Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win
by Beastie Boys (featuring Santigold)

Album: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • This reggae-tinged single features Santigold. The New York hip hop/electonica artist was originally nicknamed "Santogold" by a classmate back in the 1980s because of her sister-girl style, and used that as her stage name until she changed the spelling to "Santigold" in 2011.

    Beastie Boys were fans of her first album (Santogold, 2008) and had played some shows with her, so when they came up with the dub-reggae vibe on this track, they asked her to write lyrics and add vocals. She agreed on the condition that her collaborator Switch co-produce, and came up with lyrics about how she's not to be trifled with.
  • This song is part of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, which ended up being the last Beastie Boys album. While they were making it, MCA (Adam Yauch) got a cancer diagnosis. He died in 2012, a year after it was released.
  • The Spike Jonze-directed video with a "screenplay" by Adam Yauch features the Beasties as action figures who with the help of Santigold take on an anti-Beastie militia. It was Jonze who was responsible for the trio's famous clip "Sabotage" clip.
  • This song contains a direct quote from the song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan: "20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Rebecca - Halifax, NS

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