Paul's Boutique

Living in Los Angeles and newly signed to Capitol, the group wanted more depth. The Dust Brothers, John King and Mike Simpson with Matt Dike, had built backing tracks meant for an instrumental album, and the group persuaded them to use the tracks instead. Much of the record was made in Dike's living room. Roughly 105 songs are sampled, and Caldato said about $250,000 went on rights. Yauch said about half the tracks were written on arrival and half together. uDiscover noted that every sample was cleared and that the album could not be made today.

The cover is a photograph of Ludlow Street taken by Jeremy Shatan and credited to Nathaniel Hornblower; a Paul's Boutique sign was hung on an existing shop. A demo from the first session, The Jerry Lewis, was left off. In a 2019 interview with Interview Magazine, Mike D said the record was nothing like Licensed to Ill and blamed weak promotion, since Capitol was focused on a Donny Osmond album. He said the Johnny Ryall character was a homeless man he once gave clothes to, and Ad-Rock said Ask for Janice came from a radio ad for the real shop. Ad-Rock was blunter about What Comes Around, saying it kind of sucks.

Chart and reception

It reached number 14 on the Billboard 200 and 44 in Britain. Rolling Stone's David Handelman called it a poetic tornado of imagery, and Melody Maker called it an outrageously funky triumph. Christgau said it did not jump out the way great rap usually does. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic later wrote that it stands alone as a record of stunning vision, and Rolling Stone placed it at 125 on its list of 500 albums. Nate Patrin gave the 2009 reissue a 10 at Pitchfork, noting that it peaked at only number 24 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and that it stretched Steinski's rapid-fire sound-bite approach across a whole album.