The Beastie Boys were an American hip-hop and rock group formed in New York City in 1981. Their main line-up consisted of Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums).
The Beastie Boys were previously members of the hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines, with Diamond on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, and John Berry on guitar. Kate Schellenbach later joined on drums. When Shatan left in mid-1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the band was renamed the Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz, the guitarist of The Young and the Useless. After achieving local success with the 1983 comedy hip-hop single "Cooky Puss", the Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip-hop and Schellenbach subsequently left, with the group's final lineup consisting of Diamond, Horovitz and Yauch. Yauch, a filmmaker, directed many of the Beastie Boys' music videos under the alias Nathanial Hörnblowér.
The Beastie Boys toured with Madonna in 1985, after she discovered them while frequenting Danceteria. In 1986, they released their debut album, Licensed to Ill. It was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 chart and was influenced by their beginnings in rock. Their second album, Paul's Boutique (1989), was made with the Dust Brothers and consisted almost entirely of samples. It was a commercial failure but received critical and cult acclaim. Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success, followed by Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), the entirely instrumental album The Mix-Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011), their final album.
Their last live performance was at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music Festival, before they stopped due to Yauch's diagnosis of parotid cancer. In 2012, the Beastie Boys became the third rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later that year, Yauch died and the Beastie Boys disbanded. Retrospective works include the Beastie Boys Book, a documentary and several compilation albums.
History 1981–1983: Formation and early years Prior to forming the Beastie Boys, Michael Diamond, a childhood friend of Adam Yauch, played in bands including the Walden Jazz Band and BAN. The Young Aborigines formed in 1979. In 1981, when the bassist, Jeremy Shatan, left New York City for the summer, the remaining members Diamond, John Berry and Kate Schellenbach began to perform as the Beastie Boys with Yauch.
In a 2007 interview with Charlie Rose, Yauch recalled that it was Berry who suggested the name the Beastie Boys. Although the band stated that "Beastie" is an acronym standing for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence", in the Charlie Rose interview, both Yauch and Diamond acknowledged that the acronym was an "afterthought" conceived after the name was chosen. The band supported Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys, the Misfits and Reagan Youth at venues such as CBGB, A7, Trude Heller's and Max's Kansas City, playing at the latter venue on its closing night. In November 1982, the Beastie Boys recorded the 7-inch EP Polly Wog Stew at 171A studios, an early recorded example of New York hardcore.
On November 13, 1982, the Beastie Boys played Philip Pucci's birthday for the purposes of his short concert film Beastie. Pucci held the concert in Bard College's Preston Drama Dance Department Theatre. This performance marked the Beastie Boys' first on-screen appearance in a published motion picture. Pucci's concept for Beastie was to distribute a mixture of both a half dozen 16 mm Bell & Howell Filmo cameras, and 16 mm Bolex cameras to audience members and ask that they capture the Beastie Boys performance from the audience's own point of view while a master sync sound camera filmed from the balcony of the abandoned theater where the performance was held. The opening band for that performance was the Young and the Useless, which featured Adam Horovitz as the lead singer. A one-minute clip of Beastie was subsequently excerpted and licensed by the Beastie Boys for use in the "Egg Raid on Mojo" segment of the "Skills to Pay the Bills" long-form home video released by Capitol Records. "Skills to Pay the Bills" later went on to be certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Berry left the group in 1982 (later forming Thwig, Big Fat Love and Bourbon Deluxe) and was replaced by Horovitz, who had become close friends with the Beastie Boys.
The band also recorded and then performed its first hip-hop track, "Cooky Puss", based on a prank call by the group to a Carvel Ice Cream franchise in 1983. It was a part of the new lineup's first EP, also called Cooky Puss, which was the first piece of work that showed their incorporation of the underground rap phenomenon and the use of samples. It quickly became a hit in New York underground dance clubs and night clubs. After "Beastie Revolution" was later sampled in a British Airways commercial, the Beastie Boys threatened to sue them over the use of the song, and the airline immediately paid them $40,000 in royalties.
1984–1987: Def Jam years and Licensed to Ill
Following the success of "Cooky Puss", the band began to incorporate rap into their sets. They hired a DJ for their live shows, New York University student Rick Rubin, who began producing records soon thereafter. "I met Mike first," Rubin recalled. "I thought he was an arrogant asshole. Through spending time with the Beasties I grew to see that they had this great sense of humor. It wasn't that they were assholes, and even if it was, they were funny with it." Rubin formed Def Jam Recordings with Russell Simmons, and approached the band about producing them for his new label. As the band was transitioning to hip-hop, Rubin gave them an ultimatum and Schellenbach was forced out of the group in 1984. Rubin told her he "didn't like the sound of women rapping" and that the band wouldn't achieve success with a female member. Diamond took over on drums. In their 2018 memoir, Ad-Rock expressed regret over firing Schellenbach, which he attributed to her not fitting with the "new tough-rapper-guy identity". Schellenbach went on to be the drummer of Luscious Jackson, which signed with the Beastie Boys' label Grand Royal. The group continued to play with Schellenbach and The Young and the Useless during their early days.
