Songfacts®:

• This song tells the fictional story of how the Beastie Boys met. Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) is running from the law, riding on his horse, when he comes across MCA (Adam Yauch), who asks for some of Ad-Rock's beer and pulls a gun when he refuses. Ad-Rock gets the idea that they should join forces and rob a saloon for cash and more booze. It's at "the spot" where they finally meet Mike D (Michael Diamond). They all rob the place, knock out a piano player and his boy, grab two girlies and a cold beer, and are out. The song helped form an image of the band as quirky and unpredictable.
  
  They came up with the concept after seeing a Western from 1968 called Once Upon A Time In The West, which got them envisioning themselves as hip-hop high plains drifters.
• Paul Revere was a key figure in the American Revolution, known for his midnight ride warning the Americans of the British invasion. He has nothing to do with this song; the name came from a song from the musical Guys And Dolls called "Fugue For Tinhorns" where three guys are picking racehorses to bet on. "I got the horse right here, the name is Paul Revere," one of them sings. Beastie Boys decided to use the same name for the horse Ad-Rock rides in the song.
• According to Ad-Rock in the Beastie Boys Book, Run (Joseph Simmons) and DMC (Darryl McDaniels) from Run-DMC came up with the intro, which is how the song started. Beastie Boys and Run-DMC were on the same label (Def Jam) and got together to work on a song. The Beasties were waiting for them outside a studio in Manhattan when Run came walking down the street saying over and over, "Here's a little story I've got to tell." He and DMC delivered the first four lines, which set the stage for the story. Beastie Boys put the track together with their producer, Rick Rubin, then Ad-Rock worked on the rest of the lyric with Rubin.
• The track is built on an 808 drum machine, which is very common in rap. What's uncommon is that they played the beat backwards and rapped over that.
  
  This was MCA's idea, and it took a little ingenuity to pull off. They programmed a simple drum pattern into the 808 and recorded it with the tape flipped over so it recorded backwards. When they played the tape back flipped the right way, it played the pattern backwards. The result was a very unusual, ear-catching beat that made DJs wonder how it was done.
• This samples "I Like Funky Music" by the '70s/'80s disco-funk group Uncle Louie.
• "Paul Revere" was released as a single in August 1986 a few months after "Hold It Now, Hit It." Both songs got some airplay on the East Coast, which was a big step forward for the band, and were included on their debut album, Licensed To Ill, in November. "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" was released as a single and went bonkers. MTV played the video to death and radio stations all over the country put it in rotation. The group considered it a loony throwaway song when they recorded it, but it ended up being their calling card. The album went to #1 in America and they launched a headlining tour, but like professional wrestlers that become their gimmicks, they started acting more and more like the insolent brats in the song.
  
  They stopped playing it after that tour, but "Paul Revere," a song they liked a lot more, stayed in their setlists for much of their career.
• Despite coming up with the backward loop that's the basis for the beat, MCA isn't credited as a writer on this track, and neither is Mike D. Ad-Rock, Rick Rubin, Run, and DMC are the credited writers.
• Cypress Hill reworked this for their track "Busted In The Hood" from their 2004 album Till Death Do Us Part. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Olivier - Quebec, QC