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Hear The History Of The Beastie Boys Through These Videos


By

Ben Yakas

Published May 6, 2012

Modified May 6, 2012


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By

Ben Yakas

Published May 6, 2012

Modified May 6, 2012


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via LIFE

Fans, friends, fellow musicians, and the entire internet has been paying tribute to Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch since he died of cancer at the age of 47 on Friday. We've spent much of the weekend mourning by keeping Beastie Boys videos and albums on a constant rotation (YouTube mixes really come in handy sometimes). But even all that doesn't give a complete picture of how funny and witty Yauch and the band could be—so below, check out a handful of interviews from throughout the Beastie Boys career, which reveal the bands lucid evolution.

Here's a 1987 interview filmed in the UK:

The band talk about how they got into hip hop, and Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons talk about their first impressions of them:

Here's footage of an incredibly cool/bizarre Paul's Boutique release party on the top of the Capital Records building in L.A. that clocks in at 48 minutes. Everybody looks so young!

Here's an interview with Ad-Rock in which he discusses buying his first drum machine, how he discovered LL Cool J, and his thoughts on the art of sampling existing records.

Here's a 1992 interview with the band from their studio, around the release of Check Your Head, as well as a couple live performances on MTV from that era:

Very fun clip of Beastie Boys on MTV's 120 Minutes in 1994:

Here are two interviews with MCA in which he plays basketball and talks about his documentary Gunnin' for That #1 Spot

Lastly, here's a French TV interview from 2009 about Hot Sauce Committee:

Tagged

adam yauch

beastie boys

interviews

Music

rap


Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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