Samples

• "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash from the album With His Hot and Blue Guitar (1957)
• "Breathe" by Pink Floyd from the album Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

References

• "New York, New York" - a song written by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the 1945 musical "On The Town"
• Bronx - a borough of New York City
• Brooklyn - a borough of New York City
• "Buffalo Soldier" - a 1980 reggae song by Bob Marley
• "Broader Than Broadway" - a 1990 reggae song by Barrington Levy; also referenced in "Too Many Rappers"
• Annabelle - a childhood friend of Adam Yauch's

Sample & Reference Breakdown

• "You know the Bronx is up and I'm Brooklyn down" - lyrics are similar to those in the song "New York, New York" ("the Bronx is up and the Battery's down")
• "You're gonna get smacked with my gold finger knuckle" - sung by Adam Horovitz, who used to wear a gold nameplate ring across three fingers; he now wears a gold nameplate ring with his wife's name ("Kathleen") on it
• "Shot a man in Brooklyn" - lyrics are similar to those in a classic blues song called "Train Kept a Rollin" by Tiny Bradshaw ("Shot a man in Reno")
• "Just to watch him die" - a sample from "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash

Press

"...a selection of snippets of New York life loosely bound together by their shared brevity; it forms a sort of final summary of what Paul's Boutique is all about" - paraphrased from Rhyming & Stealing: A History of the Beastie Boys by Angus Batey, 1998

"Originally begun in 1987 at Yauch's Brooklyn apartment, the oldest track on Paul's Boutique is driven by the sonorous kick drum of Horovitz's 808. Despite it's paraphrase of 'New York, New York' and the arresting image of a long-haired hermit constructing explosives in his attic, the song is essentially all setup for an inspired punchline: Johnny Cash's famous quote about shooting a man in Reno, lifted direct from 'Folsom Prison Blues' and transported to Brooklyn" - excerpted from the 33 1/3 Series book Paul's Boutique by Dan LeRoy, 2006