Latest / DISGRACELAND / Beastie Boys: How They Inspired A Crime Wave, Caused New Laws To Be Written, and Influenced Culture

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Beastie Boys: How They Inspired A Crime Wave, Caused New Laws To Be Written, and Influenced Culture · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: story about three bad brothers you know so well. It
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: started way back in history with Ad Rock, MCA and Me,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Jake B I Mean and Mike d. This is a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: story about a crime wave and arrest, a lot of arrests.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's a story about three friends who became one of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the most influential groups of all time. And this is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a story about Beastie Boys, a group that made great music,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: music influenced by great music, and of course music that
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: influenced other great music. And that music. I played a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: few at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called snake
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Foot Rat Jam MK one. I played you that loop
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to Amanda by Boston.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Rockman Headphone Cheese. Could I afford it? Because that was
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the number one song in America On November fifteenth, nineteen
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: eighty six, and that was the day Beastie Boys released
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: their album Licensed to Ill, an album that would not
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: only bring unimagined success to the Beasties, but an album
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that would almost also destroy them. On this episode, how
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the Three Bad Brothers avoided self destruction, a crime wave
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and arrest other arrests, a wide array of incredible influence
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: in the Beastie Boys. I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgraceland.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: You really don't understand, dudes, hey man, that you realize
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: all of us to make this thing work, man, we've
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: got to get rid of questions of the pros.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It's all over again. New York City is one of
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the most influential cities in the world art, dance, film, food.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: New York's cultural impact has always been significant, and its
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: influence as a music mecca spans back to the beginning
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, most notably for My Taste Anyway,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: back from the dawn of hip hop and punk in
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the seventies all the way to the jazz of the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and thirties. During that time, the Harlem Renaissance
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: gave the world Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: artists who migrated to a city that made them and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: then exported them back to the rest of the world
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: as stars. But by the nineteen seventies there wasn't much
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: being exported out of Harlem besides heroin, and the drug's influence,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: like jazz in the twenties and thirties, could be felt
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: throughout the rest of America. Back in Harlem, heroin was
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: big business, with manufacturing centers spread throughout the city at large.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: New York City heroin, whether it was China White from
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Southeast Asia or Blue Magic from Harlem gangster Frank Lucas,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: required cutting or dilution from its original pure state, in
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: part so that it didn't kill the customer, but also
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: so the dealer could retain more of the profit. Heroin
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: can be cut with many different ingredients quinine, caffeine, even strychnine.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: That's right, rat poison. If you're booting up the brown
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: boys and girls, you're likely injecting yourself with low levels
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of rat poison. Heroin is also sometimes cut with another
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: drug called manitol, a substance band on the street, in
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: part because though it was developed to treat various ailments,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: by the late nineteen seventies, manitol was mostly used to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: cut heroin, which is exactly what it was being used
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for in nineteen seventy six at one seventy one Avenue,
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  Speaker 1: A in New York's East Village, twenty four hundred pounds
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: of manitol or mannite as it was called on the street,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: was seized from the owner of the abandoned, burnt out
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: six story building. The street value of the illegal cutting
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: agent was estimated to be half a million dollars, likely
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: mo more than the value of the building. They found
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the stash in one seventy one Avenue A. The building
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: survived that mini scandal, and by nineteen eighty one it
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: had become an unofficial clubhouse for the burgeoning New York
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: hardcore scene, a group of disaffected Lower East Side punk
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: kids influenced more by the rage of Black Flag than
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the outlandish put on of the sex pistols. We're using
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the building, now commonly referred to as one seventy one
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a to put on shows, record demos, and just to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: hang out. Soon, a record store, the Rat Cage, opened
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in the basement inside one seventy one. A youthful optimism
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: in punk entrepreneurialism thrived. Records by the Exploited, the Business
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Discharge and others were imported from the UK and sold
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: at the Ratcage. A demo by Washington, DC's Mighty bad Brains.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: The infamous Roar demo was recorded upstairs in the makeshift studio,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and shows were happening weekly, attracting hordes of punk obsessed,
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  Speaker 1: short haired, trench coat wearing Doc Martin booted street hoods
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: from all over the city, even from the Upper East
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Side and as far afield as Brooklyn. Inside the doors
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: of one seventy one A, you could feel the headiness
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of a new style of music in a new scene
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: being alchemized. Hardcore, aggressive music blasted kids obsessed over seven
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: inch singles and cassettes. Some geeked out on subversion by
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: going straight edge, others burnt brain cells on gorilla biscuits
