Sunday Music: Run-DMC Gifting Songs To The Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys are sitting on a stoop outside of an NYC recording studio in 1985. They’re waiting outside because Run-DMC are going to swing by to work on a song together.

Allow me to clarify this particular point - the basically teenage Beastie Boys, who are yet to release a proper album but fresh off singing a deal with Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, are about to meet two of their idols that they never would have dreamt of working with, to co-write a song, are sitting on a stoop, giddy with anticipation.

Adam Horowitz is thinking to himself, “Just a couple years ago, me and Dave Scilken got busted for writing graffiti, so we ran and hid from the police in a stairwell leading to a basement, two doors down from where we are sitting now. And here we are, waiting to record a song with the greatest of all time, Run-DMC.”

Life revolves until it evolves.

So they’re impatiently waiting, full of excitement, when they hear a human siren coming from around the corner…

“Here’s a little story I got to tell!”

It’s Run, the famous rapper, in exactly the gear you’re imagining him wearing for the era, and he’s screaming these words while sprinting towards them from blocks away.

“Here’s a little story I got tell!!!” As Run finally makes it to the stoop. “The song’ll be like a story. Your story. Here’s a little story I got to tell, about three bad brothers you know so well. it started way back, in history… with ADROCK, MCA, and me, Mike D.”

DMC walks up (he wasn’t chasing his crazy friend) and adds, “Yup. That’s it. That’s the intro.”

If you do good work, the kind you know you respect, the kind that earns the respect of the people you respect, you’re on your way.

Run-DMC gifted the Beasties the intro to “Paul Revere.”

I used to think it just sounded like their fandom coming out. Knowing it came directly from the source, makes it better. This is the sound of respect earning respect.

ps. The Beastie Boys Book is magic. I ended up doing the hardcover and the audiobook. If you do audiobooks, this is in my top 5 audiobooks, easily.

pss. “Slow and Low”- which was produced by Rick Rubin, was originally a Run-DMC song too. The Beasties were gifted it, and made it their own as well. The demo is really cool to hear.