The Beastie Within: Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D Embrace Their Inner Heebs

The Beasties’ latest album, To The 5 Boroughs, has been widely acknowledged as a return to the old school, a paean to their early days in New York. But one element is entirely new: what Ad-Rock calls the embracing of the “funky-ass Jew.” It’s because of the Jewish signposts sprinkled throughout their work that their latest album feels like a Rosetta Stone. Whether in call-outs to “hide the matzoh” or “holler back challah bread” or the couplet “the truth is brutal/your grandma’s kugel,” the Beastie Boys are entering a new artistic stage, and pleasantly, it’s not one they’re shy discussing.

I can’t help but notice that this album has a ton of Jewish references. On your previous albums, you never used words like “kugel” and “matzoh.”

MCA: I’ve been trying to get my Uncle Freddy to teach me some Yiddish so I could work some Yiddish lyrics on an album.

Ad-Rock: My dad knows Yiddish. [To MCA] Your mom doesn’t know Yiddish?

MCA: Not like my Uncle Freddy. I mean, my mom knows words like “tuchus.”

What’s your ancestry?

MCA: My mother’s side is Jewish. My mother’s father came to America when he was 3 years old from Galicia. They keep switching from Poland to being part of Austria, but people called him the “Galiztiana.” My mother’s mother was born here, but her parents came through Ellis Island.

Ad-Rock: My father’s side is from Hungary. [To MCA] What’s Mike’s deal? I know his mother’s name is Hester.

You three met up through the hardcore scene. I read somewhere that you were Minor Threat fans.

Ad-Rock: We still are.

MCA: We once prank-called Ian MacKaye. He didn’t think it was very funny. I called him up and said I was Alf or something and he said, “No you’re not,” and hung up. So years later, he says, “Yeah, I remember that call.” He wasn’t laughing. Like, almost still pissed off about it. He didn’t get that we looked up to him and this was our way of showing affection. [Ad-Rock begins to play Minor Threat MP3s off of his cell phone.]

Now that you’ve gone back in time, let’s talk about the Licensed to Ill period: the 20-foot phallus you brought on stage, the caged women, etc... I know how you all feel about that...

MCA: No, actually. What do you think we feel about that time?

You’ve made public apologies about your behavior during that time.

MCA: A lot of times people tell us, “You must be embarrassed about that time and hate that album and what you all did.” But that’s not true. We’re actually very proud of some of the stuff on that album. In fact, we don’t dislike that stuff as much as people think we do.

What did your parents think at that time? I can assume they gave up on you becoming doctors or lawyers.

Ad-Rock: I think my dad was happy that I was actually doing something that was making money and that I wasn’t being a fuck-up. Initially, they were upset that I wasn’t going to school anymore. But I did eventually graduate high school. Granted, it took me five and a half years.

This excerpt is from an article originally published in Heeb #7 Fall/Winter 2004.