Come Halloween, it will be a Happy (and spooky?) Ad-Rock Birthday. So let’s celebrate Adam Horovitz with a sixer.
My introduction to the Beastie Boys was probably the video for “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” I was around nine years old when it hit MTV, so a lot of it was lost on me. It was silly and hooky enough to make an impression, but not a lasting one. That honor went to the lead single from 1992’s Check Your Head, “Pass the Mic.” Suddenly, the Beasties were cool as hell to 15-year-old me. Skateboarding in the rain, their rapping reflections in the chrome hubcap of a moving car.
And here he comes: “I’m the A-D-R-O…C-K!” Dude opens his verse by namechecking himself and sports a different look with every letter he shouts. His name is Adam, like me! Yeah, I know, MCA‘s name is Adam, too. But Ad-Rock ain’t smooth like the other Adam. He’s brash and loud and a little spastic. As an awkward teen, I could relate. And there he is again, a few months later in the “So What’Cha Want” clip, sporting the same ringer tees and hats that I was wearing back in those days. He became my favorite Beastie, and he’s stayed there ever since.
An Ad-Rock Birthday Six-Pack
So if I may, I’d like to honor the man Adam Horovitz with what I believe to be six of his slickest Beastie tracks. I already shared two of them above; I’ll share the clips below, along with four more. Damn, I’m just now making the connection: Ad-Rock’s birthday is on Halloween. I love Ad-Rock. How have I never dressed like him for Halloween? That might have to change this year. Now, to dig up one of those old ringer tees…