Though we’ve heard impressive isolated vocal tracks before, our recent discovery of audio from an old Britney Spears concert succinctly demonstrated how honing in on a singer’s voice isn’t always pretty. Thankfully, these isolated verses from Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” have surfaced to erase any auditory damage from that other, um, “performance”.
Stripping away the Toxic Avenger-sampling beat leaves the trio’s tricky lyricism to remind us just how crafty the Beasties are. With the vocodered hook left intact, the boys’ barrage of rhymes stun like a Vulcan nerve pinch. And though Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA may not display the high velocity flows of Big Boi and André 3000, it’s still plenty clear how this track earned the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. Check it out below. Pay special attention to that bit of silence when the beat completely drops, followed by Ad-Rock’s killer lumberjack verse.
