S8 EP6: Mike D discusses breaking rap into the mainstream, the infamous hydraulic penis, and disbanding the Beastie Boys

30:12But we all know his name Don't we Did that not cross your mind I heard something I think the mic just dropped I think I heard that That was the mic drop Yeah 10 stories We made 10 records You know there's a lot of parallels He's actually known for having a very small output But it rhymes with challenger. There we go. I think now you just owned the problem.

30:39Your producer was Rick Rubin. It was said that he was a big fan of wrestling and that he encouraged you to take on. You know, in wrestling classically, there's the good guys and the bad guys. The bad guys whip up the crowd by doing horrible things. Everyone goes nuts. And he encouraged you to play up to kind of bad boy personas. Is there anything in there? Yeah. We had a successful collaboration with Rick because we actually came from quite different worlds. We grew up in New York City and Manhattan and Brooklyn. Rick came from suburban Long Island. And so he loved wrestling. He loved heavy metal.

31:16We loved punk. And then it's not to say that there wasn't a lot that we totally agreed on and met on. We loved the Bad Brains. We loved the Ramones. and we loved Run DMC. We had a lot in common, but that's what made, I think, Rick was a very good producer for License to Ill because he loved ACDC and Led Zeppelin and then that's not where we came from. But then that collided with our worlds and then he would push this idea of the bad boy wrestler. and you know it's kind of like that thing of like yeah just getting the reaction is everything um you know just thinking about hip-hop and uh it's striking how you know you've been very much embraced i think you've like uh not that i get to decide this but um you know i think the way you've managed your places as white performers in a culturally you know largely black space has been admirable?

32:21Like, to what extent are you aware of, I don't know, like, needing not, since I own it too much, not apologizing, but nevertheless paying respect to the people who created the music originally? I mean, are you conscious of all of that? Yeah, I think actually it's interesting with rap. We were so fortunate to be surrounded by these groups that really were our peers, but they're also the people we looked up to. you know when i'm speaking of like run dmc public enemy and then even later on like into de la soul and other people where it's like tribe called quest where we got to actually have like creative relations you know creative relationships with all of these people and either perform with them or make records with all of them and feel like yeah there was a lot of power in that because we i think we we respected their music so much when nwa blew up did you get on board with that straight away and there was a pivot towards actually almost uh histrionic level of violence you know you know shooting and killing and disrespecting women not i don't want to sound disapproving like i'm a fan of the music but uh how did you react to that it's funny i remember hearing a cassette of the the first easy e single it was familiar to me because i definitely think like there was something like that i think dr dre definitely listened to licensed ill I think he would say the same thing so I'm not saying that as a negative at all because I think Dre is an incredible producer and I think Dre actually does cite License to Ill as being formative in terms of part of what informed his palette on the early EZE and NWA records but I think as soon as I heard EZE I was like this is going to be huge this is it There's that punk excitement and originality.

34:21But then at the same time, when N.W.A. blew up, on the one hand, it just became another iteration of the same way when we came to Britain, licensed to ill era, and then there was this huge reaction to it. Then all of a sudden N.W.A. is getting banned by the FBI. They went through a similar... Yeah, it's this thing about the reality. It's, you know, there always has to, it's kind of, again, like a little bit like the pro wrestling thing, right? There's, I guess, yeah, there has to be the bad guy. There has to be the villain. And so we were at, NWA was at, Eminem was at, Marilyn Manson was at, who else?

34:59I mean, you know, way before us was probably like Ozzy Osbourne. Yeah. We seem to have this, whatever, like, Well, life's a wrestling ring, maybe, and there would need to. Although now, I would like to point out that I think now we're in a place where politicians behave so badly that there's no place, us pop stars have no, we don't stand a chance. Russell Simmons, Mike Dion Russell Simmons, this is you. That is me. He just needed three white rappers to get on MTV. It could have been anybody. That's true and it isn't true. Well, you said it. I know I said it, but I think, like, I hear it, I'm like, oh, that's an oversimplification.

