Speaker 1: It's been almost thirty five years since the Beastie Boys
Speaker 1: released the all time classic Licensed to Ill, and while
Speaker 1: some of the record's lyrics and antics sounds dated as
Speaker 1: a Porky's Movies, the album is still exceptional for Beastie
Speaker 1: Boys fans. Licensed to Ill is a glimpse into the
Speaker 1: lives of m C A ad Rock, Mike d and
Speaker 1: their first DJ producer, Rick Rubin. Their debut album as
Speaker 1: a pastiche of inside jokes in musical inspiration pulled from
Speaker 1: the classic rock and hip hop records they listened to
Speaker 1: and Rick's college dorm room. Rick recently connected with Mike
Speaker 1: d ad Rock and Spike Jones, who directed the New
Speaker 1: Beasties documentary. With Spike playing moderator. They teleport back to
Speaker 1: the early eighties and talk about their lives leading up
Speaker 1: to the release of Licensed to Ill. It's all here,
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind Brass Monkey, Rix, Infamous Bubble Machine and
Speaker 1: hy DJ Double R bailed on the Beastie's first big break,
Speaker 1: opening up from Madonna on her Like a Virgin tour.
Speaker 1: In this is broken record line of notes for the
Speaker 1: digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. It's been about twenty years
Speaker 1: since Rick and Adam Horvits have talked, and like most
Speaker 1: Zoom calls, their reunion gets off to a glitchy start.
Speaker 1: Mike d kicks things off. Oh who's Adam, what's up, sir?
Speaker 1: Ricky look different. It's good to see you. You look
Speaker 1: the same. Yeah, No, that's a lot. That is an abomination, Mike.
Speaker 1: He looked great. Don't start, Adam, don't start. Don't start. Rick.
Speaker 1: First of all, very nice to see. It's been a
Speaker 1: long long time. The last time I can remember a
Speaker 1: speaking was that one of the Tibetan freedom shows. You
Speaker 1: have a good memory. Then I don't remember that, and
Speaker 1: that had to be. But I mean, just time wise,
Speaker 1: putting a time stamp on it that was at least
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. It's unbelievable. It's surreal, and it makes
Speaker 1: no sense. I mean, from my perspective, it makes no sense.
Speaker 1: I'll say, I haven't I don't know why it worked
Speaker 1: out that we've not hung out in that amount of time.
Speaker 1: I'm just I've been so busy, you know. I can
Speaker 1: remember there was a little window of time that we
Speaker 1: started spending a little bit of time together in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: right when you came to Los Angeles after I was
Speaker 1: already there and um and I can remember we had
Speaker 1: lunch at Hugos. God, damn, I don't remember anything. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: going back in the Hugo's days. Michael trying to talk
Speaker 1: pasta Alla Mama. Yeah, Michael trying to talk right now.
Speaker 1: We hung had a handful of times, and I remember
Speaker 1: seeing you and I think some something happened that I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened at the party for the Blood
Speaker 1: Sugar Sex Magic album. At the it was that album,
Speaker 1: That's what happened. Oh. Like, uh, I got daggers today
Speaker 1: coming with all the cylinders. You guys, we can we
Speaker 1: can see, we can see, we can see. I'm in
Speaker 1: I'm in a mood today, dude. I adam for your
Speaker 1: along with your daggers. I think you need like you
Speaker 1: need a bank of sound effects like you know, Doug Siren. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm just in a mood. Let's get all the dagger out.
Speaker 1: Let's let's do let's what's and what's the show? Rick?
Speaker 1: What what happens on your show? What's what is it?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call it a show, it's a It's usually
Speaker 1: a conversation. And I talked to different artists and they
Speaker 1: tell me stories about what they do. It's not unlike
Speaker 1: what happens in a recording session before the music gets made.
Speaker 1: That's typically what it's like, just kind of and and
Speaker 1: especially if it's someone that I don't know learning who
Speaker 1: they are. Can I start with a question, which I
Speaker 1: know is but I'm just curious, so I want to
Speaker 1: ask it. Do you find that you more often find
Speaker 1: out things that you don't know about people that you
Speaker 1: do know when they're doing your show, Or do you
Speaker 1: find stuff about somebody you do know that's doing your
Speaker 1: show more so in an unexpected way than somebody who
Speaker 1: you don't know at all who's doing your show where
Speaker 1: you have no background. In both cases, I learned a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount about the people I'm talking to. It's maybe
Speaker 1: more unusual with people that I know, because I get
Speaker 1: to talk about things that we don't normally talk about,
Speaker 1: Like I was thinking about even from the time that
Speaker 1: we knew each other back in the day, stuff we
Speaker 1: never talked about, Like I wanted to ask you guys
Speaker 1: about high school, Like I don't know what your experience
Speaker 1: in high school, and I was just curious, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: I was around it was about the time you guys
Speaker 1: were just either just ending high school or just recently
Speaker 1: ending high school, and like, what was that like? We
Speaker 1: never talked about that. Well, it's funny to think, actually,
Speaker 1: as you say that, because we spent so much time
Speaker 1: in your dorm room, I've never once pictured you in
Speaker 1: a class. I had no idea. I've never even thought
Speaker 1: that you actually like attended class. Yeah, I didn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't attend many. Right, Well, it's interested conversely, when we
Speaker 1: were in your dorm room us because we were not
Speaker 1: going to school, right, So it's like, yeah, but that's
Speaker 1: a good point. We never ever talked about we I
Speaker 1: never ever asked you about n y U ever. We
Speaker 1: just for our perspective, we just thought, well, this is cool,
Speaker 1: Like this guy lives in a dorm, he's going to college,
Speaker 1: and we're in high school. So this like, this is cool.
Speaker 1: Like you were like, we thought you were going to
Speaker 1: be the cool like you turned you know, you're like
Speaker 1: the cool, excitely older guy. And then and then also mistakenly,
Speaker 1: I think we thought, wow, we're gonna be hanging out
Speaker 1: in this dorm, which just means we're gonna beat like
Speaker 1: tons of girls, and this is gonna be great, and
Speaker 1: we never talked to anybody. It was not. But it
Speaker 1: was not like that mean for you to mind, Adam.
Speaker 1: What was your what was your school experience like on
Speaker 1: st um? Well, I was. I went. I was supposed
Speaker 1: to go to Brooklyn Heck, because I wanted to go
Speaker 1: to Stuyveson, but I didn't get in, and so I
Speaker 1: went to Brooklyn Tech. And that was just too weird.
Speaker 1: That's a whole other story, but tell it, tell that story.
Speaker 1: What was weird about it? No, Brooklyn, Like I wanted
Speaker 1: to go to Stuyveson because my best friend Arthur went there,
Speaker 1: and um and I didn't get in. So I went
Speaker 1: to the other school you could go to was a
Speaker 1: technical school in Brooklyn, and it was massive and they
Speaker 1: had like metal detectors to get in and it was
Speaker 1: this huge technical school and I, like I quickly realized
Speaker 1: after like the third day, like this is not for me.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's fright. It was just so overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Looking back, I wish I would have actually stayed and
Speaker 1: learned something technical actually what could have helped me? But
Speaker 1: um so I just stopped going to school for a while.
Speaker 1: And then my dad got me into the school Mcberniey.
