Beastie Boys
Related: white music - hip hop - rap - New York music
Profile
The Beastie Boys are a Jewish-American hip hop group from the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The main members are Mike D (real name Michael Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch), and King Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz).
Beastie Boys were the first white rap group of any importance and one of the few acts from the early days of hip hop that still enjoy major success today. Their rock and punk influenced rap has had a significant impact on artists both in and outside the hip hop scene. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie Boys [Apr 2005]
Lee Perry special in Grand Royal Magazine 1995
The Lee Perry renaissance seems to be spearheaded by an unlikely source: the Beastie Boys, whose magazine Grand Royal published an outstanding Scratch retrospective by editor Bob Mack in their 1995 issue. Introducing the words and wisdom of the Upsetter to an entirely new audience who perhaps would have never gotten the tip otherwise, Grand Royal ended up teaching fans old and new a lot about Perry's canon. Editor Bob Mack took an irreverent yet extremely detailed look at the life and times of Lee Perry, and the lengthy article had contributions from a wide variety of sources, including Perry's "ghost writer" and faithful Scratchologist David Katz. Complete with amazing photos, a no nonsense suggested discography, and an interview that must be read to be believed, the Grand Royal article was a goldmine for Perry fans. Even more valuable, however, is the flood of Perry re-releases that followed. --Mick Sleeper, June 1998 via http://www.furious.com/Perfect/leeperry/leeperry5.html [Aug 2006]
The Beastie Boys also published Grand Royal Magazine, with the first edition in 1993 featuring a cover story on Bruce Lee, artwork by George Clinton, and interviews with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and A Tribe Called Quest MC Q-Tip. The 1995 issue of the magazine contained a memorable piece on the "mullet." The Oxford English Dictionary cites this as the first published use of the term, along with the lyrics from the Beasties 1994 song Mullet Head. The OED says that the term was "apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by U.S. hip-hop group the Beastie Boys." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie Boys [Oct 2006]
Licensed to Ill (1986) - Beastie Boys
1. Rhymin & Stealin 2. The New Style 3. She's Crafty 4. Posse In Effect 5. Slow Ride 6. Girls 7. Fight For Your Right 8. No Sleep Till Brooklyn 9. Paul Revere 10. Hold It Now, Hit It 11. Brass Monkey 12. Slow And Low 13. Time To Get Ill
The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover--that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin'--serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ear-splitting mix of rock and rap is an even better joke. And funniest of all is the record itself, which packs dexterous boasts, aural puns, and lots and lots of yelling into a disc that can still be listened to with as much pleasure as it gave in '86. --Rickey Wright for amazon.com [...]