Episode #217 |01.21.25
Beastie Boys: How They Inspired a Crime Wave, Caused New Laws to Be Written, and Influenced Culture
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In this episode
The news called the London crime wave an “epidemic." The Beastie Boys inspired it. Liverpool wanted to kill the group. AdRock in jail. Numerous other musicians arrested, in part, because of the Beasties. The band’s hardcore roots, their hip hop success, creating a Gen X Sgt. Peppers, and a legacy of influence that’ll be hard to top by future artists. Buckle up for a crime and grime influenced Beastie Boys story.
Sources
Beastie Boys Book, by Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz
Beastie Boys’ Paul Boutique (33 ⅓), by Dan LeRoy
Beastie Boys Story (2020, dir. Spike Jonze)
The Night the Beastie Boys Got Punked by Liverpool (GQ)
Beastie Boys Member Sentenced in Attack (LA Times)
Beastie Boys Seized After Concert Melee (NY Times)
Chief: ‘Boys’ Deserved Arrest (Columbus Ledger)
DISGRACELAND is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Jake Brennan.
Mixed by Matt Beaudoin.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak