Check Your Head

Recorded in 1991, it was Caldato's first album as full co-producer, after he engineered Paul's Boutique and produced its track Ask for Janice. The group had played its own instruments only on its earliest EPs, and after the commercial failure of the sample-heavy Paul's Boutique it did so again, with Mike D on drums, Yauch on bass, Horovitz on guitar and Money Mark on keyboards. The Dutch group Urban Dance Squad was an influence on that decision. Photographer Glen E. Friedman shot the band with their instrument cases, and one of those pictures became the cover. The title reportedly came from a Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. trading card in a Desert Storm set.

The record runs to twenty tracks, from Jimmy James to Namaste, and draws on funk and jazz in songs like Lighten Up and Something's Got to Give. Time for Livin' is a hardcore cover of a 1974 Sly and the Family Stone song. Samples are lighter than before: Jimmy James uses Jimi Hendrix, and Pass the Mic uses James Newton's recording of Choir, the sample at the center of the 2003 case Newton v. Diamond, in which a court held that three notes of the composition were not enough for a claim. The group toured early 1992 with the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill.

Chart and reception

The singles were Pass the Mic, So What'cha Want, Jimmy James, Gratitude and Professor Booty. The album reached number 10 on the Billboard 200 and went 2x Platinum, and So What'cha Want reached number 93 on the Hot 100. Press at the time was mixed. Entertainment Weekly gave it a D and called it sophomoric, the New York Times found it tough to follow but well worth the effort, Select gave it four stars out of five and NME six out of ten. Spin named it fourth best album of 1992 and the Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll placed it fifth.

Later writers were warmer. AllMusic gave it five stars, and Rolling Stone placed it at 261 in 2020. Spin ranked it twelfth among the albums of the 1990s in 1999. Pitchfork's Nate Patrin, reviewing the 2009 reissue, wrote that it was Check Your Head that made sure the Beastie Boys were sticking around.