I was 12 years old when someone from my neighborhood introduced the Beastie Boys to me. It was 1989. Yes, I’m 32, shush!

There was this song called “No sleep ‘til Brooklyn” on this compilation album, I think it was called Pure Trax Vol. 2. - actually I have no idea of what the album name was, but it had all these Hip-Hop artist of the time: Tone Loc, Run DMC, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. It was all good.

Mind you, in 1989, a lot was happening in the hip-hop world. Rick Rubin had just left Def Jam. Coldcut were pirating radio airwaves in Britain with Solid Steel, a weekly radio show featuring mixtapes from various artists. DJ Shadow was playing with turntables in his basement (?) And the Beastie Boys were releasing one of the decade-defining albums, produced by electronic gurus, The Dust Brothers.

And at 12, I didn’t like it one bit. At 12, when the same neighbor (who was 4 years my elder) came to my house with Paul’s Boutique, we listened to it and said “I’ll never listen to this again. It’s completely distorted, and has no flow).

At 12, I didn’t know jack shit about music.

So I was 16 when I really enjoyed Paul’s Boutique, when Beastie Boys reiterated with a new album, which sparked to me interest to revisit past demons.

This year, Paul’s Boutique is 20 years old. I still love it, and to top things, Beastie Boys released an online version of Paul’s Boutique.

Enjoy.