“Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys

Throughout their 31 years as an active musical act, Beastie Boys produced classic songs and iconic music videos. The rap trio collaborated with multiple innovative directors (including Spike Jonze) and spearheaded their own productions that became intrinsically linked to the songs—even if there was no direct visual link between the two. “Intergalactic”, the lead single from the Beastie’s 1998 album Hello Nasty, was directed by Adam Yauch (under his frequent pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér) and features many nods to Kaiju films and tokusatsu TV shows.

A giant robot lands in a city and eventually must square off against a cephalopod-headed Kaiju, armed with claws and a mystical trident. The video conjures images of the classic TV show Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot (aka Giant Robo), while the fighting itself resembles super sentai programs (like Power Rangers). In between these scenes of combat are the Beastie Boys themselves, dressed in Koji uniforms (common outfits for construction workers in Japan) as they spit lines into a fisheye lens while touring locations in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Tokyo.

“Intergalactic” is a great song, a fun video, and fairly emblematic of the Beastie Boys themselves: impressive musical prowess matched by a sense of irreverence and clever visual mash-ups unique to their own sensibilities.