Adam Horovitz is best known as Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys. But the Beastie Boys are no more after Adam “MCA” Yauch passed away in 2012 after losing a battle with cancer. After Yauch’s passing, Ad-Rock and Mike D disbanded the Beasties and they’re now pursuing other projects. Adam is getting into acting, which apparently was a side-interest he had this whole time. He appears in the new Ben Stiller ensemble film, While We’re Young. Horovitz sat down with The Daily Beast for a wide-ranging, hilarious and amazing interview about life, music, acting, New York City and learning how to be middle-aged (he’s 48). You can read the full piece here (it’s an awesome read). Some highlights:

On rap’s original gangsters: “Rap music is the only genre of music I can think of where nobody gives a sh-t about last year—let alone 20 or 30 years ago. Rap is the only super-current music. If you’re into reggae or dancehall and you don’t know Bob Marley, then you don’t really know what you’re listening to. But if you’re listening to rap and you’re 15, you’re like, “Grandmaster Flash? Who’s that? Public Enemy? Yeah, my dad told me about them once.” And that’s just how it is. We had to accept that as a band.”

The state of rap today: “I have no idea about the state of rap. I don’t pay attention. I just listen to old music that I have. Once a year, I’ll go do a digging search on things, and then listen to that for the next year or two. I like Kanye West… he makes good music.

His thoughts on Iggy Azalea: “She sounds like Da Brat. I can’t say too much because I’ve heard literally one song of hers, and it’s not for me. I was gonna say it’s awful, and it is awful. But what do I know? It’s sold like 20 billion records, so people like it. I don’t care, more than anything.

His early acting ambitions: “When I was a little kid I wanted to be an actor. That was my thing. And my mom gave me a guitar for my 12th birthday and I learned how to play, and that same year I heard The Ramones, and I guess everything changed. But I tried to do the acting thing back in like… 1988 or 1989. I was in Lost Angels and another one called Roadside Prophets in the ’80s. But I went on tons of auditions. I auditioned for so many different people—Oliver Stone for The Doors movie.

His life as a family man: “My wife [Kathleen Hanna] is the coolest person in the world and I get to hang out with her every day, and I’ve got great friends and I love my family… what’s the problem? So, as of today, I’m cool with all of it. Fifteen years from now, I don’t know. The only time I really notice [my age] is after basketball, or a lot of drinking. Although if you can still handle a lot of drinking at my age, that’s a bad sign. When you’re young, you just throw up and get back up again, but the spinning… I can’t do the spinning. I guess if you’re leading a healthy, grown-up lifestyle, your brain and your body are coexisting. And my back is killing me.”

His thoughts on the current state of NYC: “It’s a bummer, man. It’s definitely a bummer. That’s what cities do—they change. Some cities go the completely opposite route and turn into f–kin’ ghost towns, but me and Kathleen went to see Patti Smith do this gig and someone asked her what she thought of New York City today, and she said, “It’s depressing. You can’t be a starving artist. You can’t move to New York to be an artist.” And there are struggling artists now in New York, but they’re not struggling for money, because if they’re living in New York their parents gave them money. So now you need to have four roommates and live in Queens. Nothing against Queens. But it’s definitely too expensive, and Brooklyn is now, too. It’s depressing.

[From The Daily Beast]

He also talks about how it’s so different for young people today and how the kids aren’t set in stone with how they self-identify, like no one is just a straight-up punk or stoner or jock anymore. Anyway, I love him. I love what he says about Iggy, like he thinks she’s terrible but he doesn’t even really care. I love what he says about his wife and his family. And yes, he’s married to THAT Kathleen Hanna (my inner Riot Grrrl just squealed). He’s managed to age gracefully, in every way possible. Glory to the former hellraisers and pranksters in this world.

Oh, and Ad-Rock has been giving lots of interview this week – you can read his GQ piece here. He also did a really sweet NYT interview – go here to read.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN, still from ‘While We’re Young’.