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and brass monkey. The youthful positive energy was infectious, and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this was a new kind of punk, just as important
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: as what came from London a few years prior, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: twice as dangerous, but not nearly as scary as the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: hardcore reality that was happening outside the doors of one
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  Speaker 1: seventy one A where New York City's Lower East Side
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and nineteen eighty one was sometimes as violent a war
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: zone as the Southeast Asian origins of the China White
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that was plaguing New York streets. The door wouldn't stay
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: shut and it needed to. If the punk rocker on
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the other side of that door pushed its way into
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: one seventy one A, then the Puerto Rican street gang
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that was trying to kill him would also make its
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: way into the club. Then this bad brain show wouldn't
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: be the joyous hardcore event it was meant to be. Instead,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: blood clot would progress to a literal blood bath. Then
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the couple dozen kids inside who were losing their shit
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to the blast fury of the greatest hardcore band of
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the planet would surely be massacred. Seventeen year old Adam Yauk,
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  Speaker 1: bass player for the four piece hardcore band Beastie Boys,
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  Speaker 1: a band who'd just been kicked out of the one
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: seventy one A studio after spending too many days tracking
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: their polywog stew Ep, was using every muscle in his
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: body to press the door shut. Others were behind him helping,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: pressing their weight into the door, which remained open a crack,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: refusing to shut due to the manic fury of the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: punk rocker on the other side trying to muscle his
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: way into one seventy one A and the Puerto ricans
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: meant business. The punk was a dead man if he
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: didn't get in. He did get in, passed Adam Yelk,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: but not before getting stabbed in the shoulder by one
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of the gang members. In the end, the gang was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: shut out, and that punk rocker who escaped into one
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: seventy one A was John Joseph, Friend and Roady to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the Bad Brains and later the frontman for one of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the most influential New York hardcore bands of all time,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the Cromax, who, like The Beastie Boys and like other
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: hardcore pioneers Agnostic Front and war Zone, would become mainstays
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: at one seventy one A. To understand the Beastie Boys
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: side note, it's Beastie Boys, not the Beastie Boys. I'm
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: fully aware, But even though that's how the beastis, Adam
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Yeuk's surviving bandmates Michael Diamond and Adam Harrovitz say it,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I just can't do it. Maybe it's because I'm a
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: suburban kid who didn't get into the Beasts until they
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: hit MTV after completely shedding their hardcore roots. For whatever
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the hell genre you want to call a fight for
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: your right to party us, I can't do it, so
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: sue me. It's the But back to our story. To
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: understand the Beastie Boys, you have to understand hardcore, it's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: where they came from. And you have to understand New
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: York City because well, duh. You also have to understand
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: hip hop or rap as it was almost exclusively referred
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to back then during the days of Grandmaster Flash and
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the Furious Five, the Funky Four plus one More and
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: so many others, And to the extent that it's possible,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you have to understand any in all music released between
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the years nineteen sixty seven and nineteen eighty seven, Alphonse Mouzon,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Os Mutantes, Public Image Limited Africa, Bambada, Malcolm McLaren, and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: so many others. The Beastie Boys were simultaneously captivated by
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: two genres of music that were being invented right there
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in that moment in New York, hardcore and hip hop,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: and they were fully aware of and captivated by the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: music that was influencing those genres, particularly the sounds influencing
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  Speaker 1: hip hop, all of the coolers and cool music that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: was present on every radio in the city, pumping out
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of every downtown club and filling every record Store, Spoony
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: g Butthole Surfers, Chic, Blondie Run, DMC, Napalm Death, Curtis Blow,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Tana Gardner, Tom Tom Club, Black Flag, Nico, even Tito Plente.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: To put it simply, to understand the Beastie Boys, you
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: have to understand the concept of influence. Real influence, as
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: in the art that influences us, not some above average
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: looking twenty something in front of a camera beneath the
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  Speaker 1: ring light on your Instagram page. Real influence, because that's
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: what's at the heart of the Beastie Boys. Influence, the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: influence of the music they loved, the influence of the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: city they grew up in, and the influence each member
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: of the band, each a great friend to one another,
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  Speaker 1: had on each other. You also have to understand the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: influence the Beastie Boys, a band that, by nineteen eighty
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: seven had grown from the crime and grime of the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: hardcore subgenre into a chart topping cultural phenomenon. You have
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: to understand the influence the Beastie Boys had on mainstream culture.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Influence that resulted in the makeup of huge parts of
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: our record collections. Influence that resulted in new laws being written,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Influence that resulted in clandestine espionage and beatdowns in riots,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: influence that even resulted in a crime wave. I didn't
