Check Their Heads

MIKE D Try to see how your actions affect other people. ''Licensed to Ill'' was our first encounter of meeting people who listened to the lyrics we'd written and taken them seriously. We'd meet people and they'd be like, ''You dudes like talking about smoking dust, I just smoked all this dust!'' And you're like, ''We were just kidding.'' It's a very sobering experience and makes you realize that you're actually going to have an impact with your words. But sometimes you gotta just say f -- -it. On the new album, we just say f -- -it and enjoy ourselves. And we're gonna have to pay the price, and that's fine.

MCA I think I didn't realize how much a single becomes a focus for a record. ''Fight for Your Right'' was a funny album track, but it made for a strange first single because it sort of drew the whole focus in this other direction.... If we had used more of a hip-hop single, like ''Paul Revere'' or ''Time to Get Ill,'' then I probably wouldn't have had three people mentioning ''Fight'' in toasts at my wedding.

One would assume from your success that you're quite wealthy by now, and there's no doubt that you're famous. So why do you keep working instead of sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labor? Is it fear of boredom, or do you do it for the fans? For the love of the art or something more base, like greed? -- Chris Whissen, Elmhurst, N.Y.

AD-ROCK Well, we haven't put a record out in six years, so I wouldn't say that we work all that hard.

MIKE D And that probably takes the greed motivation out. If we were greedy, then we'd put albums out more often.

AD-ROCK Yeah, if we were greedy we'd probably put our songs on ''The O.C.''