Friday, May 04, 2012

Music on My Mind



Beastie Boys, "Intergalactic." This video, which was directed by MCA and won awards in 1999, pretty much sums up the whole Beastie Boys approach: not quite coherent, weirdly interesting, and inanely entertaining. And now MCA has died of cancer. He was an interesting character. After converting to Buddhism in the 90s he began to rethink the band's approach, which in the 80s had been to maintain a heavily bawdy and rowdy image:

"I didn't realize how much harm I was doing back then and I think a lot of rap artists probably don't realize it now," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I said a lot of stuff fooling around back then, and I saw it do a lot of harm. I had kids coming up to me and saying, 'Yo, I listen to your records while I'm smoking dust, man.' And I'd say, 'Hey, man, we're just kidding. I don't smoke dust.' People need to be more aware of how they're affecting people."