Punky Funk

PERFORMER: BEASTIE BOYS

ALBUM: CHECK YOUR HEAD

LABEL: CAPITOL

THE BOTTOM LINE: Six years after their debut, rap's original brats look back to the future, with blurred results.

IT SEEMS LIKE CENTURIES SINCE THE Beastie Boys stormed the pop charts with their 1986 album, Licensed to Ill, an appealingly rude debut that fused Animal House antics with a pounding beat borrowed from the black ghetto. No longer the only white kids on the block, the Beasties have since been muscled aside by a host of hip-hoppers, including current media champ Marky Mark. Their response has been to grow up -- sort...

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