"My name is MCA I got a license to kill, I think you know what time it is, its time to get ill"
By: Michael Bayliss
I miss him I sincerely do, of course I wasn't alive during the height of popularity to fully appreciate the music Adam Yauch and the rest of the Beastie Boys made but it still had an effect on me, and he along with a few other artist are the real ones that got me into hip hop and bridged me away from those awkward years of whiny rock music to the amazing and head bouncing music that MCA and others put out. In a way my taste in music changed just as much as the Beastie Boys did as they made the transition from punk band in Brooklyn to the loveable hip/hop outlaws so many adored.
Those lyrics have to be some of the first I really remember and while they don't carry a great message it was the pure energy and raw substance that I craved in music, in any genre.
I still remember the day he died. I had to get on a plane for a family vacation and I immediately bought the Rolling Stone issue that commerated his loss ( not that it was sentimental I just needed reading material). While reading that magazine I realized something, I learned more about him through his lyrics and music than any article could tell me and I knew that it wouldn't do any justice just to read the words about him by someone else, even this article will be lost among the plethra of articles about him but I can sure as hell try and do my best to tell you how much he meant to me as an artist.
His birthday was a couple days ago but sooner is better than later, happy birthday to the man that made the Beastie Boys not just sound like a trio of three Jewish guys from New York but a legit group of rappers who would make the world along with me keep singing the lyrics to "Paul Ravere" over and over again.
Here's to you Adam.
I miss him I sincerely do, of course I wasn't alive during the height of popularity to fully appreciate the music Adam Yauch and the rest of the Beastie Boys made but it still had an effect on me, and he along with a few other artist are the real ones that got me into hip hop and bridged me away from those awkward years of whiny rock music to the amazing and head bouncing music that MCA and others put out. In a way my taste in music changed just as much as the Beastie Boys did as they made the transition from punk band in Brooklyn to the loveable hip/hop outlaws so many adored.
Those lyrics have to be some of the first I really remember and while they don't carry a great message it was the pure energy and raw substance that I craved in music, in any genre.
I still remember the day he died. I had to get on a plane for a family vacation and I immediately bought the Rolling Stone issue that commerated his loss ( not that it was sentimental I just needed reading material). While reading that magazine I realized something, I learned more about him through his lyrics and music than any article could tell me and I knew that it wouldn't do any justice just to read the words about him by someone else, even this article will be lost among the plethra of articles about him but I can sure as hell try and do my best to tell you how much he meant to me as an artist.
His birthday was a couple days ago but sooner is better than later, happy birthday to the man that made the Beastie Boys not just sound like a trio of three Jewish guys from New York but a legit group of rappers who would make the world along with me keep singing the lyrics to "Paul Ravere" over and over again.
Here's to you Adam.
P.S please watch this amazing almost 30 min video of a bunch of comedians rap Beastie Boys lyrics and trip on acid.