Ongoing History Daily: The female Beastie Boy
True or false: There was once a female member of the Beastie Boys. True.
Kate Schellenbach was a full member of the band about ten years ago—but then she ran up against Rick Rubin. Rick was the Beastie’s DJ at the time, and he was moving more and more into management. There came a point when Rick’s vision of the band did not include Kate. He wanted an all-white rap group and he didn’t like the way girls sounded when rapping. That’s when he gave the Beasties an ultimatum.
“It’s either Kate or me,” he said. The band when with Rick.
It took a while for her to recover—but now she’s a happy producer for TV and has worked for The Late Late Show with James Corden, Ellen DeGeneres, and others.
