One of the hardest things about putting this list together was to select a song by an artist that inherently deserves a place on this list but doesn't have a standout song. Some artists suffered from this so hard, I just left them off (sorry, Whitney). With others, I selected a song that maybe I like better than your average person by way of tie-break. For the Beasties, it was between "Sabotage," "So Whatcha Want" and "Intergalactic" and I chose the latter because I have a special relationship with it.
Upon reflection, this song makes me sentimental for a lot of reasons. The Beasties were past their prime by this time. To the point that when I heard they'd be releasing a new album I kind of wondered why. It seemed like their time had passed and it was time for them just to be happy and rich, semi-retired family men (though I have to laugh at this now because they were much younger than I am now when they released it). And then they came out with Hello Nasty which was a very solid effort. I guess it was hard to imagine that they'd be able to follow Ill Communications up because it was a perfect album for its time. This somehow made the Beasties seem like underdogs and I was rooting for them because that's what I do. "Intergalactic" was the lead single and America was immediately sold.
I'm also still sad about MCA. I think most of us are. The park in Brooklyn dedicated to his memory was not far from Josie's apartment, so I kind of associate Josie and MCA with each other. Also, if you've read the Beastie Boys Book and seen the documentary, you get a sense of how heartbroken the surviving Boys are by his loss, not just as a creative partner, but as a brother. My bandmate and I have been together almost as long as the Beastie Boys have been and hearing their voices break when they talk about losing MCA is a gut punch. Hello Nasty is the last great album they put out. I don't think I even listened to their post-Nasty stuff so to me, this album and the videos they released from it are MCA's swan song. What a way to go out.