This is disappointing. There is no defending it.
For me the arguments of it being a different time doesn't fly. I grew up in the 90's, it wasn't ok to say. Not saying that we haven't all made mistakes but there was no grey area here.
As it was already mentioned, if the Dr. Dre Apollo story is true, then they already had their own lesson / experiment on how they shouldn't say it:
https://www.spin.com/1998/09/story-y...eastie-boys/2/
That being said other MC's and artists have said it, two that come to mind off the top of my head is Bob Dylan on 'Hurricane' and Zack de la Rocha on 'I'm Housin' with context and covering being the guise, and maybe that was the Beasties approach was but who knows.
I don't know if it was a bet, maybe they got the go ahead from someone else in the band or what they were thinking. But as a fan who is inspired, motivated and sometimes guided by their art, it sucks. On the other hand I have also learned to stop lionizing artists. They're just people. To err is human and I am in no position to judge anyone or to stand on any moral high ground.
There is a Beastie Boys Facebook group and some person got called out for saying something racist and they responded by saying something along the lines of "Beastie Boys themselves say the N word on Get It Together" I chimed in saying they never did, and now I stand corrected. And that's another reason why it sucks because idiots like that are going to see it as a pass.
Side note on the "PC police, cancel culture" debate. Obviously there is a lot more sensitivity and some could argue an over correction. But we are also just hearing previously silenced people say "fuck off, these things were never ok to say, we just weren't allowed to say anything before" Plus everyone who seems to be complaining of being "cancelled" seems to be doing it from a platform that they're not cancelled from while making tons of money doing so. Making some oppressed people think they're not yelling "Fuck Off" loud enough.