Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys, veteran white rap group who fought for their right to party, but later discovered a social conscience. M EMBERSHIP: Michael Diamond, voc, drm. (b. N.Y.C., Nov. 20, 1965); Adam Horovitz, gtr. (b. N.Y.C., Oct. 31, 1966); Adam Yauch, bs. (b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 5 1964).

Although they were the first rappers to garner a gold and platinum album, the Beastie Boys began life as a four-piece hardcore band with drummer Kate Schellen-back and guitarist John Berry. They opened shows at N.Y.‘s seminal punk clubs like CBGBs and Max’s for the likes of the Bad Brains. The quartet recorded an EP called Polywog Stew . They first came to the public fore in 1983, tapping into the burgeoning hip-hop movement with the 12” “Cookie Puss/’ a crank call set to a reggae-ish hip-hop beat. On the strength of its cheeky humor, it became an underground hit. This brought them to the attention of N.Y.U. student Rick Rubin. They started recording for Def Jam, a label Rubin started out of his dorm room.

Live, they begin to put down their instruments during their sets to MC. Rubin scratched on their next single, the Def Jam release “Rock Hard.” By 1985, Columbia Records signed on to distribute Def Jam. The Beasties had a role in the film Krush Groove and a slot on the soundtrack. Their tune, “She’s on It,” merged rap with an AC/DC metal riff and the Beasties’s own bad-boy attitude. They took this attitude on the road with Madonna and her “Like a Virgin” tour, followed by a stint on the road with Run DMC. The show featured props like a giant inflatable penis, which garnered them quite a bit of attention in the press.

After all this lead-in, the Beasties’s debut album License to III sold faster than any previous Columbia records debut, shifting a million copies in two months and becoming the first #1 rap album. It eventually sold over eight million copies. They alienated hip-hop purists with the frat-rap “Fight for Your Right (To Party).” They enraged women’s groups with tunes like “Girls.”

After touring for the album, they parted ways with Def Jam in the wake of royalty feuds and other controversies. They signed with Capital and relocated to Calif., building a studio with a basketball court and skateboard ramp. The first album out of that studio was Paul’s Boutique , a critically acclaimed album that garnered somewhat disappointing sales initially, but wound up going double platinum.

The group started their own Grand Royal Records, signing Schellenbach’s new band Luscious Jackson and Berry’s Big Fat Love. After several years of dealing with beats and samples, the trio started honing their chops again. Separately, they also developed other interests. Horovitz acted in several films, including A Kiss Before Dying and Roadside Prophets . Diamond got involved in X-Large, a b-boy fashion company. Horovitz married actress (Donovan’s daughter) lone Skye; Diamond married filmmaker Tamara Davis, and Yauch was married to Dechen Wangdu. Yauch started exploring Buddhism, and met with the Dalai Lama. So, three years after Paul’s Boutique , they followed up with Check Your Head , a fusion of their punk roots, funk leanings, and hip-hop fortunes. This stance took them out of their old school rap bag and to a place more in line with alternative rock. The album debuted at in the Top Ten. While they had no chart hits, their videos got played heavily on MTV. Eventually the album went triple platinum.

The boys hit the road. They also started a newsletter about Grand Royal Records; it took on a life of its own and evolved into a magazine. Their growing social consciousness came to the fore with the founding of the Milarepa Foundation, dedicated to promoting universal compassion through music.

Musically, they worked in their studio, first putting together some of their old tracks like “Cookie Puss” and “Polywog Stew” on an album called Some Old Bullshit . They then got down to new work, further extending the mix of their own live music with their MC work and samples. The resulting album III Communication debuted at #1, selling platinum out of the box and rising to triple platinum. It marked a sharp change in attitude. Where at one time (c. License to III) they rapped, “She’d drop to her knees if we’d only say please,” they now maintain “The disrespect of women has got to be through.”

The Beastie Boys hit the road, selling out arenas in as few as nine minutes. One dollar from each ticket went to the Milarepa Foundation. The tour took them as far and wide as South America and Southeast Asia.

After the tour, the Beasties took a short trip down memory lane, releasing an eight-track, 11- minute long hardcore EP, Aglio e Olio .

In 1996, the Beasties organized the first annual Tibetan Freedom Concert, attracting 100, 000 people to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. They were joined by a diverse line-up of artists ranging from the Skatalites to Yoko Ono, Buddy Guy, The Fugees, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The annual event has since played in N. Y. and Washington, D.C. The 1999 show took place simultaneously in Sydney, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Chicago.

Another EP came out on Grand Royal in 1996. Called The In Sound from Way Out! , it consisted of instrumental tracks recorded during the Check Your Head and III Communication sessions. They initially released it to media outlets for use as backdrops for promos and newscasts, but eventually were convinced to put it out.

Late in the 1990s, the Beastie Boys moved back to N.Y., where they recorded Hello Nasty . Released in the summer of 1998, this one sold double platinum out of the box, adding another million sales before the year was out. In promoting the album, they made tracks available on their web site for computer download, stirring up considerable consternation at Capitol Records, and proving no matter how much of a social conscience they developed, they were never beyond a little roguish fun.