| Sam Sever
After a quick read through the majority
of the Who's Who entries, you thought for sure that you
knew every single person who had every stepped behind the
turntables during a Beastie Boys performance. The truth
though is that there is one more person who needs to be
mentioned as having been a DJ for the Beastie Boys. That
person is Sam Sever, who appears in the movie Tougher
Than Leather during the Beastie Boys live performance
of Desperado. For some unexplained reason, few people ever
questioned why it was that DJ
Hurricane was not filmed doing his familiar routine
on the wheels of steel. The reason is that the Hurra had
an entirely different role in the movie and it would have
created script inconsistencies if he had appeared on stage
with the Beastie Boys.
In addition to his short but memorable
appearance in Tougher Than Leather, Sam has been
an influential producer in the world of hip-hop. His first
major contribution was the work he did in remixing and creating
beats that were used in the 1986 No. 10 Upping Street
album by Big Audio Dynamite. He followed this up with two
lesser-known releases Jamie J. Morgan's Shotgun (1987)
and Ms. Melodie's Diva (1989), both of which he produced.
If you paid attention to the dates of these three releases,
they coincide with certain changes that were taking place
within the Beastie Boys camp at Def Jam. Specifically, 1987
saw the commercial success of Licensed
to Ill and then by 1989 the band had left Def Jam
and signed with Capitol. Tougher Than Leather was
released in 1989, but had been filmed a few years earlier.
Sam's bridge to Tougher Than Leather's stars Run
DMC was that he helped to co-write "Is it Live"
and also was given credit on the album for the drum programming
associated with "Is it Live."
Following the Licensed to Ill lawsuits, Def Jam
was determined to create an act that would compete with
the Beastie Boys and the result was 3rd Bass.
As a footnote in recording history, it just so happens that
Sam Sever was the producer for 3rd Bass's very
successful Derelicts of Dialect album in 1991. He
also went on to produce Prime Minister Pete Nice's Dust
to Dust album in 1993 after 3rd Bass broke
up. It would take a few more years, but eventually Sever
would come full circle and again work with the Beastie Boys.
That opportunity came with the release of the Beastie Boys'
single "Intergalactic". The "Sever &
Hoffman Intergalactic Remix," which you can find on
your Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD, completes
the circle and features Sam Sever's beats and DJing abilities,
once again backing the Beastie Boys' vocals.
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