You gots to chill
So step up to the window and place your bets
Is the US gonna keep breaking necks
Maybe it's time that we impeach Tex
And the military muscle that he wants to flex
By the time Bush is done what will be left
Selling votes like E-pills at the discotheque
Environmental destruction and the national dept
But plenty of dollars left in the fat war chest
What the real deal why you can't connect
Why you hating people that you never met
Didn't your mama teach you to show some respect?
Why not open your mind for a sec?
It takes a second to wreck it
It takes time to build
You gots to chill
I've also got a lot of love for this album. Have long felt it didn't quite get the attention it deserved at the time, what with it being six years after the previous album, during which time there had been a lot of movement and innovation in the hip-hop/rap scene, and there was a sense, among some commentators, that the Beastie Boys time had come and gone. The doubters would subsequently be proven to be wrong.....
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