Speaker 1: That was a private school of town, and I was
Speaker 1: there for a couple of years and then I stopped going,
Speaker 1: probably right around the time I met you. And not
Speaker 1: that the two things, not that two things are related.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, what was the experience like of the school,
Speaker 1: Like what were the kids like the experience going going
Speaker 1: to school? Because I was also I got into graffiti
Speaker 1: because we were into graffiti and so like that was
Speaker 1: the fun part about getting to school. Is just like
Speaker 1: being on the train and watching this, you know, just
Speaker 1: seeing who was on there and all that stuff in
Speaker 1: the school. The first school was was just overwhelming. It
Speaker 1: was I can't even describe. It was just huge with
Speaker 1: thousands of kids. It was just a massive school. And
Speaker 1: then McBurney was like a preppy school. It was like
Speaker 1: a I don't know, I just seemed felt really out
Speaker 1: of place there. I felt kind of dirty, like my
Speaker 1: clothes are dirty. Well can you tell tell us the story, Adam,
Speaker 1: Why you never returned to mcbernie Oh? Yeah, So they
Speaker 1: had the school play was gonna be Oliver, and so
Speaker 1: I did. They had auditions and I and I sang
Speaker 1: for the audition. Consider yourself at home and I never
Speaker 1: really sang out loud before, and I was so bad
Speaker 1: that I just left the school that never went back. Incredible,
Speaker 1: But I will say I think you'd be a good
Speaker 1: artful artful dodger artful, be good like even now then
Speaker 1: now in between, I know, but it was singing. I
Speaker 1: can't say, as you know, I can't sing. I mean
Speaker 1: I can, but it's just bad. Yeah, yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: You're you know, you're not rapping Forte, I get it, Adam.
Speaker 1: Did you get into graffiti before before hip hop music
Speaker 1: or were they simultaneous later later hip hop later? No?
Speaker 1: Rap music first? Definitely okay, And do you remember what
Speaker 1: were the record stories that you guys hung out in.
Speaker 1: Did you guys hang out record stores all? I knew
Speaker 1: you hung out at rat Cage, But was that like
Speaker 1: the first record store where you would like spend time
Speaker 1: but like the rat Cage you were at like that
Speaker 1: that was the first record store where I, like, I
Speaker 1: felt comfortable talking to the person behind the counter. I
Speaker 1: would go to breaker Bob's all the time, like get
Speaker 1: like get off the train coming home from school like
Speaker 1: a bleaker Bob's, and I'd be terrified because Bob was
Speaker 1: always there. You yell at you know, yell at you
Speaker 1: yell at me. And he had that huge Doberman pincher.
Speaker 1: She was scary and yeah, and they were always mean
Speaker 1: to me. Do you mean to everybody? You would always
Speaker 1: say random, weird jewish stuff. To me, I was just
Speaker 1: like a little kid. I just wanted to find out
Speaker 1: about what cool, what was new? It was cool and
Speaker 1: I didn't know and they were so neat, but then
Speaker 1: there was cool. I do remember going to nine nine Records. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where I hung out. I loved I loved nine nine.
Speaker 1: My memory of the of those days were that the
Speaker 1: whole schedule of the day was based around going to
Speaker 1: the club. Did you guys feel that way as well
Speaker 1: or no? Oh? Yeah, like that was the that was
Speaker 1: really the primary thing every day was what club was
Speaker 1: going to be that night, if there was going to
Speaker 1: be a band if not, what DJs to go to
Speaker 1: see and where to hang out. Well that's why the
Speaker 1: Rackage Records Star was great because it was the first
Speaker 1: record store that kids hung out at for me, at least,
Speaker 1: I mean the other recordsters that I used to go to,
Speaker 1: you know, kids wouldn't really hang out and Bleaker Bob's maybe,
Speaker 1: but that I didn't like it there, and so Rackage
Speaker 1: was like a meeting place, like a hangout place. And
Speaker 1: later your dorm room was going moving the needle forward along,
Speaker 1: like when we would hang out with you and we
Speaker 1: go to your dorm room. I remember like every day
Speaker 1: like it was just kind of like go to your
Speaker 1: dorm room and then figure out what we were doing
Speaker 1: that night, and what we were doing that night always
Speaker 1: revolved around what club we were going to. I remember
Speaker 1: it always being around music. Even during the day. We
Speaker 1: would make mixtapes and sometimes sit out on the front,
Speaker 1: uh the front of the dorm with boom box and
Speaker 1: listen to music. And it seemed like that's all that
Speaker 1: it was. That's all it was going on. All that
Speaker 1: seemed important was music and what we were going to
Speaker 1: eat and what we were going to listen to. And
Speaker 1: my it was clearly focused on hooking up. I was interested.
Speaker 1: I wasn't very good, uh in that arena, yeah, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, but I was interested. Where did the original
Speaker 1: Volkswagen emblem come from? That was from my friend Laura Shilson.
Speaker 1: It was on her wall. So wait, wait, I understand,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't on her wall on that chain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't remember there. I think she just had it
Speaker 1: on the wall. She took it off a car, and
Speaker 1: for some reason I had it and then put it
Speaker 1: on a string and then you took it. That's what
Speaker 1: I love about being a teenager, how much stuff just
Speaker 1: sort of goes from one kid to the next to
Speaker 1: the next. I just I remember. I feel like I
Speaker 1: feel like you and Yea came over and it was
Speaker 1: like you gave it to me in a glorious presentation. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like my revisionist history. I feel like like something
Speaker 1: like it's almost like I feel like I was knighted,
Speaker 1: like you guys gave me bestowed. It was bestowed upon
Speaker 1: you upon me, and then I could become Mike D.
Speaker 1: I'm going to dispute that, because think about it, what
Speaker 1: have I ever given you? I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like I remember this happening though, I feel like I
Speaker 1: was there for that. Yes, but I do feel like
Speaker 1: and I don't know how it ended up being on
Speaker 1: the chain, because I don't think it was on that
Speaker 1: chain somehow, like that chain was like sitting around and
Speaker 1: I don't remember that exactly, but I remember them. Once
Speaker 1: I started wearing that, it was kind of like then
Speaker 1: it was like I felt like everybody felt like, all right,
Speaker 1: I could I could beat Mike d Now that was
Speaker 1: your Superman cave. Yes, it was wow when you first
Speaker 1: met these guys, what was like? What are Can you
Speaker 1: think of a time where there sometimes when you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I get them, I understand who they are, Like I
Speaker 1: understand who Yaki is or who Adam is or who
Speaker 1: Mike is. Like, what was your sense of that? Well?
Speaker 1: I remember meeting Adam first through Dave Skilkin, and I
Speaker 1: remember Dave Skilkin was sort of in my mind the glue,
Speaker 1: like he was a kid who was just uh, super
Speaker 1: friendly and outgoing, which I don't think any of any
Speaker 1: of us were. I thought we met you and I
Speaker 1: met because of Nick Cooper. Could be wrong. I remember
Speaker 1: Nick Cooper, but I didn't remember that's how we met.
Speaker 1: I do remember I remember Nick Cooper telling us about
Speaker 1: you and being like, yeah, there's this I I you
Speaker 1: gotta meet him because we we put cooking us out.
Speaker 1: We really needed a DJ. It's like, you gotta meet him.
Speaker 1: He's into like the stuff that you guys are into,
Speaker 1: and he's a d K and he's got all the equipment.
Speaker 1: According to Nick and Wheber I asked your He's like,
Speaker 1: he's got a bubble machine. That was his big line.
Speaker 1: It's true. I'll see that. I'm it's true. Rick is
Speaker 1: confirming the bubble It's true that I had I had
Speaker 1: access to aubble machine. Okay, I never know. You were
Speaker 1: writing the book, you were like Rick, and no, I
Speaker 1: said the bubble machine, and You're like, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: And then you called Rick and Rick was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know about bubble machine. I was like, you
Speaker 1: both are crazy, because there was definitely a bubble was
Speaker 1: a bubble machine. Why else would you want to meet
Speaker 1: someone exactly they have a bubble machine. Okay, I'll go
Speaker 1: the funny. The funny thing is is that the bubble
Speaker 1: machine was something that just was at the dorm. It's like, uh,
Speaker 1: and when I heard that there was a bubble machine there,
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, wow, we gotta have a party. We
Speaker 1: have a bubble machine now, so let's have a party.