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: grow up in Manhattan in the seventies and eighties, which,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, would have been the best time anyone
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: could grow up in Manhattan. But I'm happy that I didn't.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would have had the discipline or
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: parenting required at such a young age to survive. The
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Beastie Boys, though they're a different story. Adam Yelch, Michael Diamond,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and the Beasti's two other original members Kate Schellenbach on drums,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: who would eventually depart and years later go on to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: form the excellent group Luscius Jackson and John Barry, an
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: early friend whose departure would make way for Adam Horovitz
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: to join the group, cementing the classic Beasties lineup of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the ad Rock, Mike d and MCA. All of these
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: kids were raised inside a cultural hothouse in which every day,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the most incredible music on the planet was not only
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: available to purchase in record stores all over the city,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: but also available to witness and experience in clubs throughout Manhattan.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: The aforementioned one p seventy one, a where hardcore was
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: basically invented, Dance Atteryria, where Madonna, Basquiat, Shade, and Debbie
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Mazar performed, worked, and partied Max's, Kansas City, the Warhol Haunt,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: where the Beasties played one of their first shows, opening
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: for the Bad Brains, which was actually the last show
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: ever at Max's. All of this incredible exposure forged the Beasties.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: You can hear the early nineteen eighties New York City
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and the absolute coolness of the Beasties orbit all over
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: their records, from early hardcore to the rap rock of
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: their smash DEBUTLP, Licensed to Ill, to Paul's boutique, Check
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: your Head, and throughout the rest of their storied catalog.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Your Mama, Mom, My parents didn't raise me in New
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: York City in the seventies and eighties, like most of you.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I wasn't exposed to the root level musical coolness that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the three eventual members of the Beastie Boys were exposed
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to at such a young age. But what I did
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: have was a father with an insane record collection. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: my old man wasn't raised in New York City either,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: But you wouldn't know that by cruising through his records,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and by the time I started reading interviews with the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Beasties in which they listed their influences, I didn't need
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to go to the record store and spend money to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: check out those records that were influencing one of my
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: favorite bands. No, I just needed to go to my
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: dad's on the weekend, be careful not to annoy his girlfriend,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and I was free to sit in his music room
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: with a new stack of ninety minute Max l XL
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: two cassette tapes and record whatever the hell I wanted. Oh,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the Beastie boys are into this New Orleans funk band
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: called the Meters. Let me check the M section of
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: my dad's records. Yep, there's the Meter's self titled debut.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Holy shit, this is where the BC's got that instrumental
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: vibe from Check your Head. I'm gonna tape this and yeah,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: that get funky sample from Paul's boutique is James Brown.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So let's go to the B section. Holy shit, there's
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of James Brown records here, but what
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: are these JB's albums. I'm gonna tape this doing It
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to Death record because I like the cover and I
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: have the whole other side of my new meters maxel
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to fill. Now, where are those sign in the family
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Stone Records? Because my buddy Stacks was telling me that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: that's where the shadrack sample comes from. Wait, my dad
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: has a Slayer album that guitar player is all over
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: licensed to Hill. Everyone knows that my dad took me
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to c Slayer last year at the Orphume, But I
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: still don't have a copy of Rain and Blood. So
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna tape this too. Influence. So much of my
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: record collection is influenced by the Beastie Boys, And as
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I mentioned before, once the Beasties hit, they began to
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: influence culture in ways even they never could have imagined.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: It was a classic crime wave, A who done it
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: as compelling as the mutilated bodies they found out on
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the moors during the past century, or those mysterious crop
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: circles out in Hampshire, or the cows the Bexley farming
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: community reported disembowled with surgical like precision and drained of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: all their blood. The newspapers suspected Satanists, but the locals
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: had more supernatural suspicions. The crime wave that was currently
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: capturing London's collective imagination involved a rash of mysterious robberies,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the theft of a specific item, an item that confound
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: local authorities. The front grille badge of local Volkswagen owners,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the iconic VW logo big round and metallic, the low
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: rent version of the iconic Mercedes and Cadillac hood ornaments.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Volkswagen didn't even mount their hoods with their logo. They
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: placed it in the grill on the front of the car.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: It was cheaper, I guess, which was kind of the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: point of a Volkswagen. It was cheaper, But why were
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Volkswagen hood badges being stolen off of cars throughout London
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and beyond. During the summer of nineteen eighty seven, the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: newspapers and nightly news programs became obsessed with this mystery.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Even Volkswagen the company wanted answers. For those answers, one
