Beastie Boys

SINCE bursting onto the scene in 1986 with the epochal crossover rap hit "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)," from the quintuple-platinum Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys have continued to defy observers who initially pigeonholed them as nothing more than knockoff white rappers. With a 16-year history of musical innovation and experimentation, these trailblazers of the post-punk era have continuously reemerged as vital contributors, and they deserve substantial credit for bringing elements of rap to modern rock.

Adam Yauch (a.k.a. MCA) and Mike Diamond (a.k.a. Mike D.) formed the hardcore punk band the Beastie Boys in New York City in 1981. (The band's original lineup also included Kate Schellenbach, future member of Luscious Jackson.) After the Beasties independently released the Polly Wog Stew EP in 1982, Adam Horowitz (a.k.a. King Ad-Rock), son of playwright Israel Horowitz, quit his punk outfit, the Young and the Useless, and joined Yauch and Diamond to round out the band's roster.

In 1983, the new and improved Beastie Boys released the spoof 12-inch single "Cookie Puss," a probationary attempt at rap that incorporated samples of a crank phone call the band members had perpetrated. "Cookie Puss" eventually caught the ear of Rick Rubin, who, along with then partner and Run-D.M.C. manager Russell Simmons, would go on the following year to launch the Def Jam Records empire out of his NYU dorm room. Rubin convinced the trio to abandon punk altogether in favor of rap, and after he signed the Beasties to his fledgling label in 1985, he set to work producing their first full-length record.

Even before Def Jam released Licensed to Ill in 1986, the boys had already begun to make a name for themselves. They appeared in the rap movie Krush Groove, and contributed a song, "She's on It," to the soundtrack of the film. The trio also supported Madonna and Run-D.M.C. on separate tours—the fact that they were able to share bills with both a white pop singer and an established black rap act presaged the crossover success they would enjoy when Licensed to Ill hit the charts.

Propelled by the sweeping popularity of "Fight for Your Right," which was in heavy rotation on MTV, Licensed to Ill became one of Columbia's fastest-selling debuts ever, and the Beastie Boys turned into something of an overnight sensation as the record shot to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. Traditional rock lovers were seduced by the hard-partying, suburban-white-boy tales of beer-drinking and crazy sex, and rocked out to the album's heavy-metal guitar samples and muscular, if rudimentary, beats. Rap aficionados appreciated the fact that the Beastie Boys carried bona fide rap credentials, that they were managed and produced by seminal figures from the New York rap scene, and that they stayed true to the form and aesthetic of the genre.

The Beastie Boys set out to prove that they weren't mere musical poseurs with their next record, Paul's Boutique, released by Capitol in 1989 following a lengthy and bitter legal dispute with Rubin. Eschewing the frat-boy imagery and alcohol-plus-testosterone antics that pervaded Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique revealed an astonishing pan-musical sensibility with its multifaceted soundscape of soul, funk, and jazz samples, the result of a collaboration with L.A.-based producers the Dust Brothers, who would later make a name for themselves for their work with Beck. Though their rapping style had mellowed considerably, the Beasties managed to retain a sizeable audience, and the Paul's Boutique single "Hey Ladies" broke the Top 40 and became an MTV hit.

For their third album, 1992's Check Your Head, the Beasties revisited their roots as an instrument-wielding band, supplying the basic tracks for most of the songs themselves, with MCA on bass, Mike D. on drums, and King Ad-Rock on guitar. Keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita (a.k.a. Money Mark) was brought in to flesh out the arrangements. Their efforts resulted in a notably organic record that used the loose groove of the live tracks as a springboard for the group's signature lyrical clowning, color-outside-the-lines song structures, and voracious sampling (everyone from Bob Dylan to Ted Nugent to Richard Pryor was tapped for the album). Playing live instruments also afforded the threesome the chance to pay homage to their punk days, best evidenced by the thrashing track "Time for Livin'." Nevertheless, the biggest hit off the album was the funky, percussive "So What'cha Want."

The Beastie Boys' most recent studio album, 1994's Ill Communication, debuted atop the Billboard album chart (an EP of old and unreleased tracks, Some Old Bullshit, was released the same year on the trio's own Capitol-distributed label imprint, Grand Royal). Stylistically, Communication picked up where Check Your Head left off, with the Beasties playing instruments live in the studio and continuing to run the musical gamut from rap to funk to punk to jazz to groovy instrumentals. MTV again backed the band, with the Starsky and Hutch-inspired clip for "Sabotage" becoming one of the most popular and influential videos of the year. In a further testament to their perennial appeal, the Beastie Boys co-headlined the 1994 Lollapalooza tour. In early 1996, the band released an all-instrumental mini-album, The In Sound From Way Out! which found them dabbling in lounge music.

With all three members of the Beastie Boys involved in various outside projects, it is little wonder that more than four years passed between the release of Ill Communication and its long-awaited follow-up. Horowitz, who is married to film actress Ione Skye, has starred in a couple of movies of his own (Lost Angels and Roadside Prophets). Diamond, the entrepreneur of the bunch, keeps close tabs on Grand Royal (beyond the Beasties' own records, the label is home to the all-female, pseudo-funk quartet Luscious Jackson and Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee; the company also publishes Grand Royal magazine). Yauch, a converted Buddhist, has become a prominent activist in the Tibet freedom movement and organized three high-profile concerts in 1996, 1997, and 1998 to raise money for the cause. The San Francisco and New York shows held the first two years featured such notable performers as Patti Smith, Alanis Morissette, U2, Blur, and Rage Against the Machine. Highlights from the gigs were released in late 1997 on the triple-CD Tibetan Freedom Concert.

This year's concert, a two-day extravaganza which took place in June at Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium, had just as many heavy hitters on the roster, but the heaviest of all turned out to be Mother Nature. During Herbie Hancock's performance on day one, lightning struck the area, injuring several concertgoers. The worst hit was Lysa Selfon, who had stopped breathing before fast-acting bystanders administered CPR. Selfon suffered third-degree burns on parts of her body, but is expected to make a full recovery. Following the incident, the rest of the Saturday concert was canceled, though the Sunday show went off without a hitch. The happy ending is that the weekend event raised more than $1 million for the Milarepa Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of nonviolence that has been directly involved in the Tibet cause.

Following their appearance at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, the Beastie Boys played a series of European festival dates. On July 31, they kick off a massive North American tour at Seattle's KeyArena, an 18,000-seat venue, with special guests A Tribe Called Quest and Money Mark, the sometimes Beastie keyboardist who just released a solo album, Push the Button. The tour will run through late August, ending in Worcester, Mass., after which they'll play a couple more European dates.

Given the Beastie Boys' well-established artistic integrity, consistent musical innovation, and bankable hit-making prowess, it's no wonder folks are champing at the bit to hear Hello Nasty, one of the most-anticipated releases of the year. The marketing for the new album is ingenious: a late-night infomercial starring the Beasties and airing in select cities, allows viewers to preorder Hello Nasty. In the half-hour parody, every facet of the irritating genre—from juicers (which play clips from the new album) to psychic connections ("[Hello Nasty] has helped thousands and thousands of people")—is a target, and the Boys make ample use of their well-honed ability to poke gentle fun. Don't be surprised if Hello Nasty debuts at the top of the SoundScan Top 250.