35:44I guess, well, I would say this, it's a soundbite, right? So it's, in a sense, it is true, but it's an oversimplification, because that's only giving one part of the story. So, yes, that is true, but it worked, I think, in hindsight, because we are already a group that, like, came from this downtown New York culture, and we knew how to make records. Yeah, it couldn't have been anybody. You couldn't have just grabbed three guys off the street. And we had our personality and we, you know, to Russell's savvy credit, although he did ultimately, you know, rob a lot of money from us. Do we, are we legally, that could cause us legal issues.

36:22Why is it just a trade? Does he acknowledge that? He would probably dispute it and say, well, the Beastie Boys, they weren't going to make another record from me, so I didn't pay them. But, you know, that doesn't, just because you have creative differences. I just got to say something like, Russell Simmons. Demers denies that he robbed money from the Beastie Boys. Oh, he probably does, but he's also exiled in Bali, isn't he? I think there have been multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. You know, to us, he was the biggest manager in the world, which obviously was part of his power, right, because he was the biggest manager in rap music.

36:51So that was like a positive thing when we felt like he was on our side. But then when he used that power to say, no, you've got to do this or else I'm not going to pay you, that didn't feel very good. And then I think he really didn't understand. And he was used to dealing with people that would buy into this idea of money being the main thing that they wanted as the outcome of their creative work. And because we came from like this kind of, you know, we were more entitled in terms of coming from solid middle class, you know, like homes where we weren't, we didn't have a desperate need for the finances.

37:28and more importantly we all grew up in these households where like what we thought and what we felt mattered. So when Russell confronted us with do what I think you should do or else there's no way we're going to do what you say. It's like this is our band and we're going to do what we want to do. What did he want you to do? Well, he wanted us to immediately make another record and for him he would have wanted us to make License to Ill part two right because he didn't he didn't see any sort of like long-term future either in us as a group you know for him it was like about immediate return on investment and he was very honest about it he didn't think rap music was ever going to turn into catalog music which it has but at that time when it was being made for him that's that wasn't a possibility at all there was a whole different paradigm for rap it was mainly singles music and then if you did an album okay three albums max if you're lucky you'll get three albums not even three right exactly so he he bought into that he bought into that belief and just thought these audiences aren't going to stay with you for that long they move on quickly yeah and that was literally what russell would say to us and then back in those days it would have seemed ridiculous like what ll cool j is going to be 60 years old going around like mick jagger doing an old it would have seemed ridiculous the idea of longevity i can see why he might have thought that yeah it's party music but then you're Right, and now you have LL Cool J doing huge tours every year with Nas and whoever else, you know, and it's just important catalog music.

39:02Anyway, very sorry. I'm with you. A whole tangent there. No, no, that was a good tangent. Russell Simmons. If you know where Russell Simmons' whereabouts are in Bali, a phone number will be coming up on the screen, and we'll be accepting tip-offs. Investigations will be forthcoming. Okay. And that's legally fine. Yeah. Because I'm going to say allegedly. You just say allegedly and it's all good. Yeah, I guess that's allegedly. You killed someone. Allegedly. Allegedly. Was there a division of labor between the three of you? How did you split duties? Was there a lead singer? There's no lead singer.

39:42I think I wouldn't say it's as much division as labor. is sort of like this collaboration where we were each other's best editors and we would kind of like push each other because that's where it's actually, I've enjoyed working on, I'm making my record that's coming out this year as much as I miss Yauch and it's scary not working as a group. I enjoy doing it because there were so many years where I had to think about every rhyme I was going to say or perform or write because it was always a little bit of like, what's he going to think of this? What's he going to think? And then I think there's a lot of positive.

40:33You were all thinking that? I think we were all thinking. It was like the friendly competition thing. We wanted to impress each other first. But yeah, I think that's where it's interesting with being in a band, right? Because there can be different moments where different people can sort of assume, even within an album, on a song, one person can assume leadership and not. I think we had that as a band, especially. And there's times that it worked really well. On Hello, Nasty, we were able to each kind of execute on these ideas that we had individually. Which album is album number four? Does that have sabotage on it?

41:12I know it's after sabotage. It has intergalactic. Oh, intergalactic. Intergalactic.

