Miramanee
08-09-2004, 02:56 PM
Please note the mentions of this message board in the article.
Copyright 2004 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com)
August 8, 2004
Mark of the Beasties
Beastie Boys may be sabotaging their fan base by taking on the US president. But you gotta fight for your right to free speech. Nick Gentle raps with Adam Yauch
IT'S ALMOST 18 years since a group of white kids from Brooklyn released an album full of songs about themselves, girls and partying that would change the course of musical history.
With the words "mutiny on the Bounty's what we're all about /I'm gonna board your ship and turn it on out," the Beastie Boys, and the world of rap, came swashbuckling into the homes and hearts of middle America with a stylus in one hand and a mic in the other.
Their debut album, Licensed to Ill, became the first rap album to reach No1 on the Billboard chart and stayed there for seven weeks. With its fusion of raw beats, tight, often hilarious rhymes, live cuts and judicious sampling, it was the first rap offering to sell more than five million copies, and propelled the Beastie Boys - Michael Diamond (aka Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA) and Adam Horovitz (Adrock) - to international stardom.
From then on, the trio - originally formed as a punk band for Yauch's 17th birthday party in 1981 - were able to write their own ticket. Their multi -platinum selling releases have often helped push rap and hip-hop in new directions, fusing it with other genres without losing their essential Beastie-ness (read, a carefree, honest obnoxiousness tinted with the highest production values) or alienating their fans.
Until now, that is. The band is experiencing the ire of fans feeling betrayed by their latest release, To the 5 Burroughs, in which the Beastie Boys re -explore old school hip-hop a la the mid-80s. No live instruments. No flashy effects. Just three guys, a couple of turntables and a mic.
It's not that the music is bad. It's been hailed by many as one of the group's best mixed efforts to date. It's not that the boys made fans wait six years before putting it out. After all, they've been doing other stuff in the interim. And it's not because the album is lacking anything lyrically. Far from it. It's just that, this time around, the boys have become a little serious and political, according to jilted fans. The shift from party animals to political campaigners may have come as a surprise, but Yauch says it felt like the right thing to do.
"I guess it was a little bit unusual for us," he says from New York. "But, in a way, it was sort of a concept decision. It just felt like there were a lot of things that it was hard not to say.
"When you're walking through your city and you're going past soldiers in the street with machine guns and you turn a corner and there's a tank in the middle of the road, you'd almost be lying if you didn't say anything. I know that sort of thing just isn't so unusual in a lot of other places, but this is New York ... that sort of thing isn't supposed to happen here."
Yauch makes no apologies for the album's political bent. The trio, all New Yorkers, were alarmed by the response to the September 11 attacks and where they felt George W. Bush was taking America.
"I think it was more about saying what we were feeling inside," he says. "At the time, we were making the record, everyone was so gung-ho about the war and we just felt that we were being misrepresented.
"We wanted to say, 'No, Bush does not represent us. We did not vote for him and he does not speak for us.'"
They were disenchanted enough to take time out from working on the album in March last year to record an anti-war song, In a World Gone Mad, which they distributed free over the internet.
The release inspired a number of other artists, including John Mellencamp, Lenny Kravitz and REM, to do the same. But it also inspired a backlash from some quarters, preparing the boys for the latest criticism.
"We definitely knew going into this that people would be p***ed at us getting a bit political," Yauch says.
Scanning the discussion boards on www.beastieboys.com, one gets a snapshot of a debate that has been raging in the US since September 11, albeit in microcosm.
"I never knew the B-Boys were so anti-American," writes one. "Hey guys, shut up for while. Show support for your country. Show support for your legally elected president." After being reminded of the right to free speech, they respond: "First amendment my ass. One hundred years ago, we called it treason and hung motherf***ers for badmouthing a wartime president."
Yauch says invective such as this doesn't really bother him. At least people are discussing some of the issues. "The reaction's been pretty mixed," he says. "Some people feel very angry that we took the direction we did, but I think most of the people who have major disagreements just disagree with the politics.
"But there was one entry where they said we weren't really political and we didn't really mean what we were saying, because we were only doing it to sell albums. That's one thing that is definitely not true."