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: needed look no further than the pop charts, where three
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: young hardcore kids from America who'd recently become obsessed with rap,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: had a top ten album in the UK with License
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to Ill, propelled by the single you Got A Fight
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: for Your Right to Party, which had taken over the airwaves.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: The video for Fight for Your Right was being played
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: everywhere NonStop, and in that video, Mike d took the piss,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: as they say, across the pond out of those super
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: serious rappers with their luxury brand hood ornaments hanging from
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: their necks. Mike opted for a more sensible, affordable necklace.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: He jammed Ocano sporting the Volkswagen logo as a joke,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and that act inspired, yes, a literal London crime wave.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: The News reported the mysteriously missing VW badges as a
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: quote unquote epidemic. The BBC reported that two hundred and
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: fifty Volkswagen customers were requesting replacement badges daily. But once
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: it was discovered that it was the Beasties and their
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Fight for Your Right video that inspired the mass transgression,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Volkswagen got in on the action. The company launched an
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: ad campaign with the tagline designer labels always get ripped off.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Never let it be said that we are averse to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: youth cults, The company joked, It went on, after all,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: who brought you the Beatles b ee t l ees.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: No sooner did the crime wave quell than the Beasties
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: were caught up in another UK controversy. This one had
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: much more potentially dire consequences. Adam Horovitz had no idea
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: how long he was going to be in jail. He
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: was arrested in London and jailed back in Liverpool for
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: allegedly assaulting a concert goer. Specifically, he was being accused
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of whipping a full beer can into the crowd from
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the stage of one of their shows. The beer can
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: unfortunately hit a young girl in the face. Since the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Beasties had arrived in the UK to promote license to ill,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the tabloids had seized on this riotous band of American hooligans,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the likes of which they hadn't seen since the Sex Pistols.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Every single day the English tabloids printed libelous headlines about
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the Beastie boys hooligan behavior. In return, English fans were
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: determined to show the Beasties what real hooliganism was all about.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Their shows became unruly and in Liverpool the shit, as
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they say in America, hit the fan. For whatever reason,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: youthful stupidity misplaced punk rock anger. When MCA took the stage,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: he screamed fuck you Liverpool into the mic. Immediately, the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: vibe shifted from eager Rock and Roll Live Show anticipation
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: to who the fuck does this wanker think he is?
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: And shit was on. Beer cans rocketed from the dance
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: floor onto the stage. Booze rang out from the audience.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: More beer cans rained down from the fans in the balcony.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: MCA freaked and called for the house lights to be
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: turned on the Go Go Dancer inside the giant Go
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Go Dancer cage on stage. Coward, that's right on this tour.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: The Beasties were rocking it giant Go Go cage flanked
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: by two massive bud Tallboy cans as stage props. The
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Beasties DJ DJ Hurricane, who is standing on a different riser,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: took a flying beer can to the head. Security rushed
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the stage to protect the Beasties and to get them
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to safety. Then ad Rock re emerged from stage left
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: with a baseball bat in his hand. The crowd calmed
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: for a moment until Adrock dug in and stood his
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: ground like a defiant Lenny Diister at the plate under
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the lights at Shay. The angry crowd obliged the young punk,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: launching more full beer cans. Ad Rock hung in there,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: swatting as many cans as he could with the baseball bat,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: sending them back into the crowd. Security re emerged and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: pulled a Rock off stage, and the crowd had won.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: A chant of we Caned the Beasties rang out as
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: a triumphant fight song gang vocal. The Beasts high tailed
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: it back to London. They their wake. The crowd was left
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to riot amongst itself, brawling on the dance floor with
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Roman gladiator fury for no reason at all other than
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: there was nowhere to place the anger that the Beasties
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: had inspired. The cops were called in, teargas was dispensed,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: many were injured, and the riot was eventually quelled before
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the night ended. Back in London, Adam Harrovitz aka the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: King ad Rock, would be cuffed in his hotel room,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: driven back to Liverpool, fingerprinted, and jailed for four days
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to await his court appearance. This would result in a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: trial at a later date, for which his semi famous father,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the playwright Israel Harrovitz, would provide a celebrity lawyer to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: get his son acquitted of the assault charge, an allegation
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: which he still denies to this day. The larger point
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: in the aftermath of this event, and, more broadly speaking,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: in the aftermath of a full year of touring to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: support the post hardcore version of the Beastie Boys, the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: grub and produced version of the Beastie Boys, the riotous
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: pro wrestling caricature version of the Beastie Boys, a group
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: that toured in support of Madonna, Yes Madonna, while managing
