The Beastie Boys fled their frat-rap past for Los Angeles and emerged with a kaleidoscopic fever dream that bombed commercially but rewrote hip-hop's rulebook. Alongside the Dust Brothers, they stitched together over 100 samples into a psychedelic sonic quilt where Curtis Mayfield collides with the Ramones, funk breaks tumble into Beatles loops, and three Jewish kids from New York craft the genre's most audacious collage.

What initially baffled audiences now stands as an untouchable masterpiece, its sample-clearing costs ensuring nothing like it could exist again.