During the summer of 1998 there was an invasion from outer space that could be heard on radios all over the world . . . May 12th, 1998 saw the release of the song “Intergalactic” by US hip-hop band the Beastie Boys from their album Hello Nasty.
The “Intergalactic” video was made in June 1998. It revolves around a giant robot causing destruction by fighting a giant octopus-headed creature in a city while popping, a parody of Japanese Kaiju films (specifically the series finale of Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot).
Various scenes are filmed in the Shibuya and Shinjuku train stations in Tokyo, Japan in which the band wears the bright uniforms of (Koji) Japanese street construction workers.
The video was a regular on Total Request Live and won the award for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. They performed “Three MC’s and One DJ” and “Intergalactic” at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. It was directed by MCA under the pseudonym of Nathanial Hörnblowér.
The song samples the theme music for the 1985 film The Toxic Avenger, as adapted from Rimsky-Korsakov’s arrangement of Mussorgsky‘s A Night on Bald Mountain. The sound effect sample originates from the sound the Resonator makes in the 1986 film From Beyond.
Elements of Les Baxter‘s rendition of Prelude in C# Minor as composed by Rachmaninoff are also used during the verses, and the song also contains elements of the Jazz Crusaders album Powerhouse. Throughout the song, a heavily vocoded voice repeats, “Intergalactic, planetary, planetary, intergalactic; another dimension, another dimension.” The closing “Do it!” is sampled from the 1971 Stovall Sisters song “Hang on in There”. A shout-out to Mario Caldato, the single’s producer, is given in a line from the second verse; “Mario C. likes to keep it clean.”
Recently, the film Star Wars – The Force Awakens makes reference to the Beastie Boys and the album Hello Nasty with the naming of one of the Resistance pilots, Ello Asty. Also, if you look closely, the side of Ello’s helmet reads “Born to Ill” which is another Beastie Boys reference to their first album License to Ill (1986) combined with the pop culture reference to the film Full Metal Jacket (1987) and its iconic poster with the soldier’s helmet graffitied with “Born to Kill” on it.
Listen to more Outer Space Music HERE and see what happens when you get stuck between rock and a dork place.