Songfacts®:

• "Dr. Lee" is the renown reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry who did the vocal on the track and came up with the lyric. Beastie Boys were huge fans of Perry and featured him in the second issue of their magazine, Grand Royal, in 1994. (Yes, the Beastie Boys had a magazine. It lasted six issues, which are now collector's items.) They didn't meet him as part of the magazine feature but Perry did opened for Beastie Boys when they toured Japan in 1996. They wanted desperately to work with him, so they went to great lengths to involve him in a song from their 1998 Hello Nasty album.
  
  With help from their keyboard player, Mark Nishita, the group came up with the track in the style of Perry. It was so Perry-like, they worried he would call them out on it, but he liked it. They only had a few hours with him in the studio, but they made the most of it, recording Perry freestyling and playing various percussion instruments. Perry came up with the lyric where he sings about whispering voices and Mr. Brown. It may not have a coherent theme, but few Beastie Boys songs do.
• Getting Perry into the studio was quite an adventure. As told in the Beastie Boys Book, Perry was in New York City for a show on Halloween, 1997. The plan was for him to record with the Beastie Boys between the soundcheck and the performance, but this being Halloween in NYC, getting Perry from the venue to the studio was a challenge - there were no cabs available. They ended up meeting Perry at his hotel and taking a train to the studio. Mingling among the Halloween revelers, Perry fit right in, as his normal outfit looked like a costume (colorful hair, mirrors on his hat). When they finally got to the studio, Perry was very accommodating and gave them what they needed for the track.