When this Beastie Boys 45 surfaced in 2010 it was quickly rumored to only have a mere 10 copies in existence. This is somewhat true but not completely. Due to the fact that I was the one who actually had this record pressed, I may be able to clear up this little mystery. I went to Kingston Jamaica some years back and while I was there I got 3 seperate records pressed including this Beastie 45. I ordered 100 copies of each. The plates, the labels, and the pressings had to be completed at three different companies and of course would not be ready by the end of my vacation. A dj buddy of mine told me about a taxi driver buddy of his that would run me around the city to take care this record project. By the time I got back to my hotel I had spent $200 in taxi fare when it should have been a lot closer to $20. This guy was a greedy crook. I think he somehow got the impression that I was ballin.(I wish) After I returned home I still needed this taxi guy's help with picking up the records and shipping them back to me but he wanted way too much money.(I didn't know anyone else in Jamaica that could help me.) There were 3 boxes but I was only able to afford to pay this guy to help me with 2 of them. All I needed for him to do was pick them up from the pressing plant and take them to UPS. It cost me $350 to ship 2 of the 3 boxes plus the $100 this taxi guy was charging me.(He wanted more to take all 3 boxes.) From those 2 boxes, there was only 10 copies of the Beastie record. The other 90 were in the 3rd box which was left in Jamaica. Crazy right? I always wanted to tell that taxi guy what he could do with that 3rd box.
Because this was indeed a bootleg, I wanted the label to be blank but the plant would not allow that so right there on the spot I came up with the "Soul Freak" label name and "BB" instead of "Beastie Boys".
Side A, "I'm Down", was a song that was supposed to be on the Licensed To Ill Lp but they could not clear a Beatles sample. Side B, "B-Boys In The Cut", was produced by Dj Organic, a well known producer. The sound quality was less then great and i'm not sure I would ever take this route again.
So there you have it. Mystery solved.
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