‘Beastie Boys Story’ sees Ad-Rock and Mike D celebrate groundbreaking talent of ‘wildcard’ Adam Yauch
The Apple TV+ feature documentary 'Beastie Boys Story' is at a mere arm's reach away, premiering on April 24. The Spike Jonze-directed special gives fans an experience to share in the intimate details of the band's friendship and their rise to fame as Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz speak on stage in the Kings Theater in Brooklyn. You can read a review on the entire feature here, but let's take a moment to cherish the beginnings of the iconic hip-hop band as they honored Adam Yauch.
Following a pumped-up montage of the Beastie Boys at the intro, Ad-Rock and Mike D, the remaining members of the Beastie Boys settled down the hype to highlight the show's hero. In a touching sentiment to the hip-hop group's close friend and fellow bandmate, Adam Yauch, whom they said they lost in 2012 to cancer, Ad-Rock shares that they will be telling their story of "over 30 years" of friendship "doing all kinds of crazy stuff together." Mike D says, "The two of us will do the best we can, because one of us isn't here: Adam Yauch," to loud praise from the audience. He adds, "and when Adam died, we stopped being a band."
Describing the band's beloved friend as a "wildcard", Ad-rock continues the intro eulogy, "It just felt too weird to do the band without Yauch because... well, the band was his idea in the first place", adding "So, although Yauch's not here with us, 'what would Yauch do' is always on our minds. But trying to imagine what Yauch would actually do is pretty hard because he was very unpredictable."
Mike D reveals he grew up as a "weird kid" from the late-'70s, early-'80s who sought out other like-minded teenagers who were into The Clash and punk rock culture. He continues to note that he and former bandmate John Berry met Adam Yauch (who was 16 at the time), at a Bad Brains gig. Ad-Rock, 15 at the time, had a separate meeting with Yauch at a Misfits show in 1982. At this stage, along with rare early photos of the band members over the talks, you get a sense that the 'Beastie Boys Story' understands what the fans want: a relatable history of kids doing what they do best, having fun.
"He looked really cool," Mike D says, describing someone standing out in the Bad Brains audience. "He had this long trenchcoat on from, like, a thrift store. He had combat boots. He had these home-made buttons on his trench coat, and his name was Adam Yauch."
Mike D revealed that it was Adam Yauch who "kept pushing us to start a band with him" during the early '80s, and was the author of the band's legendary name. During the entire show, it's as if Ad-Rock and Mike D realize the Beastie Boys are missing a key member, yet his memories fire up their exuberance to continue just as strong. It's bittersweet, yet empowering to watch.
A notably kicka** scene about Yauch is when Mike D and Ad-Rock explain how they stopped by Yauch's apartment one night. Ad-Rock says Yauch had a quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape deck set up on a table in the kitchen, "which I didn't even know he had." Mike D explains, "And I'm there and I'm studying this, trying to figure out what this whole thing is" and steps up to a showpiece of the mysterious rig. "He's got the tape from the one reel, and instead of just going to the other reel like it usually would, it comes out the one reel, it's going around a mic stand, and then it goes around another mic stand, and then it goes around a chair, and then back into the second reel," he says with a puzzled look on this face. "Adam and I are looking at this thing and we're like, 'This is like a f**king magic trick,'" says Mike D. "And then Yauch gets up and he presses play..." he adds before pointing to the wild contraption as an insanely thick thumping beat shakes the walls of the theater. The band reveals that Yauch's obsession with loops and the genius behind the wicked rig led to 'Rhymin' & Stealin', the first track off their smash debut LP 'Licensed to Ill'. "Yauch told us that he had heard about Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone doing tape loops and he wanted to try it," Ad-Rock says. "Where did he hear about that? There was no YouTube or Google back then."
You can't help but sit back and take in the 'Beastie Boys Story' as both a rich, detailed exploration of the band's legacy and a back-to-back history of their friendship. The Yauch moments don't appear melancholic, but rather as a celebration of his groundbreaking talent, supercharged energy for fun and music, and everlasting contribution to being plain downright cool.