Looking back over two decades of Beastie Boy exploits, it becomes apparent that despite sometimes seedy lyrics, they certainly have a social conscience.
They've helped raise money for women migrants affected by the September 11 attacks, and even when touring with Madonna on the back of Licensed to Ill back in 1987, they were awarded the key to Kansas City for their contributions to sickle cell anaemia research.
In 1994, they used the proceeds from two songs on their Ill Communication album to help start the Milarepa Fund - an organisation dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of native Tibetans.
The band spent the next few years helping organise Tibetan Freedom Concerts, the first of which attracted more than 100,000 people and a host of America's leading bands. The concerts and Tibet have played a large part in the Beastie story since. They continue to play at Tibtan Freedom Concerts, the 10th of which, held last year, took them to Taipei for the first time.
Yauch, a Buddhist, believes their efforts have paid off in terms of raising awareness in the US about the problems in Tibet, although he admits he has little knowledge of the current situation in the region. "It's hard to gauge this thing, but I think there's been some movement," he says. "I don't really know if the human rights situation has improved, but I certainly don't think the concerts were for nothing."
He's also unsure whether the Beastie Boys would be allowed to play on the mainland as a result of their stance on Tibet. "I would love to play some shows in China," he says. "That would be great. I've been through there a couple of times, but we've never played there before. Certainly, we've asked the people who book the shows whether it is possible, but I don't really know how that would work."
In the meantime, the Beastie Boys will be throwing themselves into touring and trying to encourage their fellow Americans to have a say at the ballot box come November.
"I think every person has the ability to effect change," Yauch told PBS's Frontline in 1998. "I think we're often led to believe that it's just celebrities who have some ability to effect change, but I think that what's important for us to realise is that every one of us affects the world constantly through our actions, through our every smallest action, through our every thought, our every word, the way that we interact with other people."
And he hopes To The 5 Burroughs will affect people a certain way. "Even if we could have the slightest effect on the outcome of the November presidential election or get just a few extra people to be involved, that would be great," he says. "We've got to get that fool out of there."
To the 5 Burroughs is out now on EMI
Copyright 2004 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com)
August 8, 2004
Mark of the Beasties
Beastie Boys may be sabotaging their fan base by taking on the US president. But you gotta fight for your right to free speech. Nick Gentle raps with Adam Yauch
IT'S ALMOST 18 years since a group of white kids from Brooklyn released an album full of songs about themselves, girls and partying that would change the course of musical history.
With the words "mutiny on the Bounty's what we're all about /I'm gonna board your ship and turn it on out," the Beastie Boys, and the world of rap, came swashbuckling into the homes and hearts of middle America with a stylus in one hand and a mic in the other.
Their debut album, Licensed to Ill, became the first rap album to reach No1 on the Billboard chart and stayed there for seven weeks. With its fusion of raw beats, tight, often hilarious rhymes, live cuts and judicious sampling, it was the first rap offering to sell more than five million copies, and propelled the Beastie Boys - Michael Diamond (aka Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA) and Adam Horovitz (Adrock) - to international stardom.
From then on, the trio - originally formed as a punk band for Yauch's 17th birthday party in 1981 - were able to write their own ticket. Their multi -platinum selling releases have often helped push rap and hip-hop in new directions, fusing it with other genres without losing their essential Beastie-ness (read, a carefree, honest obnoxiousness tinted with the highest production values) or alienating their fans.
Until now, that is. The band is experiencing the ire of fans feeling betrayed by their latest release, To the 5 Burroughs, in which the Beastie Boys re -explore old school hip-hop a la the mid-80s. No live instruments. No flashy effects. Just three guys, a couple of turntables and a mic.
It's not that the music is bad. It's been hailed by many as one of the group's best mixed efforts to date. It's not that the boys made fans wait six years before putting it out. After all, they've been doing other stuff in the interim. And it's not because the album is lacking anything lyrically. Far from it. It's just that, this time around, the boys have become a little serious and political, according to jilted fans. The shift from party animals to political campaigners may have come as a surprise, but Yauch says it felt like the right thing to do.
