Beastie Boys biography
The Beastie Boys are an American hip hop band from Manhattan/Brooklyn, New York City. For the majority of its career, the group has consisted of MCs Michael Diamond, known as Mike D (vocals, drums), Adam Horovitz, known as Ad-Rock (vocals, guitar), and Adam Yauch, known as MCA (vocals, bass, double bass), with contributing musician Mix Master Mike (turntablist).
Formed as a hardcore punk band in 1981 by Yauch and Diamond, with drummer Kate Schellenbach and guitarist John Berry, the band appeared on the compilation cassette New York Thrash, before recording their first EP Polly Wog Stew, in 1982. After achieving moderate local success with the 1983 experimental hip hop 12" Cooky Puss, the group transitioned to hip hop in 1984 and released a string of successful 12" singles. The Beastie Boys toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album Licensed to Ill. The group sold 22 million albums in the United States and 40 million albums worldwide, making them, according to Billboard, "the biggest-selling rap group" since 1991.
With seven platinum or better albums from 1986-2004, the Beastie Boys are one of the longest-lived hip hop acts worldwide, and they continue to enjoy commercial and critical success more than 25 years after Licensed to Ill. In 2009, the group released digitally remastered deluxe editions of their albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty. Their eighth studio album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, was released in 2011, and received positive reviews. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012, "just the third rap group to enter the Hall, after Run-D.M.C. (2009) and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (2007)." The following month, MCA died of cancer of the parotid salivary gland.
History
Early years (1979-83)
The Beastie Boys came together in 1981 as a hardcore punk band. The band supported Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys, the Misfits and Reagan Youth at venues such as CBGB, A7, Trudy Hellers Place and Max's Kansas City, playing at the latter venue on its closing night. In November 1982 the Beastie Boys recorded the 7" EP
Polly Wog Stew at 171A studios, an early recorded example of New York hardcore.
On November 13, 1982, the Beastie Boys, consisting of band members John Berry, Michael Diamond (Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA) (a.k.a. Nathanial Hörnblowér), and Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson), played Philip Pucci's birthday for the purposes of his short concert film of the Beastie Boys, Philip Pucci's "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 16mm Bell and Howell Filmo cameras, and 16mm 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 (Ad-Rock) as their 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 earn the Recording Industry Association of America's (R.I.A.A.) gold sales award for selling more than 500,000 copies.
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