Extra Cheese
06-06-2004, 02:08 PM
http://usaweekend.com/04_issues/040606/040606beastie_boys.html
The boys are back in town
Long before rap ruled the airwaves, the appealingly obnoxious Beastie Boys put middle-class rebellion into the mix. Now they're ranting about the war in Iraq.
By Steven Chean
If you had predicted the Beastie Boys would become one of the musical benchmarks of their generation, you'd have heard laughter. Way back in 1986, the year a group of white, middle-class suburban New Yorkers released "Licensed to Ill," a surprising hymn to panty raids and nights spent round the beer bong, rock was white America's musical genre of choice. Part of the Beasties' winning shtick was using humor to say something serious. It became the first rap album to top the pop charts.
Horovitz:
"The world ... is so messed up, people don't want to think about it."
Over the next dozen years, fueled by four more critically hailed albums that expanded the hip-hop culture beyond the inner-city experience into the suburban angst of nagging parents and social pressure to conform, the Beasties achieved both mainstream success and credibility with the rap culture. (They were part of hip-hop record powerhouse Def Jam's freshman class.) Testament to their staying power: a new generation of teens who can recite the lyrics to the breakout Beastie hit "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!);" even "American Idol's" Clay Aiken is among celeb fans. Now the Beasties -- Adam ("MCA") Yauch, 39, Adam ("Ad-Rock") Horovitz, 37, and Mike ("Mike D") Diamond, 38 -- are back with their first CD in six years, "To the 5 Boroughs," a politically charged return to old-school hip-hop. Adam Horovitz sat down with USA WEEKEND Magazine to catch us up on the Beasties:
Hip-hop's "an escape from real life"
"The world is in a spiral," Horovitz says. "It's so messed up, people don't want to think about it. They need an escape from real life, and hip-hop's been giving them that -- stuff like 'everybody in the club gettin' tipsy' [from a recent hit by rapper J-Kwon]. Should artists be more conscious about the lyrics they put out in the world? For me, there's gotta be balance. You see in the newspaper that Bush is spending [more than] $100 billion to go to war in Iraq. How could you not say something about that? It's crazy!"
Subterranean political hip-hop blues
"Political hip-hop is in the underground. Groups like [the revolutionary rap duo] Dead Prez -- why won't a group like that break through? Clear Channel runs all the radio stations -- they're happy that kids want to get tipsy. [The San Antonio-based company owns about 10% of the nation's stations.] That's what they want: people to spend as much money as they can, so they don't question what's really going on. 'Wait, we're fighting Iraq in defense of Sept. 11? Huh?' "
Why can't we all just get along?
"I don't think we're saying things that people don't think about all the time. It's not like we're coming up with these crazy, brand-new ideas. We're just saying, 'We need to vote Bush out of office.' Basically, we really need to make America what it could be: a true democracy where people accept one another. I mean, we're not politicians. We're musicians. We make music, and the music we're making comes at a crucial time. We just feel it's important to have fun but at the same time not pretend we don't have a liar in office and the lies just get deeper and deeper and more dangerous."
There's something in the water
"New York is not the home of hip-hop. Hip-hop is international. But what makes New York special is definitely the water. I swear. Look, we got the best bagels, the best pizza, the best hip-hop. It's the fluids that run through our bodies here. [Laughs.]"
You gotta have a good beat
"Every song is different, but the beat is critical to a classic hip-hop track, because it's the thing that gets into your blood -- it gets into your heart. It's the first thing that hits you and maybe the last thing that stays with you. Honestly, I don't know if you can make a great hip-hop track without a great beat."
Juvenile delinquents need heroes, too
"I think we've influenced juvenile delinquents, skaters, vandals -- that type of crowd. Maybe Eminem a little bit -- he understood you can be funny and say something serious at the same time. He has a sense of humor, and he uses that in his lyrics, and he can make fun of himself. I'm not saying we say the same things necessarily, but I think we've always done that pretty well, mixing the serious with the funny."
Go to top
Weekend with ... the Beastie Boys
"On the tour bus," Horovitz says, "we play Scrabble. I'm the best. When we're on tour, I find out where the local Scrabble club is. When I walk in, the average age is, I'd say, about 70. There's a group of maybe four to eight people, and I sit down. They look at me like 'Who's this strange kid?' My favorite club is upstate [New York], but I don't want to give away the name -- I don't want people to start showing up."
