I completely disagree with this statement. The Beastie Boys have reinvented their sound several times throughout their career.

Yeah thats absolutely true,

It was an exaggeration
I mean how they rap, at least for the last couple decades, has been the same. I'm not really counting it as a negative thing, I felt like that song sounded as good as their other material.

A decent beat and a cool hook which the beasties are usually very good at.

I agree that it didn't have much of a hook but I liked the song and thought the beat was great.

I'm enjoying this album, I think it's really solid and definitely better than anything on To the 5 Boroughs (which admittedly I didn't to much) and The Mix-Up (the instrumental one - which I liked but doesn't compare to a lot of other instrumental hip-hop). I inadvertently downloaded the clean version though, so I re-downloaded the explicit and will have to switch out my files before my next listen. The good thing is that I couldn't tell it was the clean one - there's no obvious bleeping or missing words or anything. I'm curious how much cussing is on the explicit version.

I actually enjoyed To the 5 boroughs. It wasn't a classic like Pauls Boutique or Check your head but it was great party music and background. The new album has some gems. The single isn't outstanding but its better then the majority of crap on the radio. I'm a big Beasties fan so i'll continue to devour what they're selling. Not many better live acts either. To go from funk/jazz to rock/punk, and then throw in some flavor with their visionary hip hop it doesn't come much better.

Listening to the album, I couldn't believe they passed up making the new reactionaries version of "Too Many Rappers" the lead single. The synth loop was catchy as %&*$.

If Hot Sauce Part 2 was released in the 90's, it would clearly be inferior to Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty. I think the fact the To the 5 Boroughs was a disappointment (not that it is a bad record, but it's pretty boring by Beastie Boys standards) helps to eliminate that gap. If I had to rank them, this is what it would look like....

1. Check Your Head
2. Paul's Boutique
3. Hello Nasty
4a. Ill Communication
4b. Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
5. To the 5 Boroughs/Licensed to Ill
6. The Mix Up