41:21The baseline thing good. That was all right. No. Don't try to monetize. How do you do that? Don't try to monetize that. I'm not monetizing it. I'd have to be making money on it. I built a huge human baseline platform for you earlier in the show. and now you're going to trash it all with this like to sound like my financial advisor yeah uh how did you how do you do that they were how what is that what technologically it actually was we actually bought at the time was a single rack space module vocoder and it was just like it was extremely satisfying once we plugged that in in the studio and adam horvitz ad rock had the beat um like the kick and snare beat that we were like we were desperate to do something with because we were just like, all right, this beat, that's it.

42:12And then we just kind of had this idea of like, hmm, what have we all, instead of like each of us rapping as individuals, what have we all like we kind of make, we make it that it's one cadence and one tone that we all kind of like hit, one rhythm, one cadence. So we all hit. I might be, there's always a kind of Wu-Tang. I get a slight Wu-Tang flavor on that. It's something about almost Method Man. Anyway, maybe that's all in my head, but there's something about the delivery. It's very punchy short. Tell me, I'd have to look at the timeline, because when did it enter the 36 Chambers Wu-Tang Clan come out?

42:4993, I want to say. Really? That early? Mm-hmm. Oh, wow. Wasn't it? Are you Googling it? 93. I'm so thrilled. I don't know what to say now.

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44:32That's claude.ai slash t-h-e-r-o-u-x and check out claude pro which includes all of the features mentioned in today's episode how's your energy you all right my energy is okay is that an ageist remark No, you look great You've said that Adam Horvitz and I have this joke for a long time That people are like It's more of a New York thing People are like, are you okay man? You look tired There's no quicker way to get somebody Feeling totally unseated Just look slightly above their eyes Just look at their hairline Just don't meet their eyes And then they're like, what is going on? someone once said being a weird kid from a sorry mom weird family is just kind of weird but it's also pretty lonely that sounds like something I said you said that in your documentary on the one hand it was great thank god I was born into the family of origin that I was born into right because there were all my my dad was in the business of art he was an art dealer and so there were all these artists and strong opinion people around our house in 70s and 80s New York and so I thought it was totally normal to voice your opinion and be loud and feel self-affirmed in it and I also thought it was the most normal thing to me in the world was to be completely uh wrapped up in your own creative pursuits.

46:24So that was all incredibly inspiring. But then my dad died when I was 15. So and both my brothers were quite a bit older than me. So I was the only one left at home. And so you know, it became it was just like my mom and I and I didn't really I didn't have the tools to understanding the word grieving or grief or any of the process or any of it, you know, and I remember like I got my mom sort of just she just wanted to do the right thing. But she didn't really because she kind of comes from you know jewish background growing up in the south bronx with no money you know really basically poverty and yeah growing up to immigrant parents and great depression you know extermination of jews in europe so she like very she was incredibly brilliant person but she was also emotionally very stoic right i think just out of total necessity You know, we talk a lot now to 2026 on esteemed shows such as yours about allegedly being emotionally open and vulnerable.

47:31We throw the word vulnerable out there. You know, in her generation, that was not possible to be a part of that discussion. You know, like when you're growing up in the Great Depression and everybody's losing their jobs and nobody has a job and no one understands what's happening and they're in a downward spiral. And anyway, she was doing, I think, in hindsight, the best she could. And like I said, she was a brilliant woman, but she didn't have a great emotional openness because that's something she'd ever been taught or been brought up with. and so I just remember for me it just became sad I'm left at home, she's sad I'm sad and it's just the two of us in this house so that's where it was weird and then it was lonely at the same time but I think that was also kind of the root when I look back at it that's where punk rock was my therapy being in a punk rock band I was literally just yelling it out that was my my like emotional release so you know thank god i had that wow interesting but no but i do think it is something that is it's all in there in terms of what i ultimately would do and would make right i had this like artistic empowerment and feeling like of course it's normal that i'm white and i'm in a rap group because like this this idea of like just people doing impossible creative things was a totally normal thing in my household and i had to also kind of like invent stuff for myself too right because my brothers were out of the home that's where i think also then that i was so happy to find the band ultimately because that became my found family of chosen family family chosen chosen family is the term i believe is your mom with She is not.

