My favourite band is the American hip hop group from New York... the Beastie Boys!!! Know of them?
I have heard of them before - are they popular now or were they popular several years back?
Well they were formed in the 80's, 1981 to be exact and are no longer active as a group.
Ah, I see.  That would explain why I have heard of them because I was really into regular music back then.  Now I mostly listen to Christian contemporary and so am not "up with the times" so to speak.
So funny, speaking of genres, the Beastie Boys actually started as a hard core punk band! How do you go from punk to hip hop? 
Maybe they thought they would get more of a following that way?  That is pretty different genres!
Well, hip hop is more than just a genre- it is a culture! Maybe they wanted to engage in the practice of an amazing subculture!
Ah, I understand now.  Perhaps that is what they wanted - maybe someone influenced them during the time they were doing the hard core punk.
(drums). They appeared on the compilation cassette "New York Thrash", contributing two songs from their first EP, "Polly Wog Stew", in 1982. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz. After achieving local success with the 1983 experimental hip hop single "Cooky Puss", the Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip hop, and Schellenbach left the group soon after. They toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album "Licensed to Ill". It was
Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys were an American hip hop group from New York City formed in 1981. The group comprised Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar).
The Beastie Boys were formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, the Young Aborigines, in 1979 by Mike D (vocals), MCA (bass), John Berry (guitar) and Kate Schellenbach