Speaker 1: And that was where the bubble machine story began. Rick.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious that about like just what your relationship
Speaker 1: with each of them was, Like I can remember spending
Speaker 1: the most time with Adam, and it seemed like our
Speaker 1: friendship had mostly to do with music, because that's what
Speaker 1: we We just listen to music all the time, as
Speaker 1: I recalled, and d Jay in music. And then I
Speaker 1: think I met the other guys through the story of
Speaker 1: Cookie Puss, after Cookie Puss was already out, and then
Speaker 1: wanting a DJ, and then I came to a couple
Speaker 1: of shows in DJ after the after the live set.
Speaker 1: As I recall hard to remember first impressions. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing Mike before I met Mike at the Grille one night,
Speaker 1: and I remember someone saying, Oh, that that's one of
Speaker 1: the guys in the Beastie Boys, And I remember thinking
Speaker 1: it was just like, uh, it was just a weird
Speaker 1: I had a weird impression, not good or bad, just
Speaker 1: like he's a kid, feels like maybe my age, maybe
Speaker 1: a little younger, and he's in a band, and and
Speaker 1: I remember he was I think, I think you may
Speaker 1: have been pretty inebriated that night, Mike, and I just
Speaker 1: remember thinking, Wow, this guy seems like a little like uh,
Speaker 1: it seems like revd Up, you know, like revd Up.
Speaker 1: He's like tough, tough guy, Mike, You mean like he's
Speaker 1: just like bad boy. No, no, no, just like like
Speaker 1: enjoying himself. Like he was hitting it hard. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: goes hard in the paint. He went hard in the pain.
Speaker 1: He was going hard in the paint and it was impressive.
Speaker 1: Come on. I don't remember him being inebriated that night,
Speaker 1: which doesn't mean that I wasn't. But what I do.
Speaker 1: What I do I do remember is two things. One
Speaker 1: is that was a really really important for like us,
Speaker 1: for you, Rick is like a part of us, like
Speaker 1: because that was like where we really saw like hip
Speaker 1: hop came, like I talked about it in the book,
Speaker 1: where hip hop came downtown and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: there's the Treacherous Three And then I think it was
Speaker 1: like the next week was Africa, Benbada and Chassy j
Speaker 1: If it wasn't that night whatever, and it was like this,
Speaker 1: it was the most exciting thing. But so my thing
Speaker 1: in terms of compensated, I think there's like, of course
Speaker 1: I was completely It's funny cause I like I think
Speaker 1: about I think back on those n grill nights and
Speaker 1: I think, wow, I was like so intimidated, was so
Speaker 1: scared to be there. But I was lucky every second
Speaker 1: of it. I was. There was no like club night.
Speaker 1: Maybe that was more influential or exciting to me, but
Speaker 1: but I was compensating for being intimidated. Probably like because
Speaker 1: I was with like my group of like friends, I
Speaker 1: was probably acting like, oh, yeah, I got this, but
Speaker 1: I definitely didn't have it at all. Rick, Well, what
Speaker 1: did you know about about the Beastie Boys at that
Speaker 1: point or what did you what was your impression of him?
Speaker 1: Had you ever heard of him? I don't think I
Speaker 1: knew anything. I think the first thing that I heard
Speaker 1: of the Beastie Boys was Cookie Posts, which I loved,
Speaker 1: and I remember I was in San Francisco and I
Speaker 1: heard it at she was a writer and a yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it might have been in Powers and I
Speaker 1: think I was stay staying at her like lofty place,
Speaker 1: and I think I heard it there. I don't know
Speaker 1: if she played it or if I heard it on
Speaker 1: the radio in San Francisco when I was there, but
Speaker 1: I remember the connection of being at her house and
Speaker 1: hearing it and um, and I thought, wow, that's really
Speaker 1: cool because I was really really into hip hop at
Speaker 1: the time, and I felt like it was the first
Speaker 1: punk rock expansion towards hip hop. That's what it felt like.
Speaker 1: It was as much a punk I would say it
Speaker 1: was as much a punk rock record as it was
Speaker 1: anything else. Compared to hip hop records, it was punk rock,
Speaker 1: but compared to other punk rock records, it was more
Speaker 1: hip hop. And I remember thinking, wow, it's really cool
Speaker 1: and and it and it had a and I remember
Speaker 1: laughing at it and laughing at it with it, you know,
Speaker 1: like laughing with it, thinking this is really funny, it's
Speaker 1: really good. And I remember I remember, I remember Yak
Speaker 1: and his motorcycle jacket and his long raincoat, and at
Speaker 1: one point I felt like him and Nick Cooper kind
Speaker 1: of had a similar raincoat vibe, you know that raincoat vibe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't remember how I met Nick Cooper, but I
Speaker 1: remember that to me, it felt like an anomaly. But
Speaker 1: in both cases, the raincoat vibe was not something you
Speaker 1: saw kids in New York wearing like it was. It
Speaker 1: was a fashion statement to where uh long, somewhat dressy raincoat. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the raincoat vibe played played strong when I first met
Speaker 1: Yak at that This Bad Brains show at Botany Talkhouse,
Speaker 1: and he was the only other kid my Agia was there.
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, this is the kids wearing like
Speaker 1: a trench coat and his combat boots and his like
Speaker 1: hairs spiked up, like this kid's really cool. Yeuck actually
Speaker 1: kept that raincoat thing for that trench coat for a
Speaker 1: long time. Yeah, that trench coat vibe worked, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say. I also remember Yak's obsession with the Bad Brains,
Speaker 1: like it felt like nothing else in the world existed
Speaker 1: other than the Bad Brains and kept that going for
Speaker 1: a long time too. Yeah, And I uh remember as
Speaker 1: a as a music fan seeing that sort of obsessive
Speaker 1: dedication and just thinking, wow, he's really again going hard,
Speaker 1: like he's going hard for this thing that he loves.
Speaker 1: Did you do you feel like you've got the answers
Speaker 1: that you wanted? Yeah? Well, actually I'm always curious what
Speaker 1: what uh I mean? When you're like eighteen, it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard, Like how would you describe somebody you meet?
Speaker 1: Is kind of hard because it's more about like what
Speaker 1: what common interests like having the same music interests, But
Speaker 1: did you have a sense during like just not knowing
Speaker 1: these guys then how you would describe each of them?
Speaker 1: I never really thought about it. I did feel like
Speaker 1: I definitely felt that I felt like, UM, the place
Speaker 1: that I grew up in and and the people I
Speaker 1: was around and where I grew up I had a
Speaker 1: big impact on what I what I saw, what I knew.
Speaker 1: I felt like their life experience was very different than mine,
Speaker 1: and it was just interesting and in some ways, Um,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a good thing, and in some
Speaker 1: ways I thought it was a bad thing from from
Speaker 1: my perspective, And what way and what way was it good?
Speaker 1: What way was it bad? You're talking about like a
Speaker 1: long night link kid versus a city kid kind of right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say like they had better access than I had,
Speaker 1: because this is pre Internet. Like now, everyone could find
Speaker 1: out anything they want about anything. Where I was, it
Speaker 1: was hard to find out anything about anything I would.
Speaker 1: I'd spend a lot of time in the library doing research,
Speaker 1: and even and even that research wasn't sort of cultural
Speaker 1: of the moment research, It was just what I could
Speaker 1: learn about the things I was interested in. And then
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time in record stores is my
Speaker 1: closest way of having any connection to culture because where
Speaker 1: I lived, there wasn't it didn't really exist. Although there
Speaker 1: was a club called there are a couple of nightclubs,
Speaker 1: and I did get to see like the Specials played
Speaker 1: in my hometown, which was remarkable. Um on the downside,
Speaker 1: I felt like maybe by living in the city, it
Speaker 1: might narrow the view of what was cool, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't know what was cool coming from where I came from.