49:29She died. That's a stupid expression. She died at the age of 93 just before COVID. And, yeah, and thankfully, actually, I got to be with her long enough that we actually had like a – it was interesting because she really – at an older age, she got to really change, and we had a much more emotionally connected relationship And then I really give her so much credit because that can't be easy. It's not easy at any age, right, but to be older and do that. Were she on the ride with you when you were getting criticized for alleged misogyny? And was that – was she able to support you through any of that or not really?

50:15I do vividly remember calling her from the United Kingdom in the midst of 1987 craziness and tabloid headlines and being like, this just feels so completely strange and surreal. I don't even know what the words I used to describe it at that time. But, you know, it felt so alienating because you almost feel like here's this huge storm that's going on that you're not even part of, yet you're the epicenter of it. So I do really remember, like, calling her. And thank God, you know, I had a mom that I could call and just have her listen to me. But, yeah, she was in Patrick. And actually it was the opposite because I remember there were many times in life where I would call her and kind of want her to tell me what to do.

51:06And she was actually very smart. That way she'd be like – her big line was, you'll figure it out. so I would say you know as parents we kind of like try to I have this thing where I think we try to take or replicate the things that we liked that our parents did and then we try to not do or do differently the things that we didn't like that they did and then we still screw it up anyway do you think you'll figure it out as appropriate as a parenting style I liked that when you said it Because you can't chew your kids food for them You want to give them a bit of advice But they need to make their own mistakes Well I think it's My mom told me two things Listening is totally undervalued Sorry what did you say She told me that listening is totally undervalued What is undervalued Stop Was that funny It would have been funny if you got the joke straight away I'm going to give you credit because this is the thing.

52:11You did the joke the first time and it didn't really land. So I did it again. And you did it a second time. Maybe slightly better, but not really. And then so you're like, I doubled down, now I'm going to triple down. Yeah. And then it didn't really work. Your new album, because we're in the sort of sad portion of the podcast now. Have you noticed the mood changed in the room, didn't it? So it feels appropriate to say, you know, you lost the third leg of your stool. Oh, look at you with your metaphors. Is that the right metaphor? Are stools by definition three-legged? I mean, they often are, or most commonly are, but sometimes they have four legs.

52:52Exactly, but this one has three legs. Unless you count Money Mark, or maybe other, Kate Schellenbach. Yeah, I mean, these ones could be a multi-legged stool. How many legs are on the Wu-Tang? outfit. Infinite. Like 50 or 60. But this is an awkward pivot because we're being silly and this is serious. You lost the third leg of your stool when Adam Yauk passed away. He died from cancer. The new album is called Thank You. The track Thank You is about, is it about him? It's not about him as much as, he's certainly part of it because it's about I had been away, I was with my partner, my girlfriend and Nadia, and we were on this meditation retreat in Northern California.

53:40And I just kind of came back from that. And we've been recording the record already for a good amount of time. And I came back with this, I don't know, just, it's an interesting thing being in nature and being silent and having the gift of a sitting Buddhist practice for a bit. I just came back with this total overwhelming feeling of gratitude for so many things, of my family as it exists now, my family of origin, my band, which was my, I think we came up with Chosen family. It was all in there. And then I was working in the studio with the guitar player Will, who's on tour with me now, and we just started doing that song.

54:30And so this thing, thank you, is what came to me. And then it was actually my kids that pushed me. Then later on, I kind of had to come up with, all right, what's going to be the verse? What are the particulars that I'm talking about? And that's where my kids were so helpful in the making of this record, because they would just ask me kind of like these obvious questions that other musicians or producers, they think of me as like, oh, that's Mark D. He knows what he's doing. But my kids actually don't think, they think I'm thoroughly inept at most steps of the way as most kids think of their parents.