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: to offend twelve and thirteen year old girls on a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: nightly basis, and to tour with their heroes and def
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Jam Records label Mats Run DMC and to hit the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: road on a headlining tour and supported the first number
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: one rap record in history, a tour that included not
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: only go go dancers and cages flanked by giant bud tallboys,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: but eventually featured a giant twenty foot inflatable penis complete
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: with a pulsing vein. To add that Warhol influenced dose
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of realism behind a band spitting nursery rhymes meant as satire,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: but that played as juvenile misogyny. Girls to do the dishes, girls,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to do the laundry, girls, to clean up my room.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: The larger point was what the hell happened to the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Beastie Boys. Giant penis the Fight for Your Right to
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Party video in which the Beasties gleefully trashed a friend's apartment,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: all the Moe, Larry and curlying through MTV interviews, the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Archie bunkering their way through a Village Voice interview in
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: which ad Rock claimed he hated quote unquote faggots and
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: MCA clumsily trying to clean up his bandmates to quote
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: with even more homophobic comments. The Beasties had fully become
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the assholes they meant to lampoon on License to Ill.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: How did this happen? The Beasties were hardcore kids from
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a scene that promoted feminism, a quality in an updated
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: version of the liberal ideas their Upper East Side parents championed.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Now the Beastie Boys were literally the butt of a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: dick joke. They couldn't blame their producer, Rick Rubin, who
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: yes encouraged them to lean into the WWF side of
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: their image, an image that paired perfectly with the classic
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: rock guitar samples and slayer riffs that chugged through License
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to Ill. And they made the choice to go along
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: with Rick's creative and commercial genius, no matter how crass,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: but classic rock riffs they didn't even like classic rock.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: They grew up on Malcolm McLaren and only go fucking Boingo.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: They couldn't blame their manager, Hip hop empresario Russell Simmons,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the other half of Rick Rubin's DEPHJAM Records. Russell wanted
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the band to do whatever they could to be as
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: commercial as they could. But Russell also hooked the Beasties
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: up with his brother DJ Runs group run DMC, literally
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the biggest rap group on the planet, who provided a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: steady aspirational influence, an older group who knew how to act,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: a group that no exaggeration was selling out stadiums. Run
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: DMC took the Beasties under their collective wing. The Beasties
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: had every influence they needed to stay true, but somehow
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: they lost the script they had become what they hated.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: The success will fuck you harder than a giant, twenty
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: foot inflatable cock. And that's kind of what happened when
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven, Licensed to Ill became the first
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: hip hop album to go to number one on the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Billboard Charts. That bears repeating. Licensed to Ill became the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: first rap album to go to number one on the
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Billboard charts. A rap album by three white hardcore kids
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: went to number one. All the benefits that came along
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: with that success, all the beer, all the pussy, the press,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the adulation. It fucked the Beasties up, and the Beasties
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: fuck shit up in response. In August of nineteen eighty seven,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: rapper l Cooljy was arrested in Columbus, Georgia for pantomiming
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: sex on stage. In nineteen eighty eight, Kisses Gene Simmons
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: was arrested in Columbus, Georgia for, as he claimed, adjusting
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: his crotch on stage. In nineteen eighty nine, Boston pop
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: sensation Bobby Brown was arrested in Columbus, Georgia in mid performance,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: right there on stage, for dry humping a girl he'd
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: invited on stage to dance. Why were all these artists
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: arrested in Columbus Georgia in the late eighties, Well because
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of the influence of the Beastie Boys. Because in nineteen
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: eighty seven, Columbus authorities were so offended by the Beastis' performance,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: by their inflatable penis and their encouragement of young women
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: in the crowd that bear their breasts. The Columbus, Georgia
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: passed an anti ludinis law prohibiting nudity in simulated sex
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: at any show attended by minors. What in the hell
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: have the Beastie Boys become? We'll be right back after this.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: We're We're, We're. New York City was too hot. The
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Beastie Boys needed a change of environment. Los Angeles, it
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: was decided, was where the Beasties would take it on
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the lamb while the lawyers decided the group's creative fate.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Turns out that greed is a greater influence than friendship,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: at least when it concerned the Beastie's friend Russell Simmons,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: who ran Deaf Jam Records and refused to pay the
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: band royalties for their mega selling album Licensed to Ill,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: insisting that the group was in breach of contract for
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: not recording their second album One Time, a deadline that
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: was impossible due to the fact that the band was
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: constantly touring to support the sales of their first album,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: sales that benefited the record label, not them. It was
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a wicked irony, one that only sunshine in weed in
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: skateboards and great music could cure. Music that couldn't be