Speaker 1: And the beauty of that was I could I could
Speaker 1: see and hear everything. There was very little peer pressure
Speaker 1: about about that where I lived, whereas I could see
Speaker 1: if you were in the city there was stuff that
Speaker 1: was cool to like it not cool to like, and
Speaker 1: that could have a limiting effect. I mean, I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard led Zeppelin playing from like other kids at school,
Speaker 1: but because kind of like to your point, I had
Speaker 1: already decided, like I was so set on making my
Speaker 1: identity about being into stuff that those kids weren't into,
Speaker 1: I couldn't hear led Zeppe. But then when we were
Speaker 1: in your dorm room and all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 1: you put on when the levee breaks, We're like, was
Speaker 1: this It's like the best thing ever? Or like a
Speaker 1: C D C or you know, what do you tell me, Mike? First,
Speaker 1: tell me your memories of the dorm room. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's the first college dorm I'd ever have been in
Speaker 1: period here in high school. Um, I remember like just
Speaker 1: being intimidated, like going up to the desk and I
Speaker 1: guess it must have been like maybe Mr Rick Rick
Speaker 1: Mazilla the desk and like having to get the pass
Speaker 1: or whatever to go up in the elevator being you
Speaker 1: get the visitor pass because we're visiting you, and then
Speaker 1: I and then I remember being kind of confused because
Speaker 1: you had a roommate, but then you I think you
Speaker 1: had a roommate, right, I actually need you to kind
Speaker 1: of like explain this to us, but I think you
Speaker 1: had a roommate when we first went there. But you
Speaker 1: had this huge p A in the in the dorm
Speaker 1: room with like to sir Win Vega, you know, like
Speaker 1: there's like the biggest PA I've ever seen, like like
Speaker 1: somebody that I knew have. And then with the turn
Speaker 1: tables and like the drum machine and everything and so
Speaker 1: so we loved it and we're impressed it all this equipment,
Speaker 1: but I was very confused. I was like, wait, how
Speaker 1: does Rick just like we were listening to music really
Speaker 1: loud in your dorm room, which and I loved it.
Speaker 1: But how were you How is this guy able to
Speaker 1: do this and like not get kicked out of the
Speaker 1: dorm room and where is this roommate? Like I was
Speaker 1: just a lot of questions. Yeah, yes, all all of that, Adam,
Speaker 1: what were your what were your memories of the dorm room?
Speaker 1: You know, first of all, I was looking for a
Speaker 1: place to be basically, you know, sort of in life
Speaker 1: and literally like not going to school and needing somewhere
Speaker 1: to be. But also being around you know, older kids
Speaker 1: is cool when you're younger, you know, intimidating, but you know,
Speaker 1: kind of cool. You're like, oh, you kind of think
Speaker 1: that you're one of the you know, older kids now.
Speaker 1: And it was just it was just cool, you know,
Speaker 1: especially going to your dorm room. You had just the records,
Speaker 1: this stuff like you know, two turntables, a drum machine.
Speaker 1: I was like, I loved it. I didn't have you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't have that stuff. I didn't have all those records,
Speaker 1: So it was great. I loved it. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: like Ricky talked about access, and yes we did we
Speaker 1: did have like growing up in New York City when
Speaker 1: we talked about in the book and the show whatever
Speaker 1: your woe was a huge thing to us, that we
Speaker 1: would just hear music all around us, or that we
Speaker 1: go to rackcas because we want to find out what's
Speaker 1: happening that night, and somebody say, oh, this thing's happening,
Speaker 1: and we would just go there because we had this
Speaker 1: access as teenagers. But but in your dorm room, it
Speaker 1: was just really exciting because I went out of sid
Speaker 1: we would I remember, like I was my I was
Speaker 1: again like kind of confused, but so impressed when you
Speaker 1: you would come off, you would I think I felt
Speaker 1: like you would come if they delivered it to you,
Speaker 1: or if you'd come back every week with like a
Speaker 1: great record from the record pool. Yeah, and you remember that,
Speaker 1: and we'd all go we'd go through them and put
Speaker 1: like basically everyone on to see what was good, what
Speaker 1: we like, what we didn't like, whatever we listened to
Speaker 1: every twelve inch from that week. That was such like
Speaker 1: an exciting Like I didn't I didn't have the like
Speaker 1: I had the money to get a single, like a
Speaker 1: rap single every once in a while, but I certainly
Speaker 1: would never think and never had the money to buy
Speaker 1: two copies of the same record. That just seems nuts
Speaker 1: and so to go to your place and you had
Speaker 1: two copies of all these singles that I loved, and
Speaker 1: we had two turns. It was just amazing. You know,
Speaker 1: it was nice to see you too. Obviously I should
Speaker 1: I feel used. I never did get that Bubba machine access.
Speaker 1: But then also I think and Adam and I've talked
Speaker 1: about this, like there was it was interesting. We felt
Speaker 1: like we were trying to just think back at you know,
Speaker 1: when we first like we met you, then we started
Speaker 1: working with you. It's like you especially like once you
Speaker 1: started starting, when you started producing uh with us and
Speaker 1: producing our records, it was like you had this confidence Rick,
Speaker 1: that was like you know, it's not like every either
Speaker 1: any of us were like, well Rick, what what record
Speaker 1: have you done? You know what I mean? Like and
Speaker 1: and we're all whenever, we're all of its eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: but it's like you had this confidence, like you knew
Speaker 1: how you wanted things to sound. And looking back at it, like,
Speaker 1: I'm just so impressed honestly with that, Like who It's
Speaker 1: got to be pretty rare that somebody like eighteen, nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty years old knows how they want, like what kind
Speaker 1: of what types of records they want to make Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's weird. I I definitely knew, I had a
Speaker 1: clear vision of what I wanted to hear. Really as
Speaker 1: a fan, it wasn't It was more, um, I just
Speaker 1: loved it, and I knew how certain things made me feel,
Speaker 1: and I wanted more of the ones that made me
Speaker 1: feel good and less of the ones that didn't make
Speaker 1: me feel as good. And it was very pure. It
Speaker 1: was the same way, the same way that you connected
Speaker 1: to it. I just and I think maybe part of
Speaker 1: it might have been that I didn't have brothers or sisters.
Speaker 1: You guys both had siblings, and I think that changes it.
Speaker 1: It's like I spent most of my time until I
Speaker 1: started hanging out with you guys by myself, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't The only opinion that I was around was my own.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't have an older brother playing me
Speaker 1: music I didn't have. I didn't have it all sort
Speaker 1: of had. I had to find it and and see
Speaker 1: what resonated with me. And it had very little to
Speaker 1: do with the people around me, because like in my
Speaker 1: high school, nobody like punk rock. I was the only
Speaker 1: person who like punk rock, So I had no sense
Speaker 1: of community at all. When I started listening to hip hop.
Speaker 1: At least there were a couple the kids in my
Speaker 1: high school who liked hip hop. Well, I'm gonna change
Speaker 1: the subject for a sec because there is something that
Speaker 1: I wanted to know Rick. Yes, So, Spike, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, But so we got the
Speaker 1: gig to open from Madonna on tour and Rick was
Speaker 1: the BC Boys DJ DJ Double R. And we played
Speaker 1: a couple of shows, um, and then he was gone
Speaker 1: and uh. And he said that his doctor said he
Speaker 1: had an inner ear situation that he couldn't fly. And
Speaker 1: so I thought that that answer couldn't fly. And so
Speaker 1: now I'm asking you, Rick, did you just not want
Speaker 1: to do it? Or did you really have an ear problem? True?
Speaker 1: Both both answers are flying with me. No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: of course true. I went to the the clinic on
Speaker 1: fourteen There was a ear, nose, and throat clinic on
Speaker 1: four Teams. I had never been there before, and I
Speaker 1: went there and they said, you have a terrible infection
Speaker 1: in your ear. You gotta take these drugs and you
Speaker 1: cannot fly. If you fly, you'll probably lose your hearing
Speaker 1: in that ear. So that was and we and I
Speaker 1: It's funny because I don't remember us talking about it.
