"Sabotage": The Furious Anthem Born Out of a Producer’s Outburst

I’m not going to lie, today’s song might hurt a little. That’s because this killer track is like a Kick in the teeth. It’s as hard as nails, and so ferocious you have to crank it up whenever you hear it… and then crank it up some more. SABOTAGE but the Beastie Boys...But this high-octane assault on the ears almost didn’t make it. It sat on the shelf for a year. The band couldn’t think of any lyrics. Turns out, The B-Boys were a little distracted. Their studio had a skate ramp and a basketball court and they were always messing around. Finally, two weeks before their deadline, their producer got so frustrated he YELLED AT them to finish just one song. So in a moment of smart-ass inspiration, Ad Rock spit out a verse about how this producer was stifling their creativity by making them work. Turns out, that was all the Beastie Boys needed to turn what was supposed to be an instrumental track into the iconic hit Sabotage from their classic album Ill Communication. Plus there’s the hilarious music video to talk about as well. That’s a whole other story. We’re gonna break it all down for you with Ad Rock, MCA and Mike D… NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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