POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Spirited Beastie Boys Strut to a Sell-Out

However improbable it seemed when the Beastie Boys arrived on the scene in the mid-’80s as the ultimate rap wanna-bes, those three stooges of groove have become one of hip-hop’s hardiest, most innovative and most entertaining acts.

Before a sold-out crowd at the Cal State Dominguez Hills Velodrome on Friday night, the excitable Beasties--MCA, Adrock and Mike D.--strutted and slouched through a high-spirited set that was full of low comedy, heavy attitude, gigantic beats, crafty rhymes and some surprisingly powerful musicianship.

The Beastie Boys were snotty punks before they found success in the ‘80s as bratty rappers, and they opened this show with guitars in hand, generating a few blasts of punk fury. They hit their stride however when they put the instruments down and began to belt out their frenetic, tag-team raps to beats supplied by their talented onstage mix-master, Hurricane.

It’s some measure of the Beasties word-spinning abilities that they can work such diverse references as Kojak, Watergate and the New York Knicks’ John Starks into their raps.

The instruments were put to more impressive use when the three Beasties, augmented by percussion and keyboards, kicked up the deep soul grooves of “Sabrosa” and “Ricky’s Theme”--grooves that owe more to Curtis Mayfield or Isaac Hayes than to rap heroes Run-DMC.

On these loose jams, Adrock proved himself a tasty and inventive guitarist, Mike D. contributed some solidly funky drumming and MCA was a potent force on stand-up and electric bass.

The Beasties’ selection of material served as a kind of hip-hop library, stretching from older tracks like the straight-ahead, turntable-powered “Time to Get Ill,” to the dense sonics of last year’s “Ill Communication” album.

And their ability to dynamically mix and mesh their varied punk, funk and rap inclinations is what keeps the Beasties a riotous hoot in live performances. (The tune that briefly made the band the toast of every frat house, “Fight for Your Right (to Party),” was thankfully absent from this show.)

The Beastie’s songs contain some comically dopey macho posturing and a few throw-away drug references, but their playful material is far from the excesses of gangsta rap that seem to be giving Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) nightmares these days.

Still, this concert ended with the young crowd dancing wildly and singing along with an over-the-top rendition of the Beasties’ revenge manifesto, “Sabotage.” That’s probably not the presidential hopeful’s idea of good clean fun.