Speaker 1: But also maybe part of the reason we didn't talk
Speaker 1: about it was because it was the tour was already ongoing,
Speaker 1: wasn't it. It was like we were so I feel
Speaker 1: like we did, Like, no, you don't. You flew out,
Speaker 1: Like you started the tour with us in like Seattle
Speaker 1: and Portland or something, and then for some reason you
Speaker 1: had to fly back to New York. But we were
Speaker 1: still on tour and you were you were supposed to
Speaker 1: meet us again, like in Los Angeles or something, and
Speaker 1: then instead of meeting us, you're like, you know you
Speaker 1: you had the ear infection. Yeah, now we're finding out
Speaker 1: was legit. But at the time we were like ear infection, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you everything. Feel free to ask me. Everything
Speaker 1: was always legit. It's like, I don't I would have
Speaker 1: loved to. I loved being in the band, I loved
Speaker 1: doing the shows. It was it was completely thrilling. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I feel in some ways it's like the
Speaker 1: the universe has this incredible power to affect my ear
Speaker 1: and make me stay in one place. And then it
Speaker 1: led to me focusing all my attention into production instead
Speaker 1: of being in a band which could have been like
Speaker 1: it could have been, that could have happened, and it
Speaker 1: just sort of worked out the way Maybe it was
Speaker 1: supposed to. I don't know. It feels like in retrospect,
Speaker 1: looking back, I would have never made that choice. While
Speaker 1: I'll say I didn't like traveling, I loved the experience
Speaker 1: of playing in the band. It was super fun. I
Speaker 1: thought the shows were great, Like I can remember I
Speaker 1: can remember us playing at Radio City and uh, just
Speaker 1: how much the audience didn't like it, And I just
Speaker 1: thought it was incredibly punk rock and fun. I can
Speaker 1: remember Madison Square Garden and thinking it was in It
Speaker 1: was just like, we're playing at Madison Square Garden. Can
Speaker 1: you believe this? We didn't even really we didn't have
Speaker 1: an album out. It was unbelievable, Right, What were the
Speaker 1: shows like? Rick? Uh? It was? It was funny because
Speaker 1: we got to do the the Crazy Beastie Boys show
Speaker 1: and lean into the craziness of uh of this sort
Speaker 1: of hell persona, the bad guy persona, and in front
Speaker 1: of an audience where it was completely inappropriate, which made
Speaker 1: it even funnier. It's like, it's it's like if you're
Speaker 1: if You're if you're doing a punk rock show in
Speaker 1: front of a punk rock audience, there's this camaraderie there.
Speaker 1: And if you're doing a punk rock show in front
Speaker 1: of people who are not feeling it, it really gets
Speaker 1: punk rock. It's like it gets it gets elevated to
Speaker 1: this other thing, not for anybody but us. I mean
Speaker 1: I found it thrilling. Um, I'm I know the audience
Speaker 1: hated it, but that was sort of part of the
Speaker 1: fun of it. Why then't even more than hated it?
Speaker 1: And and I think that's where it became thrilling to us,
Speaker 1: was that like these twelve year old girls and maybe
Speaker 1: more importantly their parents were genuinely horrified. They were they
Speaker 1: were repulsed. I mean, and to be right, I had
Speaker 1: to be there. We're a bunch of like little white
Speaker 1: kids yelling at them on stage like you should be.
Speaker 1: It's like, what was offensive? And yeah, and for the record,
Speaker 1: like Ricky, you know you obviously had a big that
Speaker 1: was that was another thing like along with introducing us
Speaker 1: to heavy metal led Zeppelin, Sabbath, b C, D C.
Speaker 1: You we also like the wrestling thing was never cool.
Speaker 1: That was uncool to us, right because we were these
Speaker 1: punk rock kids it's still uns uncol to everybody, but
Speaker 1: you were totally you d like this like vocabulary in
Speaker 1: that world, and you immediately saw like this opportunity with
Speaker 1: the madonitory that like, oh, it was like obviously you like, no, guys,
Speaker 1: what do you mean, You're just gonna be It's just
Speaker 1: like wrestling. You know, you had So it's just pretty
Speaker 1: weird to think about. Most people don't think about, like
Speaker 1: if you have a band, it's going to open up
Speaker 1: for this somebody who was like a cultural icon who
Speaker 1: couldn't have been you couldn't have had a bigger on
Speaker 1: the planet at that moment. Madonna like the biggest star
Speaker 1: in the world. Most people just thinking like, how do
Speaker 1: you put a good show together? And you you saw
Speaker 1: it through this totally other lens. It was like, no,
Speaker 1: it's obvious, it seems like wrestling. Well, the other part
Speaker 1: of it was is, no matter what we did, the
Speaker 1: audience was there to see Madonna and they weren't gonna
Speaker 1: like what we did regardless. So to to really lean
Speaker 1: into that idea of well where the we're the bad
Speaker 1: guys here? Where where the enemies and too and to
Speaker 1: overcome that to play it with all this bravado, like
Speaker 1: you're here to see me and like it's just so ridiculous,
Speaker 1: so funny. Adam, do you remember the stuff you said?
Speaker 1: I remember you said some really most come on, you guys.
Speaker 1: Most remember the big, the best and biggest flowing was
Speaker 1: I am the King of the Paramount, Like whatever theater
Speaker 1: we are at, That's how Adam would open up the show,
Speaker 1: I am the King. Um, you know Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1: Do you, Adam, do you see the humor in this now? Really? Now?
Speaker 1: Of course I do. It's you're like, I you have
Speaker 1: this space like I didn't like it? No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we we also we also just did this show a
Speaker 1: bunch of times in the movie, and it's like it's
Speaker 1: fresh in here. Um, it was amazing, it was hilarious.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a it's a it's not a it's
Speaker 1: not a wild idea, but it's a it's a it
Speaker 1: is a great idea. You know, they're not gonna like us.
Speaker 1: They're certainly not gonna love us. They might possibly be
Speaker 1: like I didn't like that, But if we can guarantee
Speaker 1: that they remember us by saying I fucking hated that,
Speaker 1: and I will hate this and have this memory of
Speaker 1: hatred for a long long time. That's an interesting way
Speaker 1: to get your music through to somebody. Yeah, and it worked,
Speaker 1: It worked, and we but I remember the time like
Speaker 1: being convinced because it was like we look at it
Speaker 1: in this like feedboy way of like, yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 1: make a name for ourselves, and we did. Rick. One
Speaker 1: thing I want to ask about just is a production
Speaker 1: on the first record, the uh we you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about a little bit in the show, but obviously
Speaker 1: we have so much but that like, as as a fan,
Speaker 1: there's some bands that take a while to form, and
Speaker 1: then some bands that just come out fully formed like
Speaker 1: that in that record. And even just actually the way
Speaker 1: these guys described you with the confidence, it sounds like
Speaker 1: you kind of came out fully formed in some strange,
Speaker 1: you know, amazing way. What was like what was the
Speaker 1: process of that first record. I can just remember that
Speaker 1: every time there was a good idea, we would make
Speaker 1: a new song. And I can remember the I remember
Speaker 1: two parts. I remember the lyric writing, which would be
Speaker 1: basically every night that we went out to the clubs.
Speaker 1: I remember trading lines only with the hope of making
Speaker 1: the other Remember laugh like I would always say stuff
Speaker 1: that I would think would try to make Adam laugh
Speaker 1: if we were hanging out, and if he laughed, I
Speaker 1: would write it down and just collecting lines, and we
Speaker 1: would both we would all do it back and forth
Speaker 1: and and collect up these mountains of rhymes, not so
Speaker 1: much with a subject or a song in mind. Most
Speaker 1: of the time it was more just good lines. Then
Speaker 1: I can remember being in the studio sometimes with Adam,
Speaker 1: sometimes myself, just making tracks because it's what I was
Speaker 1: always doing, and would just make tracks and um and
Speaker 1: just trying to make something interesting and and I don't
Speaker 1: think I could separate it in my head, but I
Speaker 1: knew the beats for l L were different than the
Speaker 1: beats for the BEASTI Boys, and the beats for the
Speaker 1: Best Boys were different than the beats for Run DMC.
