I remembered them opening up for Madonna on her ‘Like a Virgin’ tour. People didn’t quite know what to make of them at that time. 3 white boys ‘rapping’ wasn’t something that middle America was ready for, or understood.
Top 5 Beasties songs in no particular order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf1YF_MH1xc&ob=av3e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzRKkXk56iE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf5uJYGoiU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORYO0atB6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE
Feeling old when I see bands that were so important to the 80’s and beyond lose a real talent!
Of course it is hard to think of three funkier bad ass dudes! lol
ACK! Sucks… Beastie Boys f-ing rock and were still rhyming and stealing till this day. So many great albums and they never sold out. Will always have a home on my ipod. CANCER SUCKS
It cracks my 12 year old up when Brass Monkey comes on the radio and I know all of the lyrics. Bonus points if she has a friend in the car so I can sing along and really embarrass her.
RFLMAO - I did this to my kids, learned the lyrics to some Snoop songs and banged 'em out when their friends were in the car. I also threatened to watch the videos and learn the dances so I could bust a move outside the car while I was waiting for them after school. That kept them in line for a while…
Of course it is hard to think of three funkier bad ass dudes! lol
Something you don’t often hear: “Hey, see those three little Jewish kids over there? Those are some funky bad ass dudes!”
I had to come back for a sec to discuss this. The importance of MCA and the rest of the Boys is so incredibly important to my skewed view of music. These guys started at Hip Hop ground zero. In New York the punks and hip hop guys fed off each other. Both groups where made of disenfranchised youths who where to trying to make sense of their world. That is why they are are brilliant and how they stayed above the “white rapper” label. They developed there skills in the same clubs as the black guys and became students of the Boroughs scene what the innovators where doing. Their punk roots with their study of what the evolving greats where doing on the tables and mics led to their unique sound. Hard beats with inspired lyrics and rhyme schemes. Amazing.
Love you MCA.
x2 mr.tibbs MCA’s lyrics are so positive and uplifting if you listen to them…
Cool tribute by coldplay…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LVr4UP9ntLs
Of course it is hard to think of three funkier bad ass dudes! lol
Something you don’t often hear: “Hey, see those three little Jewish kids over there? Those are some funky bad ass dudes!”
Only one other time
Indeed. Sad news and a big loss.
Do yourself a favor. Get the “Paul’s Boutique” CD and listen to it from start to finish. Epic! The pinnacle of hip-hop sampling and styling. It’s so dense a deep with the samples and the lyrics. Every time I listen to it, I find something new.
My fav Beastie Boys track though came from a bit later with “Sure Shot” in '94 from the album “Ill Communication”. Love the jazzy flute sample turned into the main riff for the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqyZeUlE8U&ob=av2n
Thanks, Adam. RIP!
BB did so much for hip hop, and so much for our own generation… The fact that their music transcends to our own kids generation is proof of how groundbreaking and current the music and themes are!
Paul’s Boutique was innovative and raw, but Check Your Head was their pinnacle of success.
A rap friend of mine didn’t understand the Beastie Boys. I told him “listen to a lot of the rappers you like. You’ve admitted yourself that they create a beat for the verse, and a beat for the chorus ((sometimes they don’t even do that) and then they are completely done when it comes to the music behind the lyrics. The Beastie Boys do so much more than that.”
Note: this isn’t meant to disparage some of the better produced rap/hip hop that is also well written.
The thing I appreciated most about the Beastie Boys was how they never took themselves too seriously. It’s especially apparent in their music videos…they all have a very sarcastic feel to them. It probably came from their strong punk background, but I think it have a really interesting character to their music as well…it was as if they weren’t afraid to experiment with the sound and were actually pushing the limits just to push them. At the same time, it was quite a bit different from other artists (like Wil Smith) who weren’t all that ‘serious’ but came off as goofy and a HUGE contrast to every modern rapper with their “I’m the shit” attitude.
Do yourself a favor. Get the “Paul’s Boutique” CD and listen to it from start to finish. Epic! The pinnacle of hip-hop sampling and styling. It’s so dense a deep with the samples and the lyrics. Every time I listen to it, I find something new.
Been doing exactly this while I work today.
I haven’t really listened to it in quite a while and like you said, I’m hearing lots of things I hadn’t noticed before.
I went to a Social Distortion concert in Austin last night. Before they came on, the lights went out and Beastie Boys song came on, cranked to 11, crowd was going nutz.
Social D paying a little tribute.
.
The pinnacle of hip-hop sampling and styling.
I recall reading that this was literally the case, in large part because of legal restrictions placed on uncompensated sampling immediately after the album was released (coincidentally, IIRC, not because of the album but the trend in that direction). Very few artists today could afford the royalties that would be required to produce a work like *Paul’s Boutique. *Certainly not artists only one album deep into their careers.
The Chemical Brothers were brilliant at this, as you know.
Never been much of a Coldplay fan but that tribute wasn’t too bad.
Also, I can’t find it on Youtube (it looks like HBO is getting any videos taken down), but the R&RHoF induction ceremony had a decent Beastie Boys tribute by The Roots, Kid Rock and someone else.