Everything you thought you knew about the brass monkey was wrong.
Beastie Boys fans were shocked this week when Mike D told WNYC’s Studio 360 that what the band was rapping about in their 1986 hit “Brass Monkey” was not, after all, a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor mixed with orange juice. Instead, he says it was “a cocktail comprised of orange juice, vodka and dark rum, which came premixed in a can.”
So will that change the way fans drink in honor of the Beasties? Probably not. But the brass monkey is far from the only beverage shoutout you’ll find in music. Here are our seven favorites:
‘Gin and juice,’ Snoop Dogg
The 1994 jam brought us the iconic beverage of 1990s hip-hop. Snoop’s chorus — “Rollin’ down the street, smokin’ indo, sippin’ on gin and juice/Laid back (with my mind on my money and my money on my mind)” — became an iconic summer anthem/life philosophy.
And it inspired some famous tributes, including this recent Brian Williams banger.
‘Faygo soda,’ Insane Clown Posse
Forgive yourself if you’ve never heard of this before, because you’re probably not a makeup-loving horror clown. Insane Clown Posse, the Detroit rap group known for its dark carnival themes and devoted fans (known as Juggalos) has a signature drink: Faygo soda.
The cheap soda is affiliated with their hometown, and they’ve been known to throw it at fans or hit each other over the head with bottles of it.
‘Sizzurp,’ Three 6 Mafia
Before the band won an Oscar for its song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from “Hustle & Flow” in 2006, it was singing the praises of “sizzurp.” Sizzurp is described by Rap Genius (the Wikipedia of hip-hop lyrics) as: “a recreational drug made by mixing a medicated, prescription-strength cough syrup, Jolly Ranchers and soda (usually Sprite, but also Mountain Dew).”
The key ingredient in the cough syrup is a combination of sedative and antihistamine to achieve the required buzz. It’s far from the only inebriant Three 6 Mafia sings about in that song, however.
‘Cherry Cola,’ Savage Garden
This infectious ditty that soundtracked many a middle-school dance in the ’90s seethes with the sound of the decade. Its most famous line is the one where Savage Garden’s lead singer quickly belts the words “In the base of my spine, sweet like a chica cherry cola.”
A Savage Garden fan site (yes, those exist) says the word “chica” doesn’t mean anything other than something that sounds cool in that lyric.
The 1996 song, despite popular belief, is not titled “Cherry Cola,” but rather “I Want You.”
‘Cider drink,’ Chumbawamba
“Cider drink,” or, as we call it in the States, “cider,” makes an appearance in the rundown of boozes the lads and lasses of Chumbawamba drank in their 1997 hit “Tubthumping.”
The band were anarchist punks in Britain, so they were probably surprised to see their song become the anthem of drunk frat boys in America.
‘Courvoisier,’ Busta Rhymes
Hip-hop loves name-dropping alcohol brands, and Busta’s “Pass the Courvoisier Part II” from 2002 was just one of many songs to mention the brand of cognac. The genre also gleefully gave free ad time to Hennessy and Cristal — at least until this controversy.
‘Brass monkey,’ Beastie Boys
Who cares what the drink actually is, this song is still as much of a jam today as when it came out in 1986. Fans everywhere pay tribute by mixing up their own versions of orange juice and a 40 in tribute to the band.
The brass monkey Mike D says they were rapping about is actually a premixed version in a can, but that requires stuff you can’t just easily find at the bodega. So we’ll probably stick with the 40s.