Sample of hip-hop impresario, Michael Holman.

Holman was the manager of the New York City Breakers and creator/host of Graffiti Rock. Resembling a hip-hop version of Soul Train and American Bandstand, Graffiti Rock originally screened on June 29, 1984. Though planned as an on-going series, only the single pilot episode aired on NYC’s WPIX Channel 11.

The episode features Run-DMC, DJ Jimmie Jazz, Kool Moe Dee & Special K of the Treacherous Three, and The NYC Breakers, fresh off of their success from the movie, Beat Street. The episode also features actress, Debi Mazar, & actor/director, Vincent Gallo, as dancers.

In October, 2001, as the world was still reeling from 9/11, Beastie Boys organized a benefit concert at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom. It had been over two years since they last performed live, at 1999’s Tibetan Freedom Concert. When the first “New Yorkers Against Violence” concert sold out, the BBoys added a second night…

The NYAV Concerts aimed to kindle support for nonviolent resolutions to foreign conflicts. In addition to the musical acts, the shows featured Benjamin R. Barber — whose treatise Jihad Vs. McWorld correlates aggression in the Middle East with the anti-US sentiment that spurred the terrorist attacks:

Besides bringing the terrorists to justice, we need to take on the climate that creates terrorism.‘ Economic globalization, Barber said, benefits the privileged few while imposing suffering on others, which results in injustices that have triggered ill will toward the U.S. and other Western nations. Barber also contended that, for the long-term good of all, other nations should share in the prosperity of the West.

Depending on the night, the lineup also included: The Strokes, Saul Williams, Rival Schools, Cibo Matto, B-52’s, Afrika Bambaataa, Mos Def, The Roots, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Beastie Boys. Concert proceeds benefited the New York Association for New Americans, which aided refugees & immigrants and the New York Women’s Foundation, an organization that continues to empower impoverished women. Presenters shared the mic to foster conversations about global justice, personal awareness & involvement, and most of all–healing…

In the early 1980s, a group of young men from Long Island, NY broadcast a Monday night show, “The Operating Room” from Adelphi University’s WBAU FM. (This was same station which featured Spectrum City DJs, Chuck D & Flavor Flav, who would later form Public Enemy). The members included: Doctor Dré, T-Money, Rapper G, Easy G and Wildman Steve. By 1986, calling themselves Original Concept, the group released “Knowledge Me.” Its B-Side, “Can You Feel It,“ became one of the most sampled source records in rap history. In 1988, Def Jam released OC’s first and only LP, Straight From the Basement of Kooley High! Lacking lyrics on several tracks, the group is "perhaps better known for their production prowess and instrumentals than anything else.” After his stint as the Beastie Boys' DJ, Dr. Dré joined Ed Lover as a host on Yo! MTV Raps and hip-hop radio.

Top Chef and its spin-off, Top Chef: Just Desserts, are cooking competition shows on Bravo. The format consists of two contests, the 1st of which is called the “Quickfire Challenge.” In the Quickfire, contestants are allotted an hour (or less) to prepare a dish according to certain specs, i.e., using thematically-related ingredients to reflect a specific taste. Quickfires are officiated by a guest judge, and a win can mean a sweet prize–like a tropical island vacation, immunity in the Elimination Challenge, or some related advantage. In Top Chef: Just Desserts – hosted by Gail Simmons & head judge Johnny Iuzzini – pastry chefs match up their confectionary skills in a battle to the gastronomic death. (The) King Adrock was a guest judge for Season 2, which you can check out here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/282561

That’s my line! I’m just trying to let everyone know how many rhymes I got! That’s just representing for myself: I got so many rhymes…“ –Adam Yauch, March 1995 (Beastiemania)

I feel grown up. I like the grey because it makes me look like a maths teacher or a movie star.” –Adam Yauch, September 1998, on his prematurely greying hair (Ahab, From The Beginning.)

Source: Nick Shea, causeyoucantyouwontandyoudontstop

Dr. Beeper was a character in Caddyshack, the 1980 comedy film about golf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IexH0itz3CQ

Hello Nasty

That’s what you said to yourself when you heard this album. Hello Nasty is a straight-up classic. It was about time they brought out these hot tracks for our listening pleasure…

A Japanese woman named Toco used to work for their publicity company, Nasty Little Man. She wouldn’t answer the phone like, “Nasty Little Man, may I help you please.” She’d just say, “Hello Nasty” with this thick accent. –Jake Fogelnest, former host, MTV’s Squirt TV

From Allen Light’s “The Story of Yo: The Oral History of the Beastie Boys” (9.4.98) for SPIN
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=298373046948219&set=a.229965407122317.51526.210289032423288&type=1&permPage=1 source: Intergalactic Beastie Celebration

source: @jamiesmart via the mooks

This line offers a shift in MCA’s perspective on woman. Just three years earlier, on “The New Style,” Yauch rapped:

Girls with boyfriends are the kind I like
I’ll steal your honey like I stole your bike

Double R is Rick Rubin, famed American record producer, co-president of Columbia Records, and co-founder of Def Jam Records. Here is a picture of the Beastie Boys with Rick Rubin in ‘85: