Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys, American hip-hop group, the first white rap performers to gain a substantial following. As such, they were largely responsible for the growth of rap’s mainstream audience. The principal members were MCA (byname of Adam Yauch; b. August 5, 1964, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—d. May 4, 2012, New York City), Mike D (byname of Michael Diamond; b. November 20, 1965, New York City), and Adrock (byname of Adam Horovitz; b. October 31, 1966, South Orange, New Jersey).

Founded in New York City in 1981 by a group of arty middle-class Jewish kids responding to Manhattan’s eclectic downtown music scene, the Beastie Boys evolved by 1983 from a hard-core punk quartet (including original guitarist John Berry and drummer Kate Schellenbach) into a trio—MCA, Mike D, and Adrock. They signed with Def Jam, and early 12-inch singles and a brief tour with Madonna in 1985 finally brought them press attention. It was not until they toured with popular black rappers Run-D.M.C., however, that the Beastie Boys won credibility with the rap audience. Good timing and a clever blend of hard rock samples and parodic fraternity-boy posturing turned Licensed to Ill (1986), with its hit single “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),” into a smash debut album, confirming the emotional and stylistic affinities some critics found between rap and hard rock. After moving from Def Jam to Capitol Records for their 1989 release, Paul’s Boutique, the Beastie Boys strategically appropriated retro-funk influences, adding an acoustic dimension to digital sound-collage techniques learned from Rick Rubin and Grandmaster Flash.

The band launched the Grand Royal record label in 1992. In addition to the Beastie Boys, its roster included the alternative girl group Luscious Jackson, Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee, and German techno act Atari Teenage Riot. Check Your Head (1992), the Beastie Boys’ first release on Grand Royal, featured a collection of radio-friendly rhymes that layered pop culture references over distorted funk instrumentation. The group’s next album, Ill Communication (1994), had a similar sound, and the music video for the hit single “Sabotage”—a tongue-in-cheek homage to 1970s television police dramas—was in near-constant rotation on MTV. The band took an electronic turn on the Grammy-winning Hello Nasty (1998) and scored another hit with the single “Intergalactic.” In 2001 Grand Royal folded as a result of slow sales and mounting debts, and the Beastie Boys returned to Capitol for the 2004 release To the 5 Boroughs.

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The instrumental hip-hop album The Mix-up (2007) represented a return to basics, and its fusion of funk, Latin, and lounge music won the band another Grammy. The trio’s eighth studio album, Hot Sauce Committee Part One, was scheduled for release in 2009, but Yauch was diagnosed with cancer in July of that year, and the group suspended all recording and touring activity. With Yauch’s health improving, the Beastie Boys resumed recording and in May 2011 released Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (with the exception of one song, the track list was virtually identical to the unreleased Part One). Stylistically, it was similar to Ill Communication, and the star-studded video for the debut single “Make Some Noise” demonstrated that the group had not lost its sense of the absurd. Despite the progress that was made with his early cancer treatments, Yauch’s health deteriorated, and he passed away in 2012. Two years later Diamond confirmed that the band had dissolved after Yauch’s death.

In 2012 the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Diamond and Horovitz collaborated with a number of famous fans of the Beastie Boys and individuals from the band’s past to write Beastie Boys Book (2018), a multimedia memoir that explores the group’s history and significance. The documentary Beastie Boys Story was released in 2020.