This isn’t the normal post. There is no audio. It isn’t the show. I do want to express how much the Beastie Boys and MCA meant to myself and many of the crew.
I first caught on to the Beasties in middle school. I had never heard anything like them before. They were riotous white-boy MCs and my mind was blown. The fact that they had the respect and Collaboration of the immortal RUN DMC was enough for me to buy “License to Ill” without hearing but one cut off of it “Paul Revere”. I went to disc jockey after being carted up to the mall by my mother and laid down the cash. I walked out with the cassette that may have very well changed the face of rap forever.
Sure, I had listened to the Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, P-Funk, Sugar hill Gang, the Treacherous Three and many other acts before them. I used to borrow dubs of dubs to make my mix tapes. I would stay up and keep my finger on the record button listening to Majic 108 out of St. Louis to get the newest and best cuts. When money allowed, I would buy the best of the best on cassette or on LP. I was really into getting the extended singles on LP, sometimes I would used my trusty boombox to pull audio from the records onto cassette, complete with my own intro/outros to the jams. I longed to be a DJ. I wanted to work for Majic 108 so bad I could taste it. After getting the Beasties I made a copy of it for my buddy Johnny. He dug it, and the next thing I knew it was like everyone in the Vern was listening to the Boys. They took the USA by storm man, I was like…everywhere you go Beastie Boys and RUN DMC-EVERYWHERE! “The Real Roxanne” was tame fare compared to what these guys were putting out. Mind you, I was also into so-cal hardcore- Black Flag was the be all end all in my book.
The madmen from Brooklyn just slid right into the #1 spot in my heart, Hell-they made me less sad that Henry Rollins split. I was obsessed. I wanted to BE a Beastie. I went so far as to maybe snag a VW emblem from a hood or two to rock it on my cheap ass rope chain back then. I bought a bucket hat, flipped up the bill all the way around and got some fake wayfarers to look more “Beastie”. I Found out much to my chagrin that I was almost as good at MCing as I was at singing….epic fails…both fronts.
Our soundtrack among my best buddies in HS would have had several track from the First 3 Beastie Albums. (Paul’s Boutique is still the greatest album ever-Right Rob?)
Today our man Adam Yauch who was a MC, Father, Husband, son, friend, director, activist, and inspiration to millions of B-boys left this world. 4 years of fighting cancer was a long, hard road. “Adam’s OK, he’s tired” Mike-D tweeted a few days ago. I think he knew. I suspect you don’t spend most of your life with people like that and not know. I hope this is the end of the Beastie Boys. This isn’t hatin’…It just wouldn’t be the same. I better warn everybody-Tuesday’s show will Likely be Beastie heavy, so if you don’t like them the show won’t be worth your while. If you loved them, and they changed your life like they did me-tune in. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.
Rest Adam. May the God of your understanding embrace you and keep you.
and never ever forget- My Man MCA has a beard like a bill goat.
