By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

More than 20 years ago, the unavoidable arrival and unequivocal triumph of the Beastie Boys, was proof positive that after centuries of doing the hora, Jews could move from the Bunny Hop to hip-hop with the greatest of ease.

On their first instrumental album, “The Mix-Up” (Capitol), the Beastie Boys, along with pals (and occasional Beastie Boy) Money Mark (a.k.a. Mark Nishita) and Alfred Ortiz, have recorded a dozen tunes that puts the focus on their musicianship, not their rhyming abilities. “The Mix-Up” could best be described as a set of songs that sound like the sort of things the Beastie Boys (or other hip-hop acts) might scour used records stores for to use as samples for their own tracks. It would not be the least bit surprising to hear the 1970s funk of “B For My Name” and “The Electric Worm,” the prog rock of “14th St. Break,” the Latin flair of “Suco De Tangerina” or even the psychedelic “The Cousin of Death” incorporated into one or another of the Beastie’s hip-hop exercises. It will be interesting to see how many of their fans use these instrumentals as the basis for some of their own hip-hop projects.

“Can I Keep This Pen”? (Ipecac), the third album, and first since an unpleasant major-label experience, by Long Island’s all-female feminist hip-hop trio Northern State finds them assuming the mantle as the official Beastie Babes. In fact, Beastie Boy Adrock produced two songs—“Sucka Mofo” and “Oooh Girl”—on the disc. Spero, Hesta Prynn and Sprout expand on the potential of “All City” and show a hard won maturity, addressing politics on “Cowboy Man” and the electro-punk “Cold War,” without ever sacrificing the old school hip hop style that they established in their early days. In the midst of all the provocative rhymes is an impressive, straightforward pop song such as “Away Away,” while that’s lesbian guitar goddess Kaki King you hear playing lap steel on “Fall Apart.”

So Called’s 2005 breakthrough album “The So Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah” is the kind of disc that could easily get lost in the mainstream hip-hop shuffle, but those who know of it can attest to its powers of entertainment and enlightenment. Talk about old school meeting new school—on “Ghettoblaster” (JDub), the second full-length album by So Called (a.k.a. Josh Dolgin), the NYC by way of Canada hip-hopster combines elements of Yiddish theater and fierce beats to come up with one of the most intoxicating creations of the year, exemplified on “Heart Attack Feeling,” “Baleboste” and “(Rock the) Belz,” featuring the legendary folksinger Theodore Bikel. The disc also features the dance-floor ready Louder remix of “Let’s Get Wet,” which puts the K back into Klezmer.

The Beastie Boys play the Riviera Theater, 4746 N. Racine, on Sept. 26.