55:12They're like, alright, Dad, what is this about? Almost like, with that little tinge of being annoyed that kids can have with their parents, like, what are you talking about here, Dad? And then I just had to flesh that out a little bit. So it's not, Yeah, Adam Yaga is definitely part of it, but it's that feeling, like I said, of what I came from, from this band, but also all of us being kids in these clubs in New York City, having to navigate all of that together, right? which is simultaneously exciting and looking back at it, like sort of insanely scary. It had its consequences too. You know, we thrived in it and we survived and we could only have become the band that we did coming from that.

55:58But we had, you know, at the same time in those clubs that we came from, like the people who were like at the door and all these people, we knew from the clubs working there that all of a sudden AIDS hit and it was like all these people started literally dying and we were like, you know, we had no idea what was going on, how to process that or anything as, you know, we were like 16, 17 years old. So with that and then also just other friends who died way too young from just, you know, all the crazy stuff that people do unsupervised at a young age. I mean, I want to do tribute to Adam Yark. It's really striking in the documentary that so much of it is kind of dealing with the absence.

56:44And I think you've said that you wouldn't perform as Beastie Boys since he died. And you were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and declined the invitation to perform. Because as I understood it, you and Adam Horowitz felt that it wouldn't be Beastie Boys without Yao. It requires inclusion of the three of us. it's funny because i don't think adam or i we never decided like oh wait putting an end to the band it just felt like at the i vividly remember like rock and roll hall of fame we desperately wanted yuck to be there and he at that point he was just too ill to be able to go and he really wanted to be there and i think what was almost most like resonant and sad for adam and i was that we knew how much he wanted to be there and that all the way up to that point in his mind, he was going to be well enough to be there and that ended up not being the case.

57:44And so, yes, it's just kind of tragic and frustrating. He died age 47. Yeah, really young. Yeah. I mean, God, yeah, 47. Which is not that long ago. I know that is, what is that, 15? A bit more. he was a year and a half or so older than me and i just turned 60 this year was it tough to process all of that um yeah i think i still i mean of course it's it's track because i think there was a lot role there's a i can look at it now and see like there's so much wrapped up in that for me because he was he was part of my chosen family he was also sort of my older brother in this very much in that chosen family he had that role of like kind of older brother that I could sort of count on in that way and just also having this really joyful creative collaboration you have your this collaborator of yours die is tragic and then there's also the death of sort of my identity at that time because for from 16 up until that age of he was 47 I would have been 46 So that's 30 years that my identity was completely wrapped up or hugely informed by being a member of Beastie Boys.

59:05So there's a lot. There's a whole lot in there for sure. How does it feel now, returning to music, is this the first project you've done post Beastie Boys? I mean, I've produced and written on other people's records and I've done little things, but in terms of like I'm going to release a whole project under my name, yes. My first foray. Does it feel good? Yeah. I mean, well, listen, it's a lot of things. It's not all good, as you know, making anything creative. It's like I loved the process of making it. absolutely i was actually completely fell in love all over again and with making music and getting completely lost in that creative process and working with others towards that and that that felt absolutely great but then there's there all the other stuff that comes with it of like oh god now i've got to release into the world oh god now now i've got to sit and talk in this serious podcast where I say alleged 16 million times.

1:00:19And even just even in my brief time that I've been in here in London, recently playing these shows and like, I had a really, you know, don't cry for me, Argentina on this one, but I had a really nice quiet life with my kids, with my girlfriend, with, you know, my dogs, like everything was like great. So there is part of me where I'm like, Oh, you know, now, now, like my time is uh really spoken for and then even the other night i was coming out of dinner in soho and then these guys like were kind of drunk came up to me they're like hey you're that guy from yeah yeah you know and i'm like oh man i liked my quiet life better but you know i think that's but that's it that's not me as every anybody that does anything that puts them in public at all we want to have our cake and eat it too we want to we want to make what we make and we want people to interact with that, but we want to be left alone.

1:01:13And I think for me it's not even left alone. I want to really have the space to kind of just watch everything and feel everything so I can make stuff. And so I just realized that's my job. I have to kind of budget what I'm doing to make sure I still get that. I've taken a lot of your time. I feel like we should land the plane. I'm not. By the way, my girlfriend says I'm terrible landing the plane. She gives me a signal. Really? Yeah. She gives me the landing the plane signal. There's a plane on the cover of License to Ill, right? Yeah. There is. Which Eminem then copied for one of his albums, right?

