The Beasties had parted company with Rick Rubin and Def Jam records, and were being written off in some corners as a bit of a one-hit wonder.
Rather than just repeat their 'bratty frat-rap over rock' approach, the Beasties enlisted the help of sampling and sonic-weaving extraordinaires: the Dust Brothers. A good deal of the music for the album had already been completed by the DBs with the intention of it being released to clubs as an instrumental album. The Beasties convinced them to make it the basis for their album. The Dust Bros suggested that they could strip it back to just the beats, but the Beasties wanted the density of the sound.
There is still a bit of the smartass party rap present but the Beasties do branch out. The interesting production acts as an a bridge to their later more serious work. Apart from the vocals, the rest of the album is almost entirely composed of samples, and is viewed by some as one of the last big 'sample albums' before the copyright laws really started to clamp down (though the claim that the samples were never cleared has been contradicted by one of the album's engineers).
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