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Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys are an American hip-hop music group from Brooklyn, New York formed in 1981. As of 2004, it consists of Mike D (Michael Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch) and Adrock (Adam Horovitz), although several other musicians have played with the group for a long time.
The name of the band harks back to the band's hardcore punk days, when Beastie stood for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence". Its original line-up consisted of MCA on bass, Kate Schellenbach on drums, John Berry on guitars and Mike D on vocals and its first gig was playing at Yauch's 17th birthday party. The band quickly earned support slots for Bad Brains and Reagan Youth at venues such as CBGB and Max's Kansas City playing at the latter venue on its closing night.
As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, who accused them of cultural pirating, especially
since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren't pirating -- they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the do-it-yourself aesthetics of hip-hop and punk weren't that far apart. Of course, the exaggerated b-boy and frat-boy parodies of their unexpected hit debut album, Licensed to Ill, didn't help their cause.
For much of the mid-'80s, the Beastie Boys were considered as macho clowns, and while their ambitious, Dust Brothers-produced second album, Paul's Boutique, dismissed that theory, it was ignored by both the public and the press at the time. In retrospect, it was one of the first albums to predict the genre-bending, self-referential pop kaleidoscope of '90s pop. Influenced by Rick Rubin, the Beastie Boys changed from a punk rock outfit to a three-man hip hop crew. The band and released the 12" single "Rock Hard" in 1984, the second record released by Def Jam, credited to Rubin as producer. Kate Schellenbach left the band in this period due to musical differences over the direction of the band.
"Rock Hard" has been removed from print and is considered a rare collector's item. The song was to reappear on their 1999 The Sounds of Science anthology, but was removed when AC/DC refused permission to use a sample from the song "Back in Black." Beastie Boys member Mike D reportedly talked to the band personally on the phone: "AC/DC could not get with the sample concept. They were just like, ‘Nothing against you guys, but we just don't endorse sampling.'"
In 1985, the band supported Madonna on her North American Virgin tour. Later in the year, the group was on the Raising Hell tour with Run DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J and the Timex Social Club. With their exposure on this tour, the track "Hold It, Now Hit It" made Billboard's national R&B and dance charts. The track "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 a released at the end of the year and became another R&B/dance hit.
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Artist Biography - Beastie Boys
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 The band recorded Licensed to Ill in 1986 and released it at the end of the year. It became a smash success becoming the best selling rap album of the 1980s and the first rap album to go #1 on the Billboard album chart, staying there for five weeks. It also reached #2 on the Urban album charts. It was Columbia Records' fastest selling debut record to that point and sold over five million albums.
The first single from the album "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was later named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. "Brass Monkey", named after the cocktail, also reached #48 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other significant tracks from the album include "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" and "Posse In Effect". Kerry King of Slayer played guitar on "No Sleep Til Brooklyn".
The band toured the Licensed to Ill tour around the world. This tour was controversial, featuring female members of the crowd dancing in cages and a giant motorized inflatable penis similar to one used by the Rolling Stones in the 1970s. This tour was troubled by lawsuits and arrests with the band accused of provoking the crowd. In the UK, alleged insults supposedly aimed at leukemia victims almost resulted in the band being kicked out of the country, although the Beastie Boys maintain that the incident was a beat up of the band politely declining to sign an autograph.
British comedian Tony Hawks recorded the song "Stutter Rap" under the pseudonym of "Morris Minor and the Majors" as a send up of the Beastie Boys' then image. It became a major hit in the UK reaching #4 and #1 in Australia. The Beastie Boys are supposedly the first to use the word "mullet" to describe this hair style during this period.
The Beasties refined their eclectic approach with 1992's Check Your Head, where they played their own instruments. Check Your Head brought the Beasties back to the top of the charts, and within a few years, they were considered one of the most influential and ambitious groups of the '90s, cultivating a musical community not only through their music, but with their record label, Grand Royal, and their magazine of the same name.
The Beastie Boys owned their own record label, Grand Royal, for eight years before they decided to close it down in 2001 due to financial reasons. The band increased its level of leftwing political activism after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The band organized and headlined the New Yorkers Against Violence on October 28-29, 2001. Funds from the concert went towards the New York Women's Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA). The line-up included the Strokes, the B-52's, Cibo Matto, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Mos Def, N.E.R.D, Rival Schools, the Roots, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Saul Williams, Stretch Armstrong, Afrika Bambaataa, and a surprise two-song set by Moby and Michael Stipe (featuring an impromptu cameo by Bono). Mike D is also a major advocate of the environmental activist program Save Our Environment, whose cause includes the opposition of drilling for oil in the state of Alaska.
In 2002, the Beastie Boys started building a new studio facility, Oscilloscope, in downtown Manhattan, New York and started work on a new album. The band released a protest song, "In A World Gone Mad", against the 2003 Iraq war as a free download on its website, the Milarepa website, the MTV website, Move On,and Win Without War. It was the most downloaded track during April 2003. The 19th and 20th Tibetan Freedom Concerts were held in Tokyo and Taipei - the Beastie Boys' first Taiwan appearance. The Beastie Boys also headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
To The 5 Boroughs, was released worldwide on 15 June 2004, the first album the Beastie Boys produced themselves. It reached #1 on the Billboard album charts, #2 in the UK and Australia, and #3 in Germany. The first single from the album, "Ch-Check It Out", has reached #1 in Canada, #2 on the US modern rock chart and world Internet download charts, and #3 on a composite world modern rock chart.
The album was the cause of some controversy with allegations that it installed spyware when inserted into the CD-ROM of a computer. The band has denied this allegation, defending that there is no copy protection software on the albums sold in the US and UK. While there is Macrovision's CDS-200 copy protection software installed on European copies of the album, this is standard practice for all European releases on EMI/Capitol Records released in Europe and it does not install spyware or any form of permanent software.
Adam "Adrock" Horowitz's side project BS2000, with Amery "Awol" Smith, released "Simply Mortified" in 2001.
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For more information , enjoy the official homepage of Beastie Boys
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