“Paul Revere” by Beastie Boys

"Paul Revere" was the third single off Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys' 1986 debut on Def Jam and Columbia, and it's a tall tale told with a straight face: a made-up origin story of how the three of them first crossed paths. The idea came from Run himself. As Ad-Rock tells it, the band were hanging around outside a studio waiting on Run-D.M.C. when Run came tearing down the street hollering nonsense, blurted out an opening line, and announced that this was the song. The Beasties took it from there.

Ad-Rock, Run, D.M.C. and Rick Rubin share the writing credit, and Rubin produced with the band, with Steve Ett engineering. What comes out is hardcore hip-hop at a lazy, lurching crawl, a beat that swaggers like it owns the block and three voices tossing the story back and forth.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.