Customer Reviews

Rhyming & Stealing: A History of the Beastie Boys

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book, though apparently well researched and full of first hand accounts is nothing of the sort. As a B-Boys fan since the early 80s in NYC, I was surprised that this book so generalized the era and relied almost solely on interviews from the early and mid-90s. Though a fan, I find it very hard after seeing them that the opinions expressed on L to Ill were a joke and meant to be completely taken as such. This book is ill researched propaganda for the now regretful band to cover up their old ways. The author, who is British, had a pretty poor grasp on the impacts and feelings on this side of the Atlantic.

The author, who is from England, makes brood assumptions about the Punk Rock and Hip Hop scene in New York City in the early 1980's. He uses these assumptions to vaguely context the era that brought us the Beastie Boys from their roots in Punk Rock to inovations in Hip-Hop. He wasn't there or even in America during this time. I believe he has no idea what the youth of that time were feeling or up to. His sources are b-boy song lyrics(?), and other peoples interviews. The interviews he sites take place mostly in the mid 1990's. This takes away from my validity in what he has to say. He follows this method through the rest of the book. I don't think he has ever met the band, definitely never interviewed them on a profesional level. The book is in large print and thick paper so it looks bigger then it really is(180 pages). P.S. to give away the ending the butler did it>

this book doesn't really deal with the beastie just about what influenced them and what not, nothing new or fascinating.

Maybe it's because I'm 27 years old as I read this book, but it reads more like a religious book than anything else. Now, I have been a Beastie Boys fans since the beginning, but this book has simply too much praise for the guys between the covers. Apart from that it is very informative and nicely written. I enjoyed it tremendously. If only it would not make musical gods out of the three guys...

This book was awesome, it explains so much about the philosphy of hip hop and how much the BEASTIE BOYS were a part of it. In depth details of everything they did, the best ever!

Forget about war and peace, this is all you nee

move over "To kill a mockingbird" This is quite posibly the best book ever written. ever!

Good Boo

I have waited a long time for a book like this. Overall I thought it was informative but over serious. It failed to capture the personalities of MCA, Mike D and Adrock.

This book was cool. I'm only fourteen, so at times the words the author used, and the fact that one sentence was about 50 words long, made it kinda hard to understand and keep concentrated. But i did learn lots of cool stuff about the beastie boys... it gave a lot of insight as to what many of the lyrics actually mean proving that they aren't just meaningless rhymes. I was a little disappointed that i didnt learn more about the boys' personal lives, but all in all, the book was pretty dope and i would recommend it, but only if you REALLY are a devoted fan.