I'm 25 years old, which means that I was about six weeks old when Licensed to Ill came out in mid-November, 1986.
My brothers listened to the Beastie Boys when I was growing up, which basically meant that I listened to them. It wasn't their favorite music, but they were definitely fans. I didn't really know much, but I know that by the time I was 10 or so, I really loved screaming to "fight for your right" and watching the insane video for "sabotage." I knew that there was something inherently fun about whatever songs they were singing because there were three of them singing over each other, yet somehow alongside each other.
Suffice it to say, I was aware of them. And then Hello Nasty came out in '98. It blew my mind. I don't know if it was because I'd caught up with them a little in age and was now verging on 12 (by this I mean that it had been four years since their previous album which I was far too young to feel any real grasp of what they were talking about or even really understand what they were saying) or if it was because it just appealed to my senses at that point in life, but man...it was awesome. It was the first album that I remember actively liking and not just liking because my brothers were listening to it and I wasn't supposed to be.
Being much younger, I remember liking "Nothin' But a G Thang" (still love it) for the smooth sound that Dre and Snoop embodied and because I was about 8-9 years old and knew that my parents would not be happy if I were listening to it (but I could get away with it easier if it were my brothers' choice). Even so, I only knew a handful of songs from back then and I still can't tell you if they were from Snoop's "Doggystyle" or Dre's "The Chronic." But I can comfortably rip through the track listing from Nasty.
Needless to say, it got me inspired to go back through the older albums and sort of rediscover the older stuff. I am in no way a "been with them since day 1" fan, nor am I someone who saw them in concert, and I even think that a huge fan would look at me and say that I'm not a huge fan.
But I feel like the Beastie Boys somehow taught me something about life.
Never has a song of any kind - let alone rap - had a group like them. The closest thing I can think of as an example to a Beastie-like vocal pattern is a style that pops up periodically from the Bloodhound Gang (namely, the song "Mope," where two guys trade lyrics throughout the verses), but that's a stretch, as two singers is less impressive than three. It's not like they're doing a 3-singer song though. You've heard it; they're just...being together. It's as if no one wrote the lyrics to these songs - they all just know them and take turns and leave off at random points. It sounds like all three are singing every lyric and someone is continually switching off one or two of the microphones at the beginnings and ends of random words. Never did it sound like they were trying to outrhyme, outsmart, overstep, or even outrap each other. When it was a goofy time, they each did goofy to an insane level. When it was time for deep, they cut to the core. When it was time to admit that they're kinda nerdy, they made nerdy cool before Urkel, who made nerdy cool 15 years before it became cool.
None of this is what I set out to write about.
The Beastie Boys make me feel something when I listen to them. Certain songs make me feel something and only certain rappers/musicians have that ability to hit me with something that I didn't expect. Outkast comes to mind with songs like "Da Art of Storytelling (part 1)," and a few others, but aside from them, it's the Beastie Boys. They can do the metaphor-laden hip-hop style and interweave it with references to prolific Japanese baseball players. They seem to have more fun than anyone in the music industry, and if that's not the most important part of it, I don't know what is. They managed to keep it artistic, creative, and fun as hell. No one in rap has done that as consistently as these guys.
So where am I going with all of this?
Logical or not, I felt something when I heard that MCA had died today. I was at lunch, checking Twitter, and I saw someone had tweeted that MCA was dead. I kinda froze for a second. I haven't paid much attention to their recent albums - I've heard a couple of the singles, but that's about it. Like I said, I wouldn't even consider myself a huge fan. But I've still never heard a Beasties song and been turned off by it. I may not have been in the mood to listen to it again promptly thereafter, but I have never heard a song by them and thought "nope, that was no good."
Can you name any musical act who you can say that about? I cannot.
So again, I felt something. I don't really know how to characterize it. I got sad, but I don't know if sad is what I was supposed to feel. It launched me on a different mental path than I was expecting. MCA did a heck of a lot of great things that went far beyond being a fantastic musician (look them up; tons of benefit/charity work, among lots of other things - not least of which was, by all accounts I've read, just being a great f'ing dude), so he's in a different class than a lot of other celebrities and such. But if a celebrity/personality/whatever they are makes you feel something, then can we really discount them?
It's a weird time to confront that thought, largely because I have genuinely not seen, heard, nor read anything that even suggests that Adam Yauch was anything other than an upstanding man, a musical genius, and/or an inspirational figure. If it were up for debate that he made the world a better place, I might have to confront the subject differently, but it's not.
Basically, I'll put that idea on the shelf until a much later date. Because you're not getting an argument about whether or not MCA left the world around him a better place than he entered it.
Also, as pointed out by someone I follow on Twitter (@ErnestWilkins, for the record), this is the first dead celebrity that hasn't been met by desperate jokes from people who are trying to use the situation to gain followers and be "clever." Everyone was and is a fan. It was amazing to see. These comments and thoughts are still rolling in, as evidenced by me waiting a day to write this.
One last thing; there's no way the Beastie Boys go on without him. They can't. They wouldn't. It wouldn't make sense. Other bands/musical groups can replace someone. There's no way they would even think of continuing without him. It's inconceivable.
While I'm not convinced that life is set up in such a way that he can know that I'm wishing him a peaceful rest for eternity, I'm still gonna try. RIP, MCA.
