2. Beastie BoysPaul’s Boutique
It’s a brilliant album. What’s not to like? It’s universally loved and accepted as an album, as a collection of music.
When you’re a kid you listen to Beastie Boys because you like to sing ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)’ because it’s silly and fun but Paul’s Boutique is sophisticated and mature, as well as being really musical, which I really like about it. And long before I had any awareness of what sampling was, all the different bits that they use I was always curious about what they were. I always knew they were from other songs, because some of them I recognised. But it was super fascinating to me.
I was already in love with New York and the idea of moving to New York. And in my adolescent fantasy I thought: "I’m going to graduate high school, I’m going to move out of the house, I’m going to move straight to New York, and then maybe, one day, I’ll get to meet one of the Beastie Boys."
And now I’ve met all of them! James [Murphy] is really good friends with Ad-Rock and he’d be at the studio with us and I’d go there and be with Adam, and eat pizza with Adam. It was so bizarre because 15-year-old me was losing her mind but I had to be cool. But also it was totally normal because he’s just a normal guy and he’s hanging out with my friend who’s just a normal guy and they’re doing normal stuff.
But no matter how many times I meet them or see them I’ve never stopped being star-struck. I have to stop myself falling apart.
