Imagine it's 1997. The Beastie Boys are a decade into their career, prepping their fifth studio album, and hear the robot house debut of a French duo called Daft Punk. What if they had reached out to Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo to produce some beats for their upcoming Hello Nasty? It's the collaboration that never was but could have been, and it would have changed music forever.
Beastie Boys mixing Daft Punk with hip-hop would have been at least a decade ahead of Kanye West sampling "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" on his own "Stronger." It would have been long before collaborations with Pharrell, The Weeknd, and Julian Casablancas.
Of course, this never happened. We're left to wonder what could have been—or, even better, remix it on our own, as Daft Science did. A mashup album between Beastie Boys and Daft Punk started making the rounds on the Internet this week, and for good reason—it's incredible. Even though these Beastie Boys songs and these Daft Punk songs are a bit dated, this sounds like a rap album released in the last two years. It sounds exactly like what The Weeknd is attempting with his new album or what Kanye wanted on Yeezus.
