Brass Monkey, that funky Monkey.
When the Beastie Boys dropped “Licensed to Ill” in 1986, chances are they didn’t realize their hard-partying anthem “Brass Monkey” (which pairs a sample from Wild Sugar’s “Bring It Here” with lyrics about countless drinks consumed during a night out) would launch nearly three decades of cocktail curiosity.
The Beastie Boys — as well as other rappers at the time — waxed poetic about drinking 40s (a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor, like Olde English, Colt 45, Mickey’s, St. Ides, etc.). In “Brass Monkey,” the trio rhymes: “You got a dry Martini / thinkin’ you’re cool / I’ll take your place at the bar, smack you off your stool / I’ll down a 40 in a single gulp / And if you got beef, you’ll get beat to a pulp.”
Since the song’s release, many believed a Brass Monkey to be a concoction of orange juice and malt liquor, but Mike “Mike D” Diamond says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Brass Monkey is a mixed cocktail. It just happens to come pre-mixed in a can,” he said in an interview with Studio 360’s Sideshow.
The drink’s actual ingredients? Vodka, orange juice and dark rum.
“It makes me wonder, what percentage of people who heard the song think about the Olde English variation,” Diamond said.