Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir SkratchaLot
I was explaining why I thought Beasties wanted to distance themselves from 311 rather than trying to put a personal value judgment on whether they are good or not. Everyone's experiences vary and I'm sure you'll find some hip hop heads (who were listening to Kool G Rap, Heiro and Ice Cube) also happened to love 311, but I don't think your average hip hop head in the 1990s was giving any notice to 311 and perceived them as cultural leeches.
If you try to look at it from the Beastie's perspective, they came up through old school hip hop ranks. Even as (arguably) one of the most influential groups in hip hop, they had a hard time gaining acceptance from hip hop audiences because they were not black. The culture (especially in the late 80s and 90s) was seen as a black art form and there is a LONG history of white musicians capitalizing off of black music. People were sensitive to that and putting too much emphasis on 3 white guys was seen as taking away from the black artists. So, I think a lot of people wrongfully denied the Beasties the respect they deserved, or never really gave them a chance. Again, I'm not trying to say this applies to every single hip hop fan, I'm just giving you what I perceived to be as the majority view of the hip hop scene.
My theory is that the Beasties, having dealt with a lot hip hoppers not wanting to give them respect, and having gained a lot of respect from their hip hop peers by the mid 90s, did not want to upset the apple cart by being associating with 311 or similar bands.
That's just the vibe I get from the situation though. It could also very well be that Mike just doesn't dig 311's music.
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Oh yeah. I also understood what you were saying. I don't disagree at all as to why Mike said what he said. I guess I had never really thought about it from there point of view before. But your hypothesis makes sense.
I was just surprised since they offered 311 up as a potential co-headliner in (what year was that?) '99... I always just assumed they were friends. 311-Music and 311- Grass Roots were as much a secret language the listener gets to decode as either early 90's Bboys record. To my ears, back then. at least.