# what do Black People think of the Beastie Boys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599 "2004-10-11T08:26:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BytopianDream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9de0a6/32.png) [@BytopianDream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BytopianDream)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599/21 "2004-10-11T21:50:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > What about electronica? [hijack] As far as I understand it: R&B/Generic Pop -\> Disco -\> House -\> Techno -\> Everything else considered “electronica.” Techno and House were developed nearly in the same time, but in different places, Detroit or Berlin for Techno and Chicago for House. Of course, the story may have changed from when I had street cred in the electronica scene. I’m sure there is probably a website out there with a history. Whether it is correct or not is anyone’s guess. [/hijack] Beastie Boys is white hip-hop. They did open doors for black hip-hop though. They exposed the middle class white kids to hip-hop. Hip-hop became popular not just in part to black kids in the urban environment, but also because of suburban white kids looking for that next great “piss off the parent/establishment/whatever” thing. Beastie Boys were the “gateway” music as it were. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599/22 "2004-10-11T22:16:58Z")
It’s probably worth its own thread, but pretty much all western music can be traced back to the blues. While some modern forms may bear little resemblance, the influence is still there. And death metal is closer than some of the other stuff out there. For what it’s worth, [allmusic](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781ED948A97520CE992D4DDABD7DF529D64CEE831F29461BDFBA3C54851472F353F28C93FDFB75AB78AEE02CA45A0B9FCCE457F8D6633F2DED93&sql=11:gsj20rjac489~T1) has this to say about the Beasties: > [@](#): > > As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, who accused them of cultural pirating, especially since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren’t pirating — they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the do-it-yourself aesthetics of hip-hop and punk weren’t that far apart. Of course, the exaggerated b-boy and frat-boy parodies of their unexpected hit debut album, Licensed to Ill, didn’t help their cause. For much of the mid-'80s, the Beastie Boys were considered as macho clowns, and while their ambitious, Dust Brothers-produced second album, Paul’s Boutique, dismissed that theory, it was ignored by both the public and the press at the time. In retrospect, it was one of the first albums to predict the genre-bending, self-referential pop kaleidoscope of '90s pop. The Beasties refined their eclectic approach with 1992’s Check Your Head, where they played their own instruments. Check Your Head brought the Beasties back to the top of the charts, and within a few years, they were considered one of the most influential and ambitious groups of the '90s, cultivating a musical community not only through their music, but with their record label, Grand Royal, and their magazine of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599/23 "2004-10-11T22:29:04Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > To veer totally off-topic, I always was of the opinion that metal actually is far more similar to classical music than to blues. Both use lots of scales and are quite patterned and kind of mathematical, wouldn’t you agree? Well, a lot of metal owes something to Bathory/Quorthon, and what Quorthon did was to bring a direct classical influence to the metal of the time. So yes, it does have quite a bit in common with classical music. > [@](#): > > And BTW, to say that black people invented all forms of music is just silly. Well, if we’re all from Africa originally, and music came about as early as is generally believed, then in a very real sense, black people did invent all music. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599/24 "2004-10-11T23:43:05Z")
In the mid-80s, my brother was listening to the BBs along with Dougie Fresh and Run DMC. Personally, I like “Brass Monkey” BBs more than “Sabotage” BBs. But then again, hip hop lost most of its appeal for me post-1995. The Beastie Boys of the 80s represents the “good old days”. [quote] It has always kind of irked me that whenever the Beastie Boys come out with a new rap record it gets played all over the “new rock” stations and isn’t even mentioned on the hip-hop stations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-black-people-think-of-the-beastie-boys/268599.md?page=1)