The surviving members of the Beastie Boys — Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond — made an historic move on Sunday (October 18) when they allowed 1994’s Ill Communication single “Sabotage” to be used in a Joe Biden campaign ad that focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic’s affects on the live music industry.
The trio famously refused to license their music to be used in commercials in an effort to stick to their punk rock ethos. In fact, it was the dying wish of the late Adam “MCA” Yauch whose $6.4 million trust, assumed by his wife in 2012, explicitly forbade any use of the Beastie Boys’ music in any advertisement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW86jyTsYe4&feature=emb_logo
While the Beastie Boys have sued Monster Energy and GoldieBox for unauthorized use of their music, they did allow “Sabotage” to be repurposed for Star Trek and the video game Destiny 2 trailers.
The ad in question, which aired during the Pittsburg Steelers versus Cleveland Browns NFL game, features Ann Arbor, Michigan bar co-owner Joe Malcoun who runs the Blind Pig establishment. In the spot, he blames the bar’s shutdown on Donald Trump’s response to COVID-19 as “Sabotage” starts to play in the background.
“This is the reality of Trump’s COVID response,” he says in the clip. “We don’t know how much longer we can survive without any revenue. A lot of restaurants and bars that have been mainstays for years will not make it through this.
“This is Donald Trump’s economy: There is no plan and you don’t know how to go forward. It makes me so angry. My only hope for my family and for this business and my community is that Joe Biden wins this election.”
Beastie Boys Credit Adam 'MCA' Yauch For Blazing A Trail To Enlightenment
Yauch was diagnosed with cancer of the parotid gland, a salivary gland in the throat, in 2009 and succumbed to the disease on May 4, 2012. During an interview with HipHopDX, Diamond and Horovitz, along with director Spike Jonze, credited Yauch with blazing a trail of enlightenment for the rest of the group prior to his death.
“In 1999 or so, it was extra not cool to be political,” Jonze tells DX. “Adam [Yauch] starts talking about how appalling what happened at Woodstock [’99] was and that the bands need to step up and have better security, look out for women at these festivals and shows. There were no other artists talking about that at the time. It was really moving.”
Mike D added, “We weren’t supported in the room. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh yes! I’m glad someone’s finally saying it.’ We all need to talk about it because it was happening, but nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody wanted to admit it was happening.”
Ad-Rock said, “Yeah, absolutely. Being around Adam Yauch and him saying things he did, taking stands he did publicly was inspiring for me to be like, ‘Oh, you can make fart jokes and actually also care about people and respect your place in the public, that you have a platform to say things and people will listen.’ Whether they give a shit or not, I don’t know. He was always inspiring — like if Yauch can do it, I can do it.”
Revisit the “Sabotage” video below.
fuck joe biden and fuck the beasties for shitting on mca
people don’t want to hear their screeching voices in that song turn it on to another channel such as fox news.
The bar owner is blaming Trump for closing down restaurants? That’s just laughable. I wonder how much he got paid to lie on camera.
That bar is closed BECAUSE local city/state politicians aka DEMOCRATS in this case decided that lockdowns work and everything needs to be closed down.
Lockdowns do NOT work as shown by Europe where France, Spain etc. had total lockdowns and destroyed their economies and after the lockdowns were lifted Covid came back as bad as before.
Furthermore Biden has PROMISED to lockdown whole of USA TOTALLY if an “expert” recommends it to him and Fauci is there waiting to recommend just that and Fauci recommended a total lockdown of USA to Trump too but Trump decided to leave the issue with LOCAL state/city governments aka governors/mayors and in this bar/club’s case they are DEMOCRATS so if that millionaire club/bar owner with a successful tech startup had any INTEGRITY he would blame the local DEMOCRATS.
If Biden wins… he’s shutting down the country
From WSJ “Joe Biden Is the Shutdown Candidate
The Democratic party’s bias for economic and social shutdowns has not changed since March”
and DEMOCRATS have all the time wanted LONGER and HARSHER shutdowns and DEMOCRAT Governors and mayors have done the harshest and most extreme shutdowns LOCALLY and Joe Biden PROMISED that if an “expert” (like for example shutdown loving Fauci) would recommend a TOTAL SHUTDOWN of all of USA Joe Biden would do it.
This ad is the most disingenous and hypocrital ad in politics because that bar/clud is SHUTDOWN because of local DEMOCRATS shutdown decisions.
Was it worth it mike d and adrick. Was it? It is what it is, fuck both of you,
Yeah Biden will sabotage the economy and the country as a whole.
Ad-Rock and Mike D PISSED on MCA’s grave…
Sabotage is RUINED as a song forever by this.
You two are SELLOUTS to the Democrat machine and Joe Biden responsible for the 1994 crime bill that created mass incarceration and created the prison-industrial-complex and for-profit-prisons and all the other wrongs Biden did like WRITING all the laws on crime, prisons, sentencing, courts, drugs etc. under Reagan and George H.W. Bush and first two years of Clinton when Biden was leading the Judiciary Committee and Democrats had MAJORITY in House and Senate.
Furthermore that “hurting” bar owner is a tech millionaire with a successful startup and he also got a huge inheritance from his wealthy parents and the bar/club has been closed by DEMOCRATS lockdown orders by the local city/state DEMOCRAT politicians.
If that bar/club would be in Florida it would be OPEN because Republicans run things there.
Michigan shutdowns have been ORDERED by Michigan DEMOCRAT governor Gretchen Whitmer so if that bar/club co-owner has an issue with the shutdowns in Michigan the correct place to direct his complaints is to DEMOCRAT Party and specifically DEMOCRAT Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Gretchen Whitmer also BANNED boating and then her husband was caught demanding a marina to put their boat ready for cruising.
Gretchen Whitmer also BANNED going to holiday cottages and then Gretchen and her husband and their family went to their own Holiday cottage and their cars were pictured on their Holiday cottages driveway.
Gretchen Whitmer also BANNED sale of seeds and gardening equipment.
Recently Court decision ruled that DEMOCRAT Gretchen Whitmer’s shutdown ORDERS were UNCONSTITUTIONAL and she had no right to act like a crazed dictator ordering the most EXTREME Shutdowns in USA.
Guess who wanted more PPP loans to companies like restaurants to keep them from going bankrupt and allow them to keep their employees employed and who wanted more 1200 dollar stimulus checks to people with his signature: Donald Trump.
Guess which party BLOCKED that unless they also got money for ILLEGAL immigrants and state bailout for California and New York whose budgets were already in huge deficits BEFORE Covid because of the benefits they pay to ILLEGAL immigrants: DEMOCRATS
Seems pretty wack for a group that holds such “high standards” for who they choose to license there music to. Would have rather heard this song on a Nike commercial honestly then some cheesy political ad. This song sucks now btw since they ruined by associating it with there political agenda
And like that their respect is gone…they sold out their boy who they went thru thick and thin with, for a fucking politician. Words can’t describe how weak this is. The irony of the party pushing the “toxic white male” narrative having “white rappers” for an ad, pretty much sums up how fucking stupid they think you are. You all get what you deserve
A shameful move no matter what politician it’s for. They could find and ruin another song, though maybe this song was already moved some time ago.