My brothers listened to the Beastie Boys when I was growing up, which basically meant that I listened to them. It wasn't their favorite music, but they were definitely fans. I didn't really know much, but I know that by the time I was 10 or so, I really loved screaming to "fight for your right" and watching the insane video for "sabotage." I knew that there was something inherently fun about whatever songs they were singing because there were three of them singing over each other, yet somehow alongside each other.
Suffice it to say, I was aware of them. And then Hello Nasty came out in '98. It blew my mind. I don't know if it was because I'd caught up with them a little in age and was now verging on 12 (by this I mean that it had been four years since their previous album which I was far too young to feel any real grasp of what they were talking about or even really understand what they were saying) or if it was because it just appealed to my senses at that point in life, but man...it was awesome. It was the first album that I remember actively liking and not just liking because my brothers were listening to it and I wasn't supposed to be.
Being much younger, I remember liking "Nothin' But a G Thang" (still love it) for the smooth sound that Dre and Snoop embodied and because I was about 8-9 years old and knew that my parents would not be happy if I were listening to it (but I could get away with it easier if it were my brothers' choice). Even so, I only knew a handful of songs from back then and I still can't tell you if they were from Snoop's "Doggystyle" or Dre's "The Chronic." But I can comfortably rip through the track listing from Nasty.
Needless to say, it got me inspired to go back through the older albums and sort of rediscover the older stuff. I am in no way a "been with them since day 1" fan, nor am I someone who saw them in concert, and I even think that a huge fan would look at me and say that I'm not a huge fan.
But I feel like the Beastie Boys somehow taught me something about life.
Never has a song of any kind - let alone rap - had a group like them. The closest thing I can think of as an example to a Beastie-like vocal pattern is a style that pops up periodically from the Bloodhound Gang (namely, the song "Mope," where two guys trade lyrics throughout the verses), but that's a stretch, as two singers is less impressive than three. It's not like they're doing a 3-singer song though. You've heard it; they're just...being together. It's as if no one wrote the lyrics to these songs - they all just know them and take turns and leave off at random points. It sounds like all three are singing every lyric and someone is continually switching off one or two of the microphones at the beginnings and ends of random words. Never did it sound like they were trying to outrhyme, outsmart, overstep, or even outrap each other. When it was a goofy time, they each did goofy to an insane level. When it was time for deep, they cut to the core. When it was time to admit that they're kinda nerdy, they made nerdy cool before Urkel, who made nerdy cool 15 years before it became cool.
None of this is what I set out to write about.
The Beastie Boys make me feel something when I listen to them. Certain songs make me feel something and only certain rappers/musicians have that ability to hit me with something that I didn't expect. Outkast comes to mind with songs like "Da Art of Storytelling (part 1)," and a few others, but aside from them, it's the Beastie Boys. They can do the metaphor-laden hip-hop style and interweave it with references to prolific Japanese baseball players. They seem to have more fun than anyone in the music industry, and if that's not the most important part of it, I don't know what is. They managed to keep it artistic, creative, and fun as hell. No one in rap has done that as consistently as these guys.
So where am I going with all of this?
Logical or not, I felt something when I heard that MCA had died today. I was at lunch, checking Twitter, and I saw someone had tweeted that MCA was dead. I kinda froze for a second. I haven't paid much attention to their recent albums - I've heard a couple of the singles, but that's about it. Like I said, I wouldn't even consider myself a huge fan. But I've still never heard a Beasties song and been turned off by it. I may not have been in the mood to listen to it again promptly thereafter, but I have never heard a song by them and thought "nope, that was no good."
Can you name any musical act who you can say that about? I cannot.
So again, I felt something. I don't really know how to characterize it. I got sad, but I don't know if sad is what I was supposed to feel. It launched me on a different mental path than I was expecting. MCA did a heck of a lot of great things that went far beyond being a fantastic musician (look them up; tons of benefit/charity work, among lots of other things - not least of which was, by all accounts I've read, just being a great f'ing dude), so he's in a different class than a lot of other celebrities and such. But if a celebrity/personality/whatever they are makes you feel something, then can we really discount them?
It's a weird time to confront that thought, largely because I have genuinely not seen, heard, nor read anything that even suggests that Adam Yauch was anything other than an upstanding man, a musical genius, and/or an inspirational figure. If it were up for debate that he made the world a better place, I might have to confront the subject differently, but it's not.
Basically, I'll put that idea on the shelf until a much later date. Because you're not getting an argument about whether or not MCA left the world around him a better place than he entered it.
Also, as pointed out by someone I follow on Twitter (@ErnestWilkins, for the record), this is the first dead celebrity that hasn't been met by desperate jokes from people who are trying to use the situation to gain followers and be "clever." Everyone was and is a fan. It was amazing to see. These comments and thoughts are still rolling in, as evidenced by me waiting a day to write this.
One last thing; there's no way the Beastie Boys go on without him. They can't. They wouldn't. It wouldn't make sense. Other bands/musical groups can replace someone. There's no way they would even think of continuing without him. It's inconceivable.
While I'm not convinced that life is set up in such a way that he can know that I'm wishing him a peaceful rest for eternity, I'm still gonna try. RIP, MCA.
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