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: found anywhere but in La. At least, it couldn't be
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: found in this way in any place but La, because
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: La was where the Dust Brothers were making music, in
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: a grimy apartment on the wrong side of sunset, in
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: a neighborhood where you'd maybe get shot if you weren't careful,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: one in which you'd most definitely get proposition. The dangers
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: reminded Adam Yak of back home in New York, one
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of those street corners where your whole life could change
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: in an instant, depending on the type of mood the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: city was in. Yawk saw it differently, though, as he
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: did most things, This wasn't something to be feared. It
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: was something to be celebrated, because that danger, that tension,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: sprung from eight million different personalities, each with their own
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: influence to offer. New York City was about layers, a
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: multitude of creative offerings, each intertwined with the other, all
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of it there for the mining. You could try on
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: whatever you wanted, wear this hat for a while, or
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that coat, check out this used record, or try your
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: hand at someone else's cast off and consigned vintage instrument,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and you could experiment with these layers until you got
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: it right, it, of course being you, or more specifically
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: your style. Ad Rock, who was in LA before his
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: bandmates filling a movie with Donald Sutherland called Lost Angels,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: heard this music first. Somehow, underground LA DJ and Delicious
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Vinyl mastermind Matt Dike got into Adam's ears with this music.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: He was making with a set up Amoma College radio
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: station kids Michael Simpson and John King, who were calling
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: themselves the Dust Brothers. The music Dike and the Dust
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Brothers were making was like nothing the young beast he
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: had ever heard. The samples weren't obvious, they weren't blocked
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: off meat and potatoes classic rock style. They were soundscapes
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: precisely stitched together to create their own arrangements. It wasn't
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: about a loan breakbeat looped for sixteen bars to create
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: room for a rhymed verse. It was about four seconds
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of a drum fill that segued into ten seconds of
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a beat from another tune, with a keyboard sample on
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: top of that beat that quickly gave way to a
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: guitar riff from another song over a different beat and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: bassline from another tune in the same key, which was
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: then accentuated by a clip from a fucking Spielberg movie
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: which disappeared before you even knew it had shown up,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: and it then swung straight back into the top layered
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: verse you just heard, leaving you spellbound by a collage
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: of samples to rhyme over rather than one led Zeppelin
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: drum beat and one looped carry kingriff. It was that
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: feeling you get when you land at Lax and jump
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: in the back of a cab with that sunshine beating
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: down on your face as you race through Englewood toward Hollywood.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: All that promise, all that hope for whatever bounties you're
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: staying in this ridiculous town, going to bring your way.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: The music the Dust Brothers was making sounded like all that,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: but on tape, Adam Yalk and Mike Dee were way
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: down when ad Rock brought them out to La to
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: hear what he discovered, and the Beastie Boys, with their
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: new producers, set out to make their second album with
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a new record label, the storied Capitol Records, while their
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: old record label back in New York City plotted out
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: ways to stop them pool side at the Mandrian Hotel
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: on the Sunset Strip. The hotel was the brainchild of
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Ian Schrager, former partner of Steve Rubel, the studio fifty
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: four in Presario, with its New York roots, the Mandrion
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: was as good a place as any for the Beasties
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and their friends to hold up during the day while
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: they worked on their next record at night elsewhere. The
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Beasties may have begun to grow out of their misogynistic
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: professional wrestler caricatures of the first album, but that didn't
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: make them any less mischief. They ordered lavish, expensive meals
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: on Capitol's dime and had them sent to the room
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: of Brett Michaels from poison, and they launched eggs from
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: their balcony down onto the strip, pelting cars in the
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: heads of scenesters waiting behind velvet ropes, and they got
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: way stoned and super paranoid. Who were those dudes, the
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: dudes in the cheap suits and the black shoes and
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: white socks. Yeah, those dudes who were dressed kind of
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: like Ricky Powell's nerd character from the Fight for Your
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Right to Party video. And they were there a couple
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: of feet from the pool over by the bar. But
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: then after you'd set eyes on them, they'd be gone.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: They seemed to be watching, always waiting, looking for something.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The Beasties were convinced they were going to be served,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: or worse, serve papers to appear in court back in
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: New York to settle this beef with Russell Simmons and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: def jam or maybe served up some violence, some sort
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: of old school roulette records retribution. Who knew what Russell
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: was capable of? What was that dude up to at night? Anyway?
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Where did he go? What did he do with? Who?
