"Sabotage" is a 1994 song by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys. It appears on their album Ill Communication. The song's style might be characterized as rapcore, featuring rock instrumentation, turntable scratches and heavily distorted bass guitar riffs. Its lyrics contain a reference to the Watergate scandal: "I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate."
"Sabotage" is noted for its acclaimed music video, directed by Spike Jonze and played extensively on MTV. As an homage to (and parody of) 1970s crime drama television series like Hawaii Five-0, Streets of San Francisco, SWAT, Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch, the video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the band members appearing as the show characters. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given, effectively making the policemen fictional fictional characters.
The characters appearing on the show are (in order of credits):
* Sir Stewart Wallace guest-starring as himself (played by MCA)
* Nathan Wind as Cochese (also played by MCA)
* Vic Colfari as Bobby, "The Rookie" (played by Adrock)
* Alasondro Alegré as "The Chief" (played by Mike D)
* Fred Kelly as Bunny (played by DJ Hurricane); probably a parody of Huggy Bear
23 Comments
deputydogsays...I am absolutely stunned that this wasn't already on the sift. What the fuck's going on?!
Reasons why I assumed it would've been...
1. Spike Jonze
2. Beastie Boys
3. Monumental song
4. Fucking brilliant video.
5. Fake Moustaches
This deserves Top 15 status. Without a doubt.
(I am also stunned, but not really, that this got a downvote. Ant - How many of the above points do you disagree with?)
michiesays...it was on the sift dd. went dead and was unfixed
messengersays...ant downvotes everything. Don't take it personal.
bamdrewsays...ant's totally awesome. don't question him. his reasons would blow your mind right out of your skull.
(agreed that this was 'deaded' and lost, now returned to its rightful place)
djsunkidsays...OK, maybe I'm just bitter- but how come this gets 43 votes, but when I post http://my.videosift.com/video/Ciao-LA-Sabotage-Cops-on-Pretend-Talk-Show it dies in the queue?
djsunkidsays...Actually, not even death in the queue- it only got ONE VOTE!
Napalmsays...Only Rapcore (Raprock) song ever that is actually worth a single damn.
*promote
siftbotsays...Invocations (promote) cannot be called by Napalm because Napalm is not privileged - sorry.
Laekrothsays...*dead
siftbotsays...This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by Laekroth.
siftbotsays...rasch187 has fixed this video's dead embed code - no Power Points awarded because rasch187's points are already fully charged.
rasch187says...*rocknroll
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Rocknroll) - requested by rasch187.
radxsays...RIP MCA
siftbotsays...Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, March 24th, 2007 11:20pm PDT - promote requested by radx.
siftbotsays...The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by Stingray.
oritteroposays...*length=180
siftbotsays...The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 3:00 - length declared by oritteropo.
Zawashsays...*backup=[...snipped...] - *actionpack, *wheels, *comedy
siftbotsays...Added alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by Zawash.
Adding video to channels (Actionpack, Comedy, Wheels) - requested by Zawash.
Zawashsays...*dead. But, of course, *quality.
siftbotsays...Automatically replaced video embed code with backup #7541 (supplied by member Zawash) - video declared dead by member Zawash.
Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Zawash.
siftbotsays...Trebek Debuts Great Jeopardy Category has been added as a related post - related requested by Zawash on that post.
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