If there was one band that defined my teen years it was these three guys from New York City -- Adrock, Mike D, and M.C.A. I found the Beastie Boys in 1986, the precise moment I was undergoing a testosterone-fueled transformation from the nerdiest of the nerds to a guy who might actually be able to get a date with a girl.
The first song I heard was the 12” single record, Hold It Now, Hit It. This was before their huge crossover album, Licensed To Ill, was even released. Paul, a friend from the neighborhood, introduced me to this guy named Mike Kidwell who was new to Eastmoor high school. We went to Mike’s apartment one night after school and what I witnessed there changed my young life forever.
Mike led us down a narrow hallway and into his room. I turned the corner and saw two Technics turntables and a Radio Shack mixer on the table. Mike turned on all of the equipment and started mixing and scratching like a pro dj, right there in front of us. If I remember correctly he was playing the Mantronix song Needle to the Groove, while scratching parts of the Beastie Boys, Hold It Now, Hit It at just the right moments. To say I was in awe would be putting it lightly. I knew I had to do whatever it took to buy an audio set up like this and learn how to mix.
I immediately began to save all my money from my paper route and odd jobs and bought everything I needed. I even eventually got an Alesis drum machine, this was like a budget version of the classic Roland TR-808 which was the staple of most early hip hop tracks. One thing led to another and I actually became an okay DJ.
For a year or so between ninth and tenth grades, two of my best friends and I thought we were Beastie Boys. We were from “the wrong side of the tracks”, the eastside of Columbus, Ohio and would descend on the dances of some of the private schools in better parts of town. On Friday and Saturday nights, we could be found hanging around in various states of intoxication, dressed in tracksuits, shell-toe Adidas, and gold herringbone chains. We became quite good at making a spectacle of ourselves. In retrospect, we were about as shiftless and annoying as we could be.
What our girl-crazed, pubescent brains didn’t realize at the time is the Beastie Boys weren’t real people, they were actually caricatures of Adam Horovitz, Michael Diamond, and Adam Yauch. These guys didn’t go around acting this way all the time. It took us about a year to figure this out. I’m so glad that mobile phones and social media were still decades away. Oddly (and thankfully) zero photos of me from this time exist.
Fast forward... gulp ...over thirty years. When I saw the announcement of Beastie Boys Book release I knew I had to have it. I ordered the book through Audible.com and began listening to it at the gym every day. The book was like a time machine, each chapter transported me directly back to the 1980’s. It was as though I was reliving my teen years only it was being filtered through my forty-seven year old lens.
The Beastie Boys Book gives an in depth look at not only every phase of these guys lives, it also paints a very accurate picture of the melting pot of culture that comprised the 1980's NYC music scene and the early days of Hip Hop (which was the glue that held our merry band of misfits together.) It reminded me of what a great time the mid-eighties were to be a teenager. The world was a little larger, less polished, and way more fun. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face while listening to most of the ninety-eight chapters of this book.
After getting to know the real people behind the Beastie Boys cartoonish stage-personas I came away with the realization that my friends and I had more in common with them than we thought. Although our trajectories were different, we had lots of subtle and small things in common. After reliving these nostalgic glimpses of my teen years again, I somehow feel a lot older. Not the have to eat dinner at 4pm kind of old but in old in a good way, a comforting way.
I'm happy that I had the joy of experiencing exactly what I did during my teen years. I wouldn't change a thing. Today's world would make these experiences nearly impossible to duplicate...and maybe that's a good thing.
Even if you have a remote interest in these guys and their music, I highly recommend you read this book.
RIP MCA
(Gifs sourced from Giphy.com.)
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