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Russell was shady? The Beasties along with their entourage, which
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: included Adroc's girlfriend Ione Sky and her brother Donovan Leech,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and the excellent character actor Max Perwick, who you might
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: recognize from movies like a Drugstore Cowboy in Rush and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: perhaps also from the Young MC video bust a Move.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: They all bounced from the Mandreon to get out from
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: under the prying eyes of Russell Simmons's spies, or the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: eyes of those who the Beasties and all of their
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: stone paranoia imagined to be Russell's spies. They rented a
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: house up near the Griffith Observatory, a home they would
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: soon dub the g Spot. It belonged to TV producer
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Alex Grashoff and his wife Marilyn Missus Grasshaus wardrobe was
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: a treasure shrove of seventies clothes, Dolomite, Rudy Ray Moore,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Pam Greer Shaft, all the black exploitation films the Beasties
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: vibed on in New York seemed to physically come to
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: life inside of Maryland Grasshouse closet, and the Beasties got
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: down on all of it, trying on the clothes and
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: taking inspiration from the feel of the vintage threads, a
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: vintage that suited the music they were making perfectly. And
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the music was not def jam fare. This music was
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: something different. Fortunately, the beef between the Beasties and Russell
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Simmons was eventually resolved and the group was allowed to
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: pursue the new music they were making, and it was great,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Unlike anything un license to ill. Together with the inspired
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: production of Matt Dike and the Dust Brothers, these new
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: songs for the Beastis' first Capitol Records effort sounded different
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: than anything that had been recorded, not only in hip
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: hop up to that point, but in all of popular music.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: This music had more in common with the layered pop
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: symphonies of Sergeant Pepper's and pet sounds than it did
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: classic rock professional wrestling. It was a totality of influence
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: reborn into something completely its own. It was the JBS
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and Funky snake foot Fusion and melancholic Donnie Hathaway and
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Curtis's Superfly and aj Scratch by Curtis with a K
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: and Steven Spielberg needing a bigger boat, and Lennon and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: McCartney playing their way out of Abbey Road, and Loggins
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and Messina and the Fucking Eagles Man the Eagles, BDP
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and Yes of course run DMC machine Guns and Holy
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Ghosts more bounced to the ounce and getting arrested in
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Marty Graff were jumping off the float and your man
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: MCA with his beard like a billy goat the disco,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: call the car Wash, the Funky Drummer go go the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Levy breaking Mister Big Stuff, Susie, your Mama, Sergeant Pepper,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Mojo Sports, Sharon, Miss America, Shadrack, meshak a Bedding, the Go,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and so much more. It was the sound of that
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: corner back in New York in MCA's mind, Rivington and
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Ludlow on the lower e Side. More specifically, it was
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the sound of the store on that corner, a thrift store,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: the sound of all of its items come to life,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the vintage seventies clothing, the disco polyester, the West Side's
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: rough trade leather, the punk denim, the classic rock studs.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: It was the sound of the forgotten vinyl and the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: dollar bin, sticks and seeds, and the crease, the dusty
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: banjo in the corner, the racks of gin soaked coke,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: dusted memories from eight million influences from an infinite number
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: of crazy nights that happened only in New York.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: It was the best immense closing calls for Jenny's I Remember.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Is four three that spoles Booty. For as great as
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Paul's boutique was, it was not received well. Critics were lukewarm,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: and the record didn't sell, and Capitol Records nearly dropped
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the Beastie Boys, mainly because of the money the label
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: had already sunk into the group, a large portion of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: which went to clearing the almost immeasurable amount of samples
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: on Paul's boutique. Capitol was forced to keep the Beasti
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: signed and to go for one more album to recoup
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: their losses, but this time it would be different. The
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: next Beastie Boys record would have to be constructed and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: produced differently. Clearing the same number of samples as Paul's
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: boutique was financially impossible. Despite the failure of Paul's boutique,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: the Beastie Boys were a household name and the obscure
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: artist the Beasti sampled had the group's representatives over a barrel.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: When it came time into good she ate sampling fees
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: rightfully so. The older artists, whose influence constitutes so much
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: of Paul's boutique, wanted to get paid, and they did,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: but this wasn't a sustainable way to make records. There
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: would never be another Paul's boutique, which is a shame.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Imagine if the Beatles weren't allowed to make Sergeant Pepper's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: after hearing pet Sounds. We'll never know what greatness could
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: have sprung from one of the Beastis contemporaries, or perhaps
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: how the Beasties would have followed up Paul's boutique had
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: they been afforded the opportunity to make another record in
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the same way. Instead, the group's limitations forced them to
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: dig deep, not into the record creates hidden in the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: back of downtown vintage shops, but through the classified pages
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: listing vintage instruments. Because for the Beastie Boys' next record,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the musical group would do something truly revolutionary. They would
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: play their own instruments. The next Beasties album was another
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: wild creative swing and also a make or break business endeavor.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Had it not worked out, Capitol Records would have dropped
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the band and they'd likely be working for tech firms
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: or Hollywood production companies right now. But the Beastie Boys
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: didn't let that happen. Plato said that necessity is the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: mother of invention. Hr from Bad Brain said, don't care
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: what they may say, We got that attitude. Don't care
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: what they may do, We got that attitude. And Adam
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Yauk said that Bad Brains created the quote unquote best
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: hardcore album of all time, The Roar Demo, the features
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the aforementioned lyric. Adam Harvitz and Michael Diamond themselves will
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: tell you that Adam Yauk was a different kind of kid.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: He was the mother of invention, at least in their band.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: He was the type of kid, who, according to ad Rock,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: said things like I'm going to walk up to the
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: top of the Empire State Building with cameras taped to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: my shoes. I'll carry you up piggyback style. It'll be funny.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Let's go. Most people can form to the obstacles they encounter.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: They either find their way around them or find a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: way to avoid them altogether. It's the rarecats who find
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: their way through. Usually the great ones look at a
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: set of challenging fundamentals and decide to change the fundamentals
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to find their way through the obstacle. Oh, we can't
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: rely on samples to make our next hip hop record
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: because it's now too expensive. No problem, We'll just play
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: our own instruments. It's hard to overstate how insane this
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: concept was, I guess still is for a rap group
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety, but that's what the Beasties decided to do. Largely,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I believe through the influence of Adam Yauk and the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Gambit worked. The Beastie boys next album, Check Your Head,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: was a turn inward. It was a completely authentic representation
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: of all of what influenced the Beastie Boys, not just
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the Downtown New York coolness, not only the Hollywood kid absurdity,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and not just the larger than life licensed to ill
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: caricature charisma. It was all of those things, but it
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: was also all of the little things that made the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Beastie Boys tick. Skateboarding, basketball, spirituality, a return to their
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: hardcore roots, an instrumental reach toward Floyd's Metal in a
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: New Orleans sissy strut. It was bad seventies television, John Coltrane,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Japanese baseball references so bad They're good, Buddy cop movies,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and a constant effort by each band member to make
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: the others laugh. It was as close a representation as
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: an album can get to the entire picture of the
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: artists who made it. And because of that, Check Your
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Head had a much broader appeal than its predecessor. And
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: because of that and the band's relentless touring behind the album,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Check Your Head became the massive hit it deserved to be,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: as did its successor Ill Communication, a record that is
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: really a continuation of Check Your Head, made in the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: same way and within the same world wind of creative
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: time and place and circumstance, so much so that these
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: two albums now together sound like one of music history's
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: greatest double albums. This time period for the Beastie Boys
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: was also a reckoning, a chance for the group to
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: right the wrongs of their misogynistic past, to show who
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: they were at their core, hardcore kids, not dickhead frat boys,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: dudes who may have lost the plot at one point,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: but who had finally had an understanding not only of
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: who they were, but who they were meant to be.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: On ill Communications, Sure Shot, Adam yauchraps, I want to
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: say a little something that's long overdue. The disrespect to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: women has got to be through to all the mothers
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: and the sisters and the wives and friends. I want
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to offer my love and respect to the end. But
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: the end, unfortunately would come too soon for MCA. There
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: would be four more full length albums, the most excellent
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Hello Nasty, to the Five Boroughs, The Mix Up and
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Hot Sauce Committee Part two, before in twenty twelve, Adam
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Yaouk would succumb to cancer, dying at the age of
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: just forty seven. The Beastie Boys moved beyond the crime
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: and grime of late seventies and early eighties New York City,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: beyond the arrest and dick jokes of license to ill,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: through the absurd Hollywood headiness of Paul's boutique into the
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: twin triumph of check your Head and ill communication powered
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: by influence, the influence of great music, influence that led
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: to the continued creation of great music through the end
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: of the Beastie's career, a career that influenced culture in
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: real time, a career that left the legacy of influence
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: to be mined for years to come. But the Beastie
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Boys couldn't move through the loss of Adam Yeuk, whose
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: influence on his bandmates was not only immeasurable but also irreplaceable.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgrace slammed all right.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys dug this story on the Beastie Boys.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: The theme of this episode is obviously influenced. So this
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: week's question of the week is which musician has had
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: the most influence on you and why? And maybe the
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: way they've lived their life or the songs, their lyrics,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the way they conduct themselves, their style. The type of
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: influence could be anything, but we're all influenced by the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: music we listen to. Even if We're not musicians, so
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: think about it. Which musician has most influenced you? And
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: in what way? I want to know?
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: Hit me up at six one seven nine oh six
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: sixty six three eight, ask for Cookie Puss, leave me
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: a voicemail or a text for the best men's clothing.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: That's a disgrace slam pod on the socials, Instagram, Facebook,
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: x and disgracelampod at gmail dot com.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: All right, here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Yours Truly. It is produced in partnership with Double Elvis,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: The Exactly Right Network, and iHeart Podcasts. Credits for this
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: episode can be found on the show notes page at
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