The band's 12-inch single "Rock Hard" (later recalled due to copyright disputes with AC/DC) was the second Def Jam record to credit Rubin as producer (the first being "It's Yours" by T La Rock and Jazzy Jay). During 1985, the group was the supporting act of the Virgin Tour, Madonna's first concert series. On July 22, 1986, the Beastie Boys opened for John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd., They headlined with Fishbone and Murphy's Law with DJ Hurricane, and later in the year the group was on the Raising Hell tour with Run-DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, and the Timex Social Club. Thanks to this exposure, "Hold It Now, Hit It" charted on Billboards US R&B and dance charts. "She's on It" from the Krush Groove soundtrack continued in a rap/metal vein while a double A-side 12", "Paul Revere/The New Style", was released at the end of the year.
The Beastie Boys worked on their debut album with Simmons and Rubin, the latter of whom suggested the tentative title Don't Be A Faggot. As it contained a homophobic slur, it was met with pushback from Capitol Records and renamed to Licensed to Ill and released on November 15, 1986. It was favorably reviewed by Rolling Stone. Licensed to Ill became one of the best-selling rap albums of the 1980s and the first rap album to go number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, where it stayed for five weeks. It also reached number 2 on the Top R&B album chart. It was Def Jam's fastest selling debut record to date and sold over nine million copies. The fourth single, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)", reached number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Although the group has sold over 26-million records in the US, this is their only single to peak in the US top ten or top twenty. The accompanying video (directed by Ric Menello and Adam Dubin) became an MTV staple. Another song from the album, "No Sleep till Brooklyn", peaked at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.
The Beastie Boys toured the world the following year. The tour was troubled by lawsuits and arrests, with the band accused of provoking the crowd. The group received overwhelmingly negative press in the United Kingdom tabloids and a session of the British Parliament was held to determine whether the Beastie Boys should be allowed to perform in the country.Diamond, Michael; Horovitz, Adam. Beastie Boys Story, 2020. This culminated in a notorious gig at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, England, on May 30, 1987, that erupted into a riot approximately 10 minutes after the group hit the stage. Horovitz was arrested by Merseyside Police and charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm.
1988–1989: Move to Capitol Records and Paul's Boutique In 1988, the Beastie Boys appeared in Tougher Than Leather, a film directed by Rubin as a star vehicle for Run-D.M.C. and Def Jam Recordings. After Def Jam stopped paying them for work they had already done and were owed money for, the Beastie Boys left Def Jam and signed with Capitol Records.
The second Beastie Boys album, Paul's Boutique, was released on July 25, 1989. Produced by the Dust Brothers, it blends eclectic samples and has been described as an early work of experimental hip-hop. It failed to match the sales of Licensed to Ill, reaching number 14 on the US album charts, but later attracted acclaim; Rolling Stone ranked it number 156 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It also made it onto the Apple Music 100 Best Albums list at number 48.
1990–1997: Check Your Head and Ill Communication
Check Your Head was recorded in the band's G-Son studio in Atwater Village, California, and released on its Grand Royal record label. The band was influenced to play instruments on this album by Dutch group Urban Dance Squad; with Mike D on drums, Yauch on bass, Horovitz on guitar and Mark Ramos Nishita ("Keyboard Money Mark") on keyboards. Mario Caldato, Jr., who had helped in the production of Paul's Boutique, engineered the record and became a longtime collaborator. Check Your Head was released in 1992 and was certified double Platinum in the US and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200. The single "So What'cha Want" reached number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted on both the Rap and Modern Rock Chart, while the album's first single, "Pass the Mic", peaked at number 38 on the Hot Dance Music chart. The album also introduced a more experimental direction, with funk and jazz inspired songs including "Lighten Up" and "Something's Got to Give". The band returned to their hardcore punk roots for the song "Time for Livin'", a cover of a 1974 Sly and the Family Stone song. The addition of instruments and the harder rock sound of the album could be considered a precursor to the nu metal genre of music to come out in the later half of the 1990s.
The Beastie Boys signed an eclectic roster of artists to their Grand Royal label, including their ex-bandmate Schellenbach's band Luscious Jackson, Sean Lennon, and Australian artist Ben Lee. The group owned Grand Royal Records until 2001. Grand Royal's first independent release was Luscious Jackson's album In Search of Manny in 1993. Also in 1993, the band contributed the track "It's the New Style" (with DJ Hurricane) to the AIDS benefit album No Alternative, produced by the Red Hot Organization.