Of course being white, my first exposure to hip hop was the Beastie Boys. But it was a good place to start.
I only really 'got' hip hop after I finished high school. Going through school it was quite frowned upon to listen to rap or r'n'b in fact I really hated it with a passion. I really couldn't relate to gangsta rap, too many 'bitches and ho's and bling' for a person eating up alternative music which preached the direct opposite. Maybe that's why I gravitated to the Beastie Boys, because they were so different to the gangsta rap that was so predominant in the late 90's. And for me, they were so goddamn cool. The archetypal 90's band, drenched in irony.
Listening to the Beastie Boys is like looking at an encyclopaedia of pop culture. In Sadarach squeeze in references to Rambo, Charles Dickens, JD Salinger and Harry S Truman, amongst others.
And the music. I have been listening to a bit of hip hop lately and it is cliced, but hip hop really has died a slow and painful death. Where are the beats? Where is the sampling? Sampling was the best thing about hip hop. The fact that you can turn something like a Beatles song on its head without descending in sacrilege. That was the art of hip hop.
So thank you Beastie Boys for constantly being able to produce smart, creative hip hop without losing all self respect and credibility like this. And this.
Enjoy hip hop before It was acquired in a hostile takeover by major record labels, homogenised, then sold off piece by piece.
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