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Beastie Boys Perform On Boat In East River For Previously Unseen Chappelle Show Clip

John Del Signore

Published May 7, 2012

Modified May 7, 2012

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John Del Signore

Published May 7, 2012

Modified May 7, 2012

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[UPDATE BELOW] Over the weekend, many musicians, artists and other notables shared their remembrances of the late great Adam Yauch, the musician and filmmaker known worldwide as MCA. The Mets walked out to Beastie Boys songs before Friday night's game, and there was a beautiful Yauch tribute on the MSG scoreboard during yesterday's Knicks game. And yesterday comedian Neal Brennan, who co-created and co-wrote the Chappelle Show, shared this video that never aired, from the series' aborted third season. It features Beastie Boys performing "The New Style" on a boat in New York City’s East River. Earlier today, the video was taken down for violating Viacom's evil sensibilities, but now it's back up... for now.

Over the weekend, Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon spoke to NME about Yauch, saying, "He told me once that he really liked the lyrics to 'Bull In The Heather'. It surprised me that he had even listened to it. It meant a lot to me that he went out of his way to tell me that, coming from such a great rapper and lyricist." ("Bull in the Heather" IS a great song.) She also recalled how "Yauch seemed happy to hang out with me and Coco as we wandered around Tokyo, which was unusual because no one else had babies at that point. Everyone else was busy taking advantage of their precious time in Tokyo."

We reached out to some other New York creatives for their thoughts on Yauch's passing:

Jesse Cohen from Tanlines: "The Beastie Boys were the group that taught me it was cool to be into all kinds of music and things at once. I had every issue of Grand Royal magazine and I studied them devoutly. They exploded genres in a way that is now totally taken for granted. They also carried themselves in a way that is really inspiring, managing the line between commercial success and artistic credibility effortlessly, across almost every platform, including MCA's work on Human Rights and politics. Very very sad that someone so inspiring is gone so young."

Josh Kolenick from Small Black: "The Beastie Boys. My heroes, my role models and the clear proof that there were no rules to follow in making songs. The first tape I stole from a friend, the first concert I went to, the first song I ever played in front of someone else. MCA, you will be deeply missed."

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry, whose film If A Tree Falls was distributed by Yauch's company Oscilloscope: "I was a tenth grader in New Jersey when License to Ill came out, so my brain and soul were obviously shaped by the Beastie Boys. But I most appreciated Adam's decision to open Oscilloscope, a distribution company for documentaries and independent films, just as the rest of the film industry was shutting down their indie film divisions. He swam upstream, curating an amazing collection of movies, and figured out a way to make money doing it. I was grateful as film-lover and doubly so as a film-maker when they released my documentary [If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front] last year. We recorded the director's commentary for the DVD in the Beastie Boys' studio, and I think you can hear me grinning."

Update:Slacker Radio has created a special tribute station focusing on MCA's musical accomplishments. It's pretty great! It features groups he was inspired by, musicians he influenced, songs the Beastie Boys sampled from and the iconic music by the Beastie Boys. (As we type this, we're listening to Jeremy Steig's flute-tastic "Howling for Judy," which was sampled for "Sure Shot.")

For more, you'll find a ton of great Beastie Boys videos, as well as a map of relevant NYC Beastie Boys locations.

Tagged

adam yauch

beastie boys

dave chappelle

kim gordon

John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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