Beastie Boys … Dan Rather

Ask yourself, how could the Beastie Boys be Six Degrees from Dan Rather? Well, since both are in popular media, I assume there is many ways, however, I discovered one last night on accident.

Start with a little Beastie Boys, a dash of Schoolly D, some Cristopher Walken, a dab of Sing Sing, spiced up by some R.E.M., top it off with a killer and you have your path to Dan Rather.

I was listening to the Beastie Boys - Time To Get Ill, when, in the middle of the song I hear “looking at my Gucci it’s about that time” and having had this album for 22 years now (I bought it new in 1986) and having heard the same line in Big Tymers - Still Fly, I thought to myself, “who is that saying that”. So, I started my wikipedia and google mission.

First I found that the line was done by Schoolly D in the song Gucci Time, so I started reading about the rapper and his music, come to find out he has done the soundstracks for a few movies including Abel Ferrara’s King of New York. Well, in King of New York at the beginning, Frank White (Christopher Walken) is released from Sing Sing prison. Amongst the Notable inhabitants of Sing Sing is a guy named William Tager. William Tager claims to be the person, who in 1986, attacked and beat up Dan Rather while scream “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”, the inspiration for the R.E.M. song What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

And there you have it, the relationship between the Beastie Boys and Dan Rather, although that line technically ended with R.E.M. writing the song about Dan Rather, let’s not get too technical.

Videos of Songs mentioned here:

Beastie Boys - Time to Get Ill (Live)

Schoolly D - Gucci Time (no real video was made, deal with it)

REM - What’s The Frequency Kenneth?