Speaker 1: And it seemed clear to me, But I can't put
Speaker 1: a finger on what was different. But I knew as
Speaker 1: they were as we were making them. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this one, this one feels like LLLBAT and this one
Speaker 1: feels like this could be a really good Beast Boys records,
Speaker 1: those those like gated snare drums. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: can't say I can't. I can't put a finger on
Speaker 1: what it was. Do you remember sometimes making the record
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh, this is what, like it sort
Speaker 1: of gave clarity to what the whole record is, like
Speaker 1: a decision, a beat, a lion. No. I remember I
Speaker 1: was in Electric Lady working on the Cults album Electric
Speaker 1: and I got a call from Mike and Mike said, Hey,
Speaker 1: how come my records not done yet? And do you
Speaker 1: remember this? Mike, No, not at all. This was amazing
Speaker 1: because I think this was like you guys were on tour.
Speaker 1: I assume I was this must have been post ear infection. Well,
Speaker 1: we're probably on Raising Hell at that point, and I
Speaker 1: remember like a somewhat heated conversation where you were like, dude,
Speaker 1: you did say do that like the equivalent of dude,
Speaker 1: why is I mean, we're on tour? Why is our
Speaker 1: album not done? And I said, you know, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And I remember it's like it doesn't just happen, Like
Speaker 1: it doesn't. Uh, it's not not happening because I don't
Speaker 1: want it to happen. It. Uh, each of these things
Speaker 1: arrives when it arrives, do you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: It's like We didn't go into the studio every day
Speaker 1: with the idea of, Okay, we're gonna make something today.
Speaker 1: It was more like making beats in the dorm, listening
Speaker 1: to records, like coming up with what us what a
Speaker 1: track was gonna be, which sometimes would be six weeks
Speaker 1: or two months between songs. You know, it took. It
Speaker 1: was a long period of time. I can't remember from
Speaker 1: the time that we made whatever the first song was
Speaker 1: for that record. So we made the last song, I'm
Speaker 1: guessing it was eighteen months. Could have been two years,
Speaker 1: was It felt like a long time. And so also
Speaker 1: the other thing you guys talked about in the show
Speaker 1: Mike and I'm talking about in the show is going
Speaker 1: away on tour and coming back and you'd finished the
Speaker 1: record and mixed it, and they were surprised that it
Speaker 1: was this big thing where they they thought they were
Speaker 1: making a sort of more low fi punk rap record.
Speaker 1: Uh talk about that? Was that something you always saw,
Speaker 1: you always knew that that was the sound? Not at all.
Speaker 1: I in any case, there was no preconception or what
Speaker 1: something was supposed to sound like. It was just making
Speaker 1: it sound as good as it could sound for what
Speaker 1: it was. Whatever it was it's like the same it's
Speaker 1: true with LLL or same it's true with raising Hell.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like there was no thought to it. And
Speaker 1: the gated snare thing was like, uh, it's interesting you
Speaker 1: bring it up because it was it was like a
Speaker 1: moment in time, and I think it was really what
Speaker 1: was the art of noise was that it was the
Speaker 1: thing that got everyone excited about this kind of drum
Speaker 1: sound and that was probably like experimenting in that art
Speaker 1: of noisy way that led to that is my guests,
Speaker 1: if you had if you had Art of Noise twelve
Speaker 1: inch and Man Parish twelve inch, which one would you
Speaker 1: put on first? Both? I like them both. You can't
Speaker 1: put on both first, No, I wouldn't. Depends on it
Speaker 1: depends on the scenario. Depends on the scene. So you
Speaker 1: read a room, Yeah, what is it going off? Can
Speaker 1: you turn the fucking roosters down in the next place?
Speaker 1: Roosters are feeling it. The roosters are deeper than paint today.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I wanted to ask Mike and Adam about
Speaker 1: their memories of Chung King also. Oh man, yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's a good question. I Well, I'm feeling like I
Speaker 1: remember I remember, I think I was. We were with
Speaker 1: you Rick and we were talking and Jayburnett was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you guys gotta work at this place. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think he said chunk King's we I feel like
Speaker 1: we named chunking. He's just like, you got oh a
Speaker 1: seeking is called secret Society, then that's right. He's like,
Speaker 1: you gotta work at the studio, my friends, studio secret Society.
Speaker 1: But he was like talking about that guess like the
Speaker 1: Nive console or something that stuff that as a kid,
Speaker 1: I didn't really understand, but he was all excited about it.
Speaker 1: So we're like okay, Bet, and then we go there
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of like, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: really know about studios, but it's just like kind of bummy,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's not like nothing, there's nothing fancy
Speaker 1: about it. It seems like every other week when we
Speaker 1: go there one week and the next week like walls
Speaker 1: like they always kept moving balls around. Yeah do you
Speaker 1: remember that? Like, yeah, I do. I remember because it
Speaker 1: was kind of a loft space that the guy built
Speaker 1: out and he was just kind of moving stuff around.
Speaker 1: It was a weird place. I remember when we grew etied,
Speaker 1: we graffitied the wall behind the console, and at first,
Speaker 1: like I kind of remember, we got yelled at. And
Speaker 1: then it became the thing of the studios that everybody
Speaker 1: came there and did graffiti while they while they recorded.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time that we went there, psyched,
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to recording studio. I've been to like
Speaker 1: the Young and the Users recorded at a nice recording studio.
Speaker 1: And this place was like a fucking dump. It was
Speaker 1: fucking literally a dead fish in the fish tank. And
Speaker 1: it was dark. It was like super dark, like everything
Speaker 1: was dark. I was like, why why is it? Why
Speaker 1: are we going to the scary like haunted house. Remember
Speaker 1: walking up, it was like five flight walk up. It
Speaker 1: was dirt, dingy, dirty place. Now. I remember the elevator
Speaker 1: because it was all graffitied and somebody wrote their name.
Speaker 1: It was all this graffiti and someone wrote jose Ninas
Speaker 1: in the top corner And every time we got in
Speaker 1: the elevator, we thought that was the funniest name. And
Speaker 1: it literally we left every time we were in that
Speaker 1: elevator because meanness is a funny last name. I feel
Speaker 1: like we we laughed a lot at chum King. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: and on the way there and on the way out
Speaker 1: like it was just it's like, I think part of
Speaker 1: the key things about license to know what was making it.
Speaker 1: It never felt like we're making an album like it
Speaker 1: just felt like what you just said that it was
Speaker 1: kind of like that was just part of all right,
Speaker 1: wake up, go to your dorm room, listen to some records,
Speaker 1: you know, go to Cozy super Burger, then whatever club's
Speaker 1: going on that night, and if there's an idea studio.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like now you know the cold, like Adam said, like,
Speaker 1: it's not like we were making an album for this
Speaker 1: amount of time. And actually it's funny. I think back
Speaker 1: at you talking about me calling you and making that
Speaker 1: phone call and asked like, what's up with the record?
Speaker 1: I kind of now I'm thinking back at it, and
Speaker 1: I remember we were on the Raising Hell tour and
Speaker 1: I remember and being really excited run and Russell is
Speaker 1: getting me all excited, like like you know, like you
Speaker 1: got a call like what's taking so long with your album?
Speaker 1: Like you guys should be like run because he'd heard
Speaker 1: like by that, you know, he was so excited about
Speaker 1: Holding Now, which was hold It Now was like one
Speaker 1: of those songs like we're talking about, like we were
Speaker 1: out of the club. I remember, like we remember we
Speaker 1: went in there and just played around like a bunch
Speaker 1: of different like scratching things in off of records, and
Speaker 1: I think we even put down the verses. And then
Speaker 1: I remember you and Russell kind of like hearing it
Speaker 1: after we've already already done some stuff, and you specifically
Speaker 1: being really excited about it. You were like actually more
Speaker 1: excited even than we were where you were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is it, Like this is this is what
Speaker 1: you guys need to be making. It was mind blowing.
Speaker 1: I loved it. Oh you know, quest Of just told
Speaker 1: me a story the other day that I wonder if
Speaker 1: you guys know this. In Philly, when Hold It Now
Speaker 1: came out as a single, the version that was released
Speaker 1: to radio was the a cappella, which we called the Acapulco.
Speaker 1: And so in Philly people thought that the song didn't
Speaker 1: have a beat or any music or anything. It was
Speaker 1: just vocals. Yeah, it was just it was just vocals.
Speaker 1: And he thought, Wow, this is the craziest record I
Speaker 1: ever heard. It's just this rhyming and he said, And
Speaker 1: it was really well liked in Philly, even though it
Speaker 1: was such such a crazy you know, the first rap
Speaker 1: record not to have any music and um and it
Speaker 1: was a hit. And then when the album came out
Speaker 1: and it had the beat, nobody liked it because they
Speaker 1: were used to the acapella version, which they thought was
Speaker 1: just like the greatest thing they ever heard. We were
Speaker 1: talking to him and he would say something it just
Speaker 1: reminded me of words that we tried to force into
Speaker 1: like common you know speak. We'd pick random words and
Speaker 1: be like, oh no, this is this is what people say.
Speaker 1: Now I can't Why am I blank? I'm kind of
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm blanking on him so bad. But we
Speaker 1: used we picked like a few different words or phrases.
Speaker 1: It would be sometimes to be a phrase to like
Speaker 1: you'd hear you'd hear someone say something at the club
Speaker 1: that was just normal to them and we would laugh,
Speaker 1: like brass Monkey came from Jazzy j talking about what
Speaker 1: you like to drink, and just like, yeah, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's funnier than brass monkey? Oh my god, brass Monkey
Speaker 1: is that was a crazy night with tel Rock. Tell
Speaker 1: me I don't I don't remember. So you were producing
Speaker 1: a record for a rapper named Tela Rock, and we
Speaker 1: were going to go to the studio with you because
Speaker 1: that we just that that's also what I like when
Speaker 1: you're young, you're just you just go with your friend
Speaker 1: wherever they're going. Like it's just funny to think about
Speaker 1: going with your friend to their job, Like, no, you
Speaker 1: can't come to my job. I'm working. What are you doing?
Speaker 1: And so I didn't think about it. The place was
Speaker 1: in Queens or Long Island or somewhere. It was like
Speaker 1: it was like we had to take a car. It
Speaker 1: was really far and me and Skill Calm were there
Speaker 1: and it was just nuts. It just seems so growing.
Speaker 1: There was like grown ups that we didn't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know Tiller Rock, but it was like a real
Speaker 1: rap scene. It was just weird. And then Jazz J
Speaker 1: passed around a bottle of brass Monkey and me and
Speaker 1: Skill Comb were like, this is fucking delicious. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that you guys, you guys actually drank it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. The whole night was crazy. And then we
Speaker 1: could separated in two separate cars and we're like in
Speaker 1: Long Island, were like where are we and getting white Castle? Anyway,
Speaker 1: it was it was a really it was a nice night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember going. I remember taking cars to white castles.
Speaker 1: It was hard in Manhattan. It was hard to get
Speaker 1: white castle probably for the best. But what do we
Speaker 1: say because rope a dope, like in late eighties rope
Speaker 1: and I'm just I just remember one word. We'd say
Speaker 1: that ship is dope, and they'd be like, that's dope.
Speaker 1: It's rope a dope. And then we were like it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that's rope, and nobody like, did not
Speaker 1: laugh rope. We said, but that should it did not laugh.
Speaker 1: That is so funny. It's too bad because it's kind
Speaker 1: of great. Nobody else was like, oh, that's rope. I
Speaker 1: forgot rope. Rope is great. We gotta bring back rope.
Speaker 1: Rope is really funny, though it's it's explaining the joke.
Speaker 1: It's not that good. I feel like Flavor had a
Speaker 1: lot of the flavors normal waves speaking, had a lot
Speaker 1: of references that could work their way into songs. Like
Speaker 1: of everyone we hung out with, Flavor was a gold
Speaker 1: mine of phrases. I just want you to know the
Speaker 1: last time I saw Flavor, I was in my car
Speaker 1: in New York, stopped at a red light and he
Speaker 1: got in my car and I was just like, what's
Speaker 1: like someone's getting in my car and it's Flavor and
Speaker 1: he's like, yo, let's up. Take me to like thirty
Speaker 1: sixth Street, and so I drove him. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, good to see. Wow, it was nuts. Did
Speaker 1: did you guys go to at all to the studio
Speaker 1: when Public Enemy was recording? No? I just remember I
Speaker 1: remember going to their the radio show of the Spectrum
Speaker 1: City UH show in Long Island and doing that, and
Speaker 1: I remember just like listening with you and on our
Speaker 1: own then when we're on like listening to the demo
Speaker 1: for the song Public Enemy number one, like I mean
Speaker 1: on repeat, Like I don't think there's a single demo.
Speaker 1: There's no demo we listened to that much. Maybe a
Speaker 1: single song that we listened to so incessantly it was
Speaker 1: that was so mind blowingly good. It was incredible. I
Speaker 1: remember listening to it all the time. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think with what were the other things that were like
Speaker 1: that were like they really took over our lives for
Speaker 1: a period of time. Can you remember, oh, Eric Eric
Speaker 1: B for President? Yeah, well I didna say that school
Speaker 1: school D school, school E G S YO PSK people
Speaker 1: and nothing but squares. Remember like how many times we
Speaker 1: would listen to that in your dorm room and everywhere else,
Speaker 1: like yeah, when he especially that thing of like school,
Speaker 1: like school, these whole intro on that thing, like nah,
Speaker 1: no school, school, what time is it? What was his
Speaker 1: DJ's name? Code? Money, money, get your feed code, my
Speaker 1: code code? So good? Oh man, such good records, so funny.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess whatever we are of a certain age,
Speaker 1: so we that's but we will talk about often, like
Speaker 1: it is incredible how many great rap records were coming out,
Speaker 1: like nine, like just mind blowingly good rap records. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to remember which were the what were the other
Speaker 1: ones that really like moved the needle for us? Sucker
Speaker 1: MCS was everything obviously right, I read D m C
Speaker 1: were the I mean they were the archetypes. They were
Speaker 1: like you know, I mean the Jay talked so much
Speaker 1: about performing and how to sort of put a rap
Speaker 1: show together, um and how to you know, I think
Speaker 1: that along with you how to put a rap record together.
Speaker 1: Was there anything else that we had that wasn't out,
Speaker 1: like like with the Public Enemy tape. Howey, he's a demo.
Speaker 1: I remember bis Market was out. I remeber when we
Speaker 1: heard that first bis Marquee and talking about it with
Speaker 1: D M C and Jay and being really excited about it.
Speaker 1: You had a demo for uh slick Rick Children's story. Righ.
Speaker 1: Remember loved that right right, because that was another thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, Lotti Dotting in the show. We must have
Speaker 1: we must listened to a Lotti Dotting the show again,
Speaker 1: unquantifiable amounts of times. Do you remember the story of
Speaker 1: let me we're letting me clear my throat came from?
Speaker 1: I have a vague I have a memory, but I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's accurate. No, tell me, I don't.