1:01:51Oh, he did do an homage. He did an homage. Yeah. Have you chilled with Marshall Mathers? I've met him. I've never chilled. Chilling requires time. You've met him. Was he friendly? Oh, he was very friendly. He's paid tribute. He said, I think it's obvious to anyone how big of an influence the Beastie Boys were on me and so many others Well, there you go Vanilla Ice Isn't Vanilla Ice playing at Trump's wrestling anniversary gala? You mean the Freedom 250? Yeah, yeah, is that what it is? Freedom 250 is a bit like Truth Social Freedom 250 is basically just a wrestling match, right? Though he changed the defense ministry to the ministry of war because he should, by his logic, everything's kind of, anyway, I'm going off the bat.

1:02:41Yeah, let's leave it. Freedom 250, in the last day on my notes, it says this, Trump has canceled Freedom 250, notwithstanding being lobbied by Mike D to see if he could join the roster late in the process. Alleged. That was a joke. I don't think you were asked to perform. I was not asked. No, no alleged necessary. I was not asked to perform. It's lucky you weren't asked. It would have been presented with a difficult quandary of whether to accept. No, it's not. Why is it difficult to say no? Okay, I was being ironic. Yeah. I'm going to dial my irony levels down a bit. You've got a dumb American here.

1:03:19You've got to be careful with us. You can say that. I can't. I'm half American. Did you ever meet Trump? I've been, this is going to be a weird statistic, a maybe self-incriminating one. Your fellow New Yorker. As his fellow New Yorker, I've been in an elevator with him twice a good amount pre-presidency at a New York Knicks game, both times at New York Knicks games. So you saw the hair up close. I saw the hair within the confines of an elevator. And what was your takeaway? I mean, this is obviously, it was in a different place in its arc. Did you get a vibe from him? No. You are aware that I'm in an elevator with Donald Trump, you know, because already at this point he's got like Trump airways.

1:04:04He's got, you know, he's put a lot of effort into having just that's like more say Trump as a New York celebrity. Right. But it didn't seem it didn't seem as evil then. I guess I was once again, very naive. You're going to go with evil. Yeah. Self-important would be non-controversial. Yeah, you're right. I guess evil, I'm putting some kind of moralistic judgment take on it. But I do feel it just feels immoral to me. I like the idea of government trying to govern for the people and actually provide services for the people and actually address the needs of everybody. So is that, I don't know, so is that evil if you're actually only trying to cater to the biggest corporations in the world and the richest, the absolute wealthiest people in the world and their ideas?

1:05:10uh your partner in crime i'm gonna leave that on the table ad rock also known as adam horowitz yep said uh at an event i can't wrap my head around it of trump he is the new york city rich elite who got duped by that motherfucker i don't get it at all people look at him and us new yorkers as awful people so I don't get it. He's a fucking scumbag. That doesn't seem like that controversial a take, right? He's talking about somebody who's espousing greed and not only greed but dishonesty is the only way to get ahead. He also drew on the wells of wrestling, friendly with Vince McMahon. Yeah, 100%. And in a sense, everything you said about Rick Rubin and your personas and playing up to the bad boy image, Trump did his rallies and created a persona observing the code of kayfabe.

1:06:09You know that term? No. Kayfabe is the term they use in wrestling, which is that when you're performing, you're never off stage. So you never admit that wrestling might not be real. You always exaggerate and you have your storylines and you never, never show your hand. So it's just a kind of permanent state of performance art where the spell is never broken. Actually, that's really, really accurate, right? Because each day, there's some statement, some... It's kind of like perfect. I feel like we've got the perfect full circle moment because in a weird way, you know they're having the 250th anniversary event, right?

1:06:45He seems to be reminding the world of that a lot. Can you imagine anything that would be more fitting at the end, like on, say, outside the Washington Monument, that at the end of the concert and the festivities, like an enormous hydraulic penis would go up? So you're suggesting that we rent Trump the hydraulic penis? I mean, obviously that's not going to happen, but it doesn't feel like, because he talks so much about the size of his penis. Wait, what? Trump. Does he? Yes. During a debate, he was like, I got no problems in that area, believe me, or something like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right.

