(Michael Morel, Creative Commons)

I remember being a kid, spending hours watching television. I was about a year and a half when I came to the United States with my parents. We lived in a tiny apartment and my parents would work grueling shifts; my dad worked all night at a gas station, and slept all day, and my mom vice versa, doing secretarial work. So, much of my time was spent entertaining myself, especially since I was an only child.

It was during this time of self-fufillment that I discovered MTV. Not moronic, completely irrelevant reality television…music television. MTV would feature music videos for hours. One of the first videos I ever saw was, as I vagualy recall, "Fight for Your Right."

Being an immigrant 4-year old, I didn’t even know English, but I knew about this group of fast-talking, energetic, rapping white dudes.

I remember, when I was a bit older, seeing “So What-Cha Want,” and, quite honestly, being terrified. The video was the first of its kind: characterized by saturated color and beanie hats.

Finally, by the time the Beastie Boys released "Ill Communication," I was in love (and knew English). “Sabotage” and “Intergalactic” were the videos that really set it off. "Sabotage" was plain hysterical, and "Intergalactic" was on MTV mixed with music of the pop stars of the 90s like *NSYNC (when Justin still had a fro), Britney Spears (at her prime), and the Backstreet Boys (when, well, they were still making relevant hits).

The Beastie Boys were the first hip-hop band I had ever heard and it wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated them, and realized how unique they were. It speaks volumes that their music affected me far beyond their peak of stardom in the 80s. The Beastie Boys were pioneers of a musical genre - and they were a couple of white dudes breaking the mold.

While most hip-hop these days can be aggressive, overly sexualized, and even idiotic, the Beastie Boys represented what hip-hop was founded on: fun, intelligence, and innovation.

And they repped New York to the fullest…BROOKLYN STAND UP.