Speaker 1: My memory was that on l L's demo tape that
Speaker 1: you found in the box of demo tapes, that that
Speaker 1: came to the dorm before he started rhyming, he said,
Speaker 1: let me clear my throat, and and I remember that
Speaker 1: we for whatever reason, it was the funniest thing we
Speaker 1: ever heard. It made I mean it was, It wasn't
Speaker 1: there was nothing funny about it, but somehow the idea
Speaker 1: that that was the first thing said before the the
Speaker 1: song starts. I know it's so easy to take that out, now,
Speaker 1: do you know? It's so it's so easy. But back
Speaker 1: then you couldn't. You just you didn't know how to
Speaker 1: take stuff out, and just whatever you recorded was on there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was nothing. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: I remember we latched onto It's like, this is just
Speaker 1: the funniest thing we've ever heard. We just latched onto it,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember how it ended up getting into
Speaker 1: the song. I'm sure you were like, wait, let you
Speaker 1: should say let you should scream at really angrily. That's funny.
Speaker 1: It's so dumb. But again, it's the beauty of It's
Speaker 1: in such a different context too, though, on this on
Speaker 1: our song as opposed to his demo tape. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of the montage of hip hop. That's
Speaker 1: how like pre contextualizing things that you find in the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: any other memories of dance Materia. I feel like that
Speaker 1: was sort of the place that I remember we went
Speaker 1: to the most. So many I mean so much, so many. Um, alright,
Speaker 1: where are we sorrying? I mean really that it was
Speaker 1: the first place since we would talk to girls. I
Speaker 1: thought you were you were just claiming junior high school status,
Speaker 1: so you're doing all kinds of things. But all right,
Speaker 1: dance there. I would say, like me, just like hearing
Speaker 1: you didn't know. They were like the songs that you
Speaker 1: would hear every every night, like uh uh app shoot
Speaker 1: You Down, or or new or um Confusion you'd hear
Speaker 1: like every single night or didn't didn't medium, medium, medium, medium.
Speaker 1: My favorite top three favorite things of Danceingteria was being
Speaker 1: on that dance floor room, second floor, just in the
Speaker 1: corner by the stairs, would always be hanging out. The
Speaker 1: music would be playing, people be dancing, and there was
Speaker 1: some guy in the middle of the crowd would be like,
Speaker 1: wren't that body. It wasn't just like once, It was
Speaker 1: like every night. Memories of the Roxie. I remember the Rocks.
Speaker 1: I remember two things. I remember African Bambada playing, Uh,
Speaker 1: Tony Basil, You're oh, Mickey, You're so fine at the
Speaker 1: Roxy so like you know, I'm there like a white
Speaker 1: kid at the Rosy thing. It's like the most de
Speaker 1: boy place ever. And here's African Bambada, one of the
Speaker 1: most important hip hop DJs ever, and he's playing Tony
Speaker 1: Basil like you know not, there's nothing that I thought
Speaker 1: of rap like music like that. When I associated with
Speaker 1: Tony Basil and I was just like, Wow, that's incredible
Speaker 1: that he could make Tony Basil old, Nicky, you're so fine.
Speaker 1: Work in the Roxy was incredible that and then I
Speaker 1: just remember being scared to go to the bathroom at
Speaker 1: the Roxy. Roxy. It was just it was just like
Speaker 1: dudes like selling coke and getting high and like shi,
Speaker 1: it was scary. I just felt like I was gonna
Speaker 1: get robbed in the bathroom. Yeah, me too. Well. That
Speaker 1: that I remember because I went of Roxy when I
Speaker 1: was a kid because it was a roller skating place
Speaker 1: and so I don't I don't know how to roller scape,
Speaker 1: but like it's like a thing you go and hang
Speaker 1: out at the roller skating place. And so then later
Speaker 1: a few years later, Roxy was a thing where we
Speaker 1: would go to, you know, the disco, and I remember
Speaker 1: when we were there. I don't know it was the
Speaker 1: first time we're there, but then like sucking shots rang
Speaker 1: out and someone had a gun and was shooting and
Speaker 1: people running. I was like, this is not the same
Speaker 1: thing from when I was eleven, twelve, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: it's it was a place you put a bunch of
Speaker 1: teenage dudes in the same place. Some weird ship's going
Speaker 1: to happen. Why is that it is the case? But
Speaker 1: why teenage dudes is stupid? I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about that the Hey Mickey reference that the
Speaker 1: embody used and that probably lead that hearing that there
Speaker 1: probably was a step in why the song It's Tricky
Speaker 1: got made? Are there? You gonna say a world destruction
Speaker 1: and for him it's like the same beat? Yeah, because
Speaker 1: the world destruction is like the same beat. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I just remember it's tricky being like feeling
Speaker 1: there were certain vibes that you would feel at a
Speaker 1: hip hop club that stood out that we're different than
Speaker 1: the others. It's like, hmm, how do you incorporate that?
Speaker 1: Because that definitely feels good, like we're in the club,
Speaker 1: this feels great. That's now part of the language. Like
Speaker 1: that felt like, okay, that's part of the language in
Speaker 1: hip hop and be if you were in a band
Speaker 1: and somebody in a band did a waltz beat instead
Speaker 1: of a four four beat, and you'd say, oh, that's
Speaker 1: a new part of the vocabulary. You can write a
Speaker 1: song with a waltz beat, no matter to wald speat.
Speaker 1: I got, you know, I got tons of songs of
Speaker 1: Wald Speeds. Oh wait, one thing Wick I did want
Speaker 1: to say is you were talking about how I don't
Speaker 1: even know how to explain it to people, or maybe
Speaker 1: it's not even worth trying to explain. But like we
Speaker 1: were talking about opening from Madama, it that it's it's
Speaker 1: also it's very interesting. Look obviously we've we've changed a
Speaker 1: lot through the years, but it's it's it's interesting to
Speaker 1: me because people know I feel like relate to us,
Speaker 1: or a lot of people know us just from like
Speaker 1: life and still little Beast Boys, and then there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that grew up with us for a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff whatever, but a lot of people know
Speaker 1: it's just like it's in that um incarnation license at
Speaker 1: all time. And I think it's interesting with you. You
Speaker 1: were like such a big part of like when we're
Speaker 1: opening up from the data and this like this whole
Speaker 1: idea like persona. But then people actually know you now,
Speaker 1: like from your persona now, not from like like how
Speaker 1: you would talk then, And I don't even know how
Speaker 1: to explain when I try to explain to people how
Speaker 1: you would talk in sort of like when you're excited about,
Speaker 1: like for wrestling, and how you would do that I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to capture it or explain it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely a ramped up character there, uh inspired by
Speaker 1: like Roddy Piper would be one of the key get
Speaker 1: Rick Flair. The the guys who would who you'd want
Speaker 1: to see lose and who would often find a way
Speaker 1: to win through cheating. Um. But they were the funniest.
Speaker 1: They always like the bad guys in wrestling. The bad
Speaker 1: guys have the best lines. So they were the most
Speaker 1: charismatic and funniest characters. So put on that air has
Speaker 1: to do with Youth, Michael, Youth, don't give a fuck.
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing this. Great to see you, Adam,
Speaker 1: I miss you, I love you, and I look forward
Speaker 1: to continuing uh bridging bridging the years that that we've missed.
Speaker 1: I love you too. Nice to talk to you. Thank you, Rigors.
Speaker 1: Great to see you, Spike A pleasure. I miss you.
Speaker 1: I mist see later you guys right. Thanks to Mike, Adam,
Speaker 1: and Spike for taking the time to catch up with Rick.
Speaker 1: You can hear all our favorite Beast Voice songs plus
Speaker 1: the other songs mentioned in this episode by heading the
Speaker 1: Broken Record podcast dot com and be sure to check
Speaker 1: out our YouTube channel where you can find some great
Speaker 1: bonus material for past episodes. You can subscribe at YouTube
Speaker 1: dot com slash broken Record Pods. Broken Record is produced
Speaker 1: with help from Jason Gambrel, Meal, La Belle, Leo Rose,
Speaker 1: and Martin Gonzalez for Pushkin Industries. Theme musics by Kenny Beats.
Speaker 1: I'm justin Richmond. Thanks for listening.