1:07:23That was like in a Biden debate. People said something like this. Yeah, yeah. When I say so much, you could be like, he only said it once, but once for a president is a lot yeah well i mean i'd like to think right usually and there was an older there was a model in years gone by where if you'd said that one time it would be considered a huge gaffe and but that would be the end of it right but i think you're actually you're right this was actually helpful for me today thank you this was a brilliant analysis because It is like this swirl, this pro wrestler thing where it's like he has to stay in that role and there has to be something performative every single day.

1:08:04That is that role. Yes. And you never break character. Yeah. So that was just one iteration. Thank you so much for coming by, Mike. Are you out for a bit more? Are you doing more dates? We will be back in the United Kingdom at a date soon to be determined in the fall. Nice. How's that for an honest but unclear answer? When does the album actually officially drop? August 28th. Thank you. August 28th. Are you going to print some vinyl? Yeah, we are. Actually, I'm proud of the vinyl packaging and the cassette package. Particularly good. I bet. I miss vinyl. I don't feel like I've listened to an album since I stopped buying vinyl.

1:08:50In the sense of like, oh, there's the album and I'm listening to it and I have a set of associations with the physical object. Well, I know a few people. I can get them to send you a vinyl album. That's finally, you've got the penny dropped. I can pull some strings. That took longer than I expected. I really love vinyl.

1:09:25And welcome back. Thanks, Mike, for coming on the podcast. Listeners and viewers, check out his album when it comes out in August. There are three singles at the time of recording. What We Got and Switch Up are the two I can name. Switch Up is like a drum and bass. It's in the drum and bass genre. What We Got, he feels like, I was thinking about this, he's up there, his rap is so loose, It feels like the father of the bride at a wedding where everyone's left and his MDMA is just coming up and he's just going off the top of the dome. Like his rap is just whatever. And there's a bit where he's like, what are we going to say now?

1:10:03What are we going to say now? I think he gives hope to middle-aged white guys everywhere that you can just do you, whatever you are, be that. and if you do it in a way that feels true to who you are then maybe it's not cringe, maybe it's kind of brilliant and yes, I am open to revisiting the rap space with my own kind of, I don't know, rambling old guy on a vibe After nearly all previously announced performers at the Freedom 250 concert backed out, Vanilla Ice remained on the bill. However, the free concert was called off. I know that was like a cliffhanger. However, the free concert was called off hours before it was set to happen due to, quote, inclement weather.

1:10:56Do we believe that? That feels like maybe it's an excuse for the fact that it was going to be lame. Russell Simmons, the music impresario mentioned during the chat he was brother of one of the guys in Run DMC. You probably knew that. However, he was caught up in allegations of sexual misconduct. I think there was a documentary made. He denies the allegations of sexual abuse made against him. In total, more than 20 women have accused Simmons of sexual assault. The mullet was mentioned due to the fact that Beastie Boys had recorded Mullet Head in 1994 or 5 on the Albemarle Communication. But why is it called a mullet?

1:11:46Is it because the hairstyle resembles a fish? Or is it because there was an old insult, apparently dating back to the 19th century, maybe, Mullet Head? Or is it because there was a French fashion guru called Henri Molet, M-O-L-L-E-T, who championed the short at the front, long at the back look. All of those answers are available. I can't really stand by one. I'm just happy that the mullet's back. And what's weird is I really like the mullet now. Like it looks quite cool when I see people on Instagram, younger people. I saw last night on my Instagram feed a skateboarder with a mullet. He looked amazing.

1:12:21The mullet and the moustache and I can't grow a mullet because of alopecia. No, it's not funny. It's a disease that I have. Millie was smiling. See, that's what I have to put up with. That's it for this week, apart from the credits. The producer was Millie Chu. The assistant producer was Beth Johnston. The production manager was Francesca Bassett. The music in this series was by Miguel de Oliveira. The executive producer was Aaron Fellows. This is a Mindhouse Studios production for Spotify. You