What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers
don't forget to hit the bell notification
icon to be notified every time I put out a
new video on my channel. The beastie boys
made history in 1986 with their landmark record
Licensed to Ill which became the first rap
record to top the billboard album charts.
Not only that, but the band also caught the
attention of the former members of Led Zeppelin
and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose? What
happened? Stay tuned to find out.
The beastie boys started out as a hardcore
punk band when members Adam ‘Ad-Rock”
horovitz, Adam “MCA” Yauch (yeahowk) and
Michael “Mike D” Diamond were still teenagers.
Soon enough the trio took a bigger interest
in hip hop and started rapping at their live
shows.
Several years prior to them releasing their
debut record License to Ill, the trio met
a New York University student named Rick Rubin
while trying to find a DJ to help out with
their live sets. Rubin wasn’t very skilled
in mixing different records together so instead
he would play an eclectic mix of records back
to back. For example he’d play a Led Zeppelin
track followed by a Kurtis Blow one. According
to Mike D who would reveal in the Beat Documentary
“Rick definitely came from a whole AC/DC,
Led Zeppelin, Long Island, like, rock background,”
“He, pretty much … introduced it to us.
Because we kinda came from punk rock’
Soon enough Rubin formed Def Jam Recordings
with Russell Simmons and wanted to bring the
Baestie boys on board and produce them. His
vision for the band was to take the group’s
rhymes and mash them up with a sampling or
classic rock songs. The group’s first single
released through Def Jam was a song called
Rock Hard that sampled AC/DC’s single Back
in Black. Unfortunately AC/DC didnt give permission
for their song to be used and the single had
to be shelved.
That rejection didn’t stop the trio from
moving forward as their entire full length
record is full of samples with one track containing
multiple samples running the gamut from Steve
Miller Band, The Clash, Black Sabbath and
Joan Jett to many more.
One of Rubin’s favourite bands that he samples
not once, not twice, but three times on the
record was Led Zeppelin. Diamond would remember
“We got real into it, and into the idea
of Led Zeppelin having beats,”
Released in November of 1986, License to Ill
launched the careers of the Beastie Boys.
the members of Led Zeppelin were unaware of
their work appearing on the album.
The opening track Rhymin and Stealin features
a scratched up version of Zeppelin drummer
John Bonham’s memorable drum part from “When
The Levee Breaks”.
On the song ‘She’s Crafty” samples Jimmy
Page’s guitar riff from the song “The
Ocean’, while “Time To Get Ill” sampled
the Zeppelin song Custard Pie. The Beastie
Boys musical style caught the ears of both
white and black kids and they soon gained
acceptance by a wide audience with Diamond
remembering their early shows
“We were having concerts where there were
black groups and white groups performing onstage,”
“You had black kids and white kids coming
together in a way that they probably never
would have for any other group at the time.”
There would be one famous rock n roll frontman
who counted himself a fan, but also gave the
trio a piece of advice. Guns N’ Roses frontman
Axl Rose met Horoviz at a house party in Los
Angeles in 1988 and told him to stop ripping
off Led Zeppelin.
They did earn the scorn of one famous fan.
When Axl Rose bumped into Horovitz at a Los
Angeles house party in 1988, he told the Beastie
to stop ripping off Led Zeppelin.
Eventually word made it’s way to the The
surviving members of Led Zeppelin’ that
the Beastie Boys used their music, but strangely
enough the band didn’t sue. In fact the
members of the Beastie boys claimed they never
heard from Led zeppelin’s lawyers.
During a 2014 interview guitarist Jimmy Page
would say “I guess I felt it was a compliment.”
Well, I guess I felt it was a compliment.
Without being specific. I know the Beastie
Boys used quite a bit of our stuff, really,
didn't they? I can tell you one thing, to
go back to "Whole Lotta Love." I've seen the
riff of that song show up in mashups on YouTube,
that riff got people to the point where they
were inspired to do their own thing, that's
really cool. I'm not going to complain about
that. But the Beastie Boys, that was almost
as long ago as Led Zeppelin! he'd say
And The Beastie Boys seemed to open the flood
gates for other artists who sampled zeppelin
including rapper puff daddy to Ice-T. The
Beastie Boys for their part continued to sample
Led Zeppelin for their sophomore release 1989’s
paul’s boutique. That does it for today's
video thanks for watching. Be sure hit the
like button and subscribe. If you have suggestions
for future topics let me know in the comment
section below. Take care
