timeline

Beastie Boys

A New York hardcore band that became a rap trio, topped the American album chart with the first rap record to do it, then spent three decades reinventing itself.

Origin
New York City, United States
Years active
1981-2012
Genres
hip-hop, alternative hip-hop, rap rock, hardcore punk
Labels
Rat Cage, Def Jam, Columbia, Capitol, Grand Royal

Punk to hip-hop

The group began in New York in 1979 as a hardcore punk band called the Young Aborigines, with Mike D on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass and John Berry on guitar. In 1981, with Shatan away for the summer, the others played as Beastie Boys with Adam Yauch on bass. Berry reportedly suggested the name, and Yauch and Mike D later said the acronym often attached to it was an afterthought. Kate Schellenbach joined on drums and percussion. The band opened for acts such as Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys and the Misfits at CBGB and Max's Kansas City, and the EP Polly Wog Stew was recorded in November 1982, by which time Adam Horovitz had replaced Berry.

A prank-call record, Cooky Puss, in 1983 marked the turn to hip-hop. They hired Rick Rubin, then an NYU student, as their live DJ, and in 1984 Schellenbach was pushed out and Diamond moved to drums. Ad-Rock later said in the group's 2018 memoir that he regretted it. Schellenbach went on to Luscious Jackson, which the Beastie Boys signed to their own label. In 1985 they supported Madonna on her Virgin Tour.

Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique

With Rubin producing, they released Licensed to Ill on Def Jam on 15 November 1986. It spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the first rap album to reach the top. Its singles included (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) and No Sleep till Brooklyn. The 1987 tour was rowdy: British tabloids attacked the group, Parliament held a session on whether they should be allowed to play, and a gig in Liverpool on 30 May 1987 ended in a riot in which Horovitz was arrested.

In 1988 they left Def Jam, which had stopped paying them money they were owed, for Capitol, and moved to Los Angeles. With the Dust Brothers and Mario Caldato Jr. they made Paul's Boutique, released on 25 July 1989 and built from a huge web of samples, including Shake Your Rump. It peaked at number 14 and sold slowly at first, but later critics ranked it among the great albums of its decade. Pitchfork gave its 2009 reissue a 10.

Instruments and Grand Royal

In 1992 they founded Grand Royal with Capitol, a label that also published a magazine. That year's Check Your Head was the first album with Money Mark on keyboards and the first on which the band played its own instruments. Ill Communication followed on 23 May 1994 and reached number one. It held Sabotage and Sure Shot, and the group headlined Lollapalooza that summer alongside the Smashing Pumpkins.

Yauch organised the Tibetan Freedom Concert, first held in 1994, and its 1996 edition at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco drew more than 100,000 people. Hello Nasty arrived in 1998 with Mix Master Mike on turntables and produced Intergalactic. It topped charts in the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, and won two Grammys in 1999, the first time one act had won in both the rap and alternative categories.

The last years

To the 5 Boroughs (2004) was their first self-produced album and The Mix-Up (2007), an instrumental record, won a Grammy in 2008. They played their last show as a trio at Bonnaroo in June 2009. On 20 July 2009 Yauch announced he had cancer of the parotid gland. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two came out in 2011.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 14 April 2012, introduced by Chuck D and LL Cool J, while Yauch was too ill to attend. He died on 4 May 2012, aged 47. In June 2014 Diamond confirmed that he and Horovitz would not make music again as Beastie Boys, and the group won a lawsuit that month against Monster Energy for using its songs in an advert, since Yauch's will forbids such use. The band told its own story in Beastie Boys Book (2018) and the documentary Beastie Boys Story (2020), and a New York corner was renamed Beastie Boys Square in 2023. Alan Light wrote that they altered the direction of popular music at least three times.

Members

Records

Songs

Rick Rubin, Dust Brothers, Slayer, Luscious Jackson, Money Mark

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Fan sites and communities

Sources

  1. Beastie Boys, Wikipedia
  2. Beastie Boys, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  3. Beastie Boys artist search, MusicBrainz
  4. An oral history of the Beastie Boys, Kottke (2011-04)
  5. Grand Royal, Beastiemania
  6. Rat Cage benefit at CBGB, 20 November 1982, Internet Archive (2013-07-05)
  7. Rat Cage benefit item metadata, Internet Archive
  8. The Mix-Up, Pitchfork
  9. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Pitchfork
  10. To the 5 Boroughs, Pitchfork
  11. Adam Yauch, Pitchfork
  12. The anti-Woodstock 99: an oral history of the Tibetan Freedom Concert, Pitchfork