yeah, i definitely understand what you're saying here -

weren't the beastie boys supporters of a cop-killer, or is my memory completely wrong?

I respect the fact that the beastie boys are hip-hop, with NO respect or airplay from the hip-hop community, yet they keep doing what they do best with style and energy. I still think the video for sabatoge is hysterical.

With regard to sublime...as long as they kept mixing punk/reggae and ska with lyrics that make me want to buy everything they released, they would have kept true to the music and what made them great. And doing some great collaborations never hurt either. And occasionally an acoustic or re-mixed song were nice too.