The boys are back in town
Long before rap ruled the airwaves, the appealingly obnoxious Beastie Boys put middle-class rebellion into the mix. Now they're ranting about the war in Iraq.
By Steven Chean
If you had predicted the Beastie Boys would become one of the musical benchmarks of their generation, you'd have heard laughter. Way back in 1986, the year a group of white, middle-class suburban New Yorkers released "Licensed to Ill," a surprising hymn to panty raids and nights spent round the beer bong, rock was white America's musical genre of choice. Part of the Beasties' winning shtick was using humor to say something serious. It became the first rap album to top the pop charts.
Horovitz:
"The world ... is so messed up, people don't want to think about it."
Over the next dozen years, fueled by four more critically hailed albums that expanded the hip-hop culture beyond the inner-city experience into the suburban angst of nagging parents and social pressure to conform, the Beasties achieved both mainstream success and credibility with the rap culture. (They were part of hip-hop record powerhouse Def Jam's freshman class.) Testament to their staying power: a new generation of teens who can recite the lyrics to the breakout Beastie hit "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!);" even "American Idol's" Clay Aiken is among celeb fans. Now the Beasties -- Adam ("MCA") Yauch, 39, Adam ("Ad-Rock") Horovitz, 37, and Mike ("Mike D") Diamond, 38 -- are back with their first CD in six years, "To the 5 Boroughs," a politically charged return to old-school hip-hop. Adam Horovitz sat down with USA WEEKEND Magazine to catch us up on the Beasties:
Hip-hop's "an escape from real life"
"The world is in a spiral," Horovitz says. "It's so messed up, people don't want to think about it. They need an escape from real life, and hip-hop's been giving them that -- stuff like 'everybody in the club gettin' tipsy' [from a recent hit by rapper J-Kwon]. Should artists be more conscious about the lyrics they put out in the world? For me, there's gotta be balance. You see in the newspaper that Bush is spending [more than] $100 billion to go to war in Iraq. How could you not say something about that? It's crazy!"
Subterranean political hip-hop blues
"Political hip-hop is in the underground. Groups like [the revolutionary rap duo] Dead Prez -- why won't a group like that break through? Clear Channel runs all the radio stations -- they're happy that kids want to get tipsy. [The San Antonio-based company owns about 10% of the nation's stations.] That's what they want: people to spend as much money as they can, so they don't question what's really going on. 'Wait, we're fighting Iraq in defense of Sept. 11? Huh?' "
Why can't we all just get along?
"I don't think we're saying things that people don't think about all the time. It's not like we're coming up with these crazy, brand-new ideas. We're just saying, 'We need to vote Bush out of office.' Basically, we really need to make America what it could be: a true democracy where people accept one another. I mean, we're not politicians. We're musicians. We make music, and the music we're making comes at a crucial time. We just feel it's important to have fun but at the same time not pretend we don't have a liar in office and the lies just get deeper and deeper and more dangerous."
There's something in the water
"New York is not the home of hip-hop. Hip-hop is international. But what makes New York special is definitely the water. I swear. Look, we got the best bagels, the best pizza, the best hip-hop. It's the fluids that run through our bodies here. [Laughs.]"
You gotta have a good beat
"Every song is different, but the beat is critical to a classic hip-hop track, because it's the thing that gets into your blood -- it gets into your heart. It's the first thing that hits you and maybe the last thing that stays with you. Honestly, I don't know if you can make a great hip-hop track without a great beat."
Juvenile delinquents need heroes, too
"I think we've influenced juvenile delinquents, skaters, vandals -- that type of crowd. Maybe Eminem a little bit -- he understood you can be funny and say something serious at the same time. He has a sense of humor, and he uses that in his lyrics, and he can make fun of himself. I'm not saying we say the same things necessarily, but I think we've always done that pretty well, mixing the serious with the funny."
Go to top
Weekend with ... the Beastie Boys
"On the tour bus," Horovitz says, "we play Scrabble. I'm the best. When we're on tour, I find out where the local Scrabble club is. When I walk in, the average age is, I'd say, about 70. There's a group of maybe four to eight people, and I sit down. They look at me like 'Who's this strange kid?' My favorite club is upstate [New York], but I don't want to give away the name -- I don't want people to start showing up."