Well the Beasties went back to the sources with this album "The Mix-Up" (buy it kids, it's awesome). They were already doing some of that stuff with lyrics on their firsts albums. Looks like that kind of groove were their first love. Nothing better to express their instrumental talents.

I guess they wouldn't give a shit. We already have some Timbaland f***ers ripping entire songs from mod/tracker artists. We have Daft Punk making an entire song off a cut from "Breakwater - Release the beast" (which is not even close to sound as good as the original) and many more who get away with outrageous copy and taking all the credit for themselves. So i wouldn't blame the beasties this hard for ten seconds that they could also have reproduced coincidentially. I also happened to make a rhythm, a melody or a bassline that sounded like the one of another artist i've never heard off and without being aware of it until someone tells me so. It's getting harder today since we are slowly coming to a point where every possible patterns or combination of notes has been made.