BEASTIE BOYS [24.01.07] ROCKING THE SURE SHOT If hip hop has a counterpart to The Rolling Stones, then Beastie Boys are the obvious candidates. Since disseminating their last studio album, 'To The 5 Boroughs', the seasoned b-boys have been on the comeback. After rockin' 2005's Big Day Out, the posse are headlining Good Vibrations. Many BDO artists describe the festival as a summer camp for rock stars. Mike D (a.k.a. Michael Diamond) admits that the Beasties weren't prepared for such fun when they signed on. In fact, he made a new buddy while on the last tour. "I'm pen pals with the DJ from Slipknot [Sid Wilson] - a lot of people are surprised by that, but we do it old-fashioned style with pen and paper and we correspond that way," Mike says earnestly. The Beastie Boys may be lifelong friends, but the ever mischievous Mike D alludes to physical fights between members during our interview. "We fight a lot, that's the main way that we relate to each other - although I'd like to say again, for the record, though we do fight, I buy treats for the other members of the band and that's not necessarily reciprocated," he quips, feigning hurt. The Beasties have pushed the boundaries of rap; straddling punk, rock and (comic) hip hop. And, while Eminem is often depicted as the first 'white' rap superstar, the Beasties - all from middle-class Jewish families - beat him to it by nearly 15 years. The three were initially active in New York's hardcore underground. Catching onto the nascent hip hop scene in the early 80s and connecting with Def Jam's Rick Rubin, they laid down the AC/DC sampling 'She's On It' for the Krush Groove soundtrack. The Beasties subsequently unleashed the mighty 'Licensed To Ill' - the first rap album to top the US charts - in 1986. Fast forward 20 years and the Beastie Boys are a household name with millions of album sales and impeccable credentials. They also have a fourth, albeit unofficial, member in Mixmaster Mike. According to Mike D, having a DJ around stops them from succumbing to routine. "At the beginning of the night we might make a set list, but we still don't really know what's gonna happen, because Mike is a constant remix machine. He's constantly switching up the beats and switching up what's gonna happen musically on every song, so we gotta be on our toes at every minute 'cause Mike actually takes a lot of pride in trying to wind us. He tries to take us off our game a little bit and, by doing that, he pushes us." Mike D also likes the fact their DJ doesn't get embroiled in those, ahem, fisticuffs. "He's smart - he doesn't get involved in our silly fights!" he says slyly. Most recently, the Beasties have been busy plugging their live concert flick, 'Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That!' Filmed by fans at Madison Square Garden, it's a subversive manifestation of the growing crowd sourcing phenomenon. "The fans are kinda excited - they feel like they've had more of a role in what we created. I think for us, coming out of a small scene here in New York - punk-rock and hip hop - it's always been about the audience participating in what's happening. The goal with making the DVD was definitely to present something not as much from our perspective, but from the audience's perspective - which is a lot more interesting to us 'cause we don't get to see that when we're playing a show. We only know our perspective (laughs)." With that particular film project out of the way, the Beastie Boys are working towards their seventh LP - the follow-up to the self-produced 'To The 5 Boroughs'. Beyond that acknowledgement, Mike is reticent about providing details of their next record. "We're working on it - some stuff is done, we've got a bunch more to do," he says sensibly, if unhelpfully. Whether the album proves as outspoken as some of their past work remains to be seen, but Mike is quite serious about music's ability to highlight social issues as well as entertain. As he explains: "I think if you look at pop music historically, it's always the exception, not the rule, where you have people speaking out or either having a degree of activism or consciousness in their songs. Basically pop music is just that: it's pop music. But then once in a while you have a very powerful exception to that - to me the best example in hip hop is probably Public Enemy. If there's a certain power of combining what they're saying and how they're saying it with music, that is incredible and is unique to music." Cyclone. The Beastie Boys headline Good Vibrations at Doug Jennings Park, on the Gold Coast, Sunday February 11. back to top ^

BACK TO ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS