The Hip-Hop 25: #24 Beastie Boys
You think that you can front when revelation comes?
The Hip-Hop 25 counts down the 25 greatest rap artists in history, as part of Ben Westhoff’s newsletter Drugs and Hip-Hop.
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See also: My Joe Rogan experience
The Beastie Boys had a girl. You probably know this. Named Kate Schellenbach, she played drums in their early incarnation as a hardcore punk band.
She and the Beasties ran together in the early ‘80s downtown Manhattan scene, hanging out at clubs like Roxy’s and Danceteria. The group came from families of playwrights, architects, and art dealers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and had free reign to stay out late and do whatever they wanted. The drinking age was 18, if that, and Billy Idol and Madonna were in the mix.
I mean, c’mon.
Michael Diamond (Mike D) admits he and the guys were too intimidated to go to the Bronx and Harlem to see hip-hop in its beginnings. Lucky for them, star DJs started performing downtown, including Afrika Bambaataa and Jazzy Jay at an East Village club called Negril, along with the b-boyin’ Rock Steady Crew. That blew their minds.
But seeing hardcore punk demigods Black Flag most inspired the Beasties’ musical dreams. This was early 1981, and the packed Peppermint Lounge was loud, sweaty chaos. Each of the founding Beastie Boys were there — Schellenbach, Mike D, Adam Yauch (MCA), Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), and a dude named John Berry who wasn’t around long. Other audience members included Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Henry Rollins, who was still scooping cones at a DC Häagen-Dazs and wouldn’t become Black Flag’s singer until later that summer. “To him and all of us in the audience, that night in March changed what we thought was possible,” Mike D wrote in Beastie Boys Book.
Beastie Boys was an acronym meaning Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence (okay), and they performed their first show for MCA’s 17th birthday party. When it was over a punk rock record store owner offered to put out their record, and soon the lead singer of Bad Brains asked them to open a show.