"I guess it was a little bit unusual for us," he says from New York. "But, in a way, it was sort of a concept decision. It just felt like there were a lot of things that it was hard not to say.
"When you're walking through your city and you're going past soldiers in the street with machine guns and you turn a corner and there's a tank in the middle of the road, you'd almost be lying if you didn't say anything. I know that sort of thing just isn't so unusual in a lot of other places, but this is New York ... that sort of thing isn't supposed to happen here."
Yauch makes no apologies for the album's political bent. The trio, all New Yorkers, were alarmed by the response to the September 11 attacks and where they felt George W. Bush was taking America.
"I think it was more about saying what we were feeling inside," he says. "At the time, we were making the record, everyone was so gung-ho about the war and we just felt that we were being misrepresented.
"We wanted to say, 'No, Bush does not represent us. We did not vote for him and he does not speak for us.'"
They were disenchanted enough to take time out from working on the album in March last year to record an anti-war song, In a World Gone Mad, which they distributed free over the internet.
The release inspired a number of other artists, including John Mellencamp, Lenny Kravitz and REM, to do the same. But it also inspired a backlash from some quarters, preparing the boys for the latest criticism.
"We definitely knew going into this that people would be p***ed at us getting a bit political," Yauch says.
Scanning the discussion boards on www.beastieboys.com, one gets a snapshot of a debate that has been raging in the US since September 11, albeit in microcosm.
"I never knew the B-Boys were so anti-American," writes one. "Hey guys, shut up for while. Show support for your country. Show support for your legally elected president." After being reminded of the right to free speech, they respond: "First amendment my ass. One hundred years ago, we called it treason and hung motherf***ers for badmouthing a wartime president."
Yauch says invective such as this doesn't really bother him. At least people are discussing some of the issues. "The reaction's been pretty mixed," he says. "Some people feel very angry that we took the direction we did, but I think most of the people who have major disagreements just disagree with the politics.
"But there was one entry where they said we weren't really political and we didn't really mean what we were saying, because we were only doing it to sell albums. That's one thing that is definitely not true."
Looking back over two decades of Beastie Boy exploits, it becomes apparent that despite sometimes seedy lyrics, they certainly have a social conscience.
They've helped raise money for women migrants affected by the September 11 attacks, and even when touring with Madonna on the back of Licensed to Ill back in 1987, they were awarded the key to Kansas City for their contributions to sickle cell anaemia research.
In 1994, they used the proceeds from two songs on their Ill Communication album to help start the Milarepa Fund - an organisation dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of native Tibetans.
The band spent the next few years helping organise Tibetan Freedom Concerts, the first of which attracted more than 100,000 people and a host of America's leading bands. The concerts and Tibet have played a large part in the Beastie story since. They continue to play at Tibtan Freedom Concerts, the 10th of which, held last year, took them to Taipei for the first time.
Yauch, a Buddhist, believes their efforts have paid off in terms of raising awareness in the US about the problems in Tibet, although he admits he has little knowledge of the current situation in the region. "It's hard to gauge this thing, but I think there's been some movement," he says. "I don't really know if the human rights situation has improved, but I certainly don't think the concerts were for nothing."
He's also unsure whether the Beastie Boys would be allowed to play on the mainland as a result of their stance on Tibet. "I would love to play some shows in China," he says. "That would be great. I've been through there a couple of times, but we've never played there before. Certainly, we've asked the people who book the shows whether it is possible, but I don't really know how that would work."
In the meantime, the Beastie Boys will be throwing themselves into touring and trying to encourage their fellow Americans to have a say at the ballot box come November.
"I think every person has the ability to effect change," Yauch told PBS's Frontline in 1998. "I think we're often led to believe that it's just celebrities who have some ability to effect change, but I think that what's important for us to realise is that every one of us affects the world constantly through our actions, through our every smallest action, through our every thought, our every word, the way that we interact with other people."
And he hopes To The 5 Burroughs will affect people a certain way. "Even if we could have the slightest effect on the outcome of the November presidential election or get just a few extra people to be involved, that would be great," he says. "We've got to get that fool out of there."
To the 5 Burroughs is out now on EMI