Each of these artists was a small assault on hip-hop’s self-conception and self-presentation. But now, white rappers are commonplace, if not ubiquitous or especially influential. And a recent crop of albums and mixtapes by white rappers shows a new strategy. Where in the past, the way to avoid ruffling feathers was to lay no claim to hip-hop’s center, now it’s by looking backward, studying up and making unimpeachable choices. Who can argue with the path already taken?

For the Beastie Boys, that means pilfering from the younger versions of themselves, which means in turn pilfering from the protean rhyme schemes and rap-along chants of the Furious 5 or the Cold Crush Brothers. The new “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” (Capitol) is the Beasties’ most tolerable album in years, largely for the sincerity with which Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D clamor for, and practice, a return to old-school values. “Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries Version)” features fellow old grump Nas and positions the Beasties as unlikely old-guard warriors, churlishly lamenting changes to the genre in which, quite accidentally, they became part of the vocabulary.

The Beastie Boys were, in essence, a joke that became serious that became, over time, easily mockable and co-optable by lesser talents. The Lonely Island, another jokester troika, skipped all those steps and went directly for laughs. The group — Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone — began life as a comedy troupe, and the members are now in the employ of “Saturday Night Live,” where they’re responsible for many of the music-driven digital shorts that have infused the show with cachet in recent years.

The Lonely Island expresses its affection, and its knowledge, through astute parody. “Turtleneck & Chain” (Universal Republic) is the crew’s second album, and it’s heavy with winks — one song mocks hip-hop’s obsession with the epic song intro, stringing a series of them together, never getting to the song itself (with lyrics about erectile dysfunction, no less). There are “SNL”-facilitated collaborations with Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. (On its last album, it recruited E-40 and T-Pain.) The Lonely Island may not aspire to actual rap stardom, but it aspires to be taken seriously by those in the know.