Beastie Boys legend Ad-Rock has revealed that his late bandmate Adam Yauch once had plans to put on an underwater tour before his death.
Appearing on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Ad-Rock and fellow Beastie Mike D reminisced about some of Yauch’s wildest ideas for the pioneering Hip Hop group.
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“He was the guy who had the craziest fucking idea that anybody would possibly have in the room, and then show up the next day with the equipment that would make it all possible,” Mike said. “And then you’re doing it.”
Ad-Rock then interjected: “We didn’t do all of the stuff that he was saying, though,” to which Mike jokingly replied: “Thankfully.”
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“He wanted to do a tour underwater,” Ad continued. “He really, really thought about it, had drawings and everything,” Ad-Rock said.
Mike D added: “There was a lost city of Atlantis fascination that went on for a while,” before joking how the tour could never have been logistically possible due to the lack of oxygen underwater and electrical risks involved.
It was previously revealed that Adam Yauch’s death from cancer in 2012 prevented a collaboration between the Beastie Boys and Eminem from happening.
In an interview with AllHipHop last year, Mix Master Mike discussed how the song was close to happening.
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“I actually reached out to Eminem,” he said. “I called him and Paul [Rosenberg] and I pushed for a song. I had the beat made and everything. It was gonna be the Beastie Boys, Eminem and a Mix Master Mike track. Eminem was like, ‘Let’s fucking go.’ I was spearheading this, so I brought it to Mike and Ad-Rock’s attention.”
However, both Beastie Boys members were hesitant to seal deal, according to Mike.
“They were like, ‘It’s kind of weird we don’t have Yauch anymore, so we feel a way that out of respect of Adam that we don’t do it,'” he explained. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Adam would love this.’
“I was really trying to push this. It would have been fucking insane. I was like, ‘Mike just give me 32 bars. Just rap.’ But I respected their wish to not do it. Our captain is not here anymore. But maybe if I push it again, who knows?”
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He added: “I was in the process of getting bars from Eminem. He was so pumped ’cause these are his heroes. I was kind of fulfilling his dream. I’m the gatekeeper of his dream. I felt that was a responsibility on my behalf to present that to him. The great white hopes of Hip Hop [laughs].”
Eminem later paid tribute to the Beastie Boys with the cover art for his 2018 album Kamikaze, which was an homage to their classic 1986 debut License to Ill.
