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. 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.It was remarkable turn of events for
a group that demonstrated no significant musical talent on their first
records. All three members of the Beastie Boys -- Mike D
(b. Mike
Diamond, November 20, 1966), MCA
(b. Adam Yauch, August 5,
1965), and Ad-Rock
(b. Adam Horovitz, October 31, 1967) -- came
from wealthy middle-class Jewish families in New York and had
become involved in the city's punk underground when they were
teenagers in the early '80s. Diamond and Yauch formed the Beastie
Boys with drummer Kate Schellenbach and guitarist John Berry in
1981, and the group began playing underground clubs around New
York. The following year, the Beasties released the seven-inch EP
Polly Wog Stew on the indie Rat Cage to little attention. That year,
the band met Horovitz, who had formed the hardcore group The
Young and the Useless. By early 1983, Schellenbach and Berry had
left the group -- they would later join Luscious Jackson and Thwig,
respectively -- and Horovitz had joined the Beasties. The revamped
group released the rap record Cookie Puss as a twelve-inch single
later in 1983. Based on a prank phone call the group made to Carvel
Ice Cream, the single became an underground hit in New York, and
by early 1984, they had abandoned punk and turned their attention to rap.

In 1984, the Beasties joined forces with producer Rick Rubin, a heavy
metal and hip-hop fan who had recently founded Def Jam Records with
his fellow New York University student, Russell Simmons. Def Jam
officially signed the Beastie Boys in 1985, and that year they had a hit
single from the soundtrack to Krush Groove with She's on It, a rap
track that sampled AC/DC's Back in Black and suggested the approach
of the group's forthcoming debut album. The Beasties received their first
significant national exposure later in 1985, when they opened for
Madonna on her Virgin Tour. The trio taunted the audience with profanity
and were generally poorly received. One other major tour, as the openers
for Run-D.M.C.'s ill-fated Raisin' Hell trek, followed before License to Ill
was released late in 1986. An amalgam of street beats, metal riffs, B-boy
jokes and satire, License to Ill was interpreted as a mindless, obnoxious
party record by many critics and conservative action groups, but that didn't
stop the album from becoming the fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records'
history, moving over 750, 000 copies in its first six weeks. Much of that
success was due to the single Fight for Your Right
(To Party), which
became a massive crossover success. In fact, License to Ill became the
biggest-selling rap album of the '80s, which generated much criticism for
certain hip-hop fans who believed that the Beasties were merely cultural
pirates. On the other side of the coin, the group was being attacked from
the right, who claimed their lyrics were violent and sexist and that their
concerts -- which featured female audience members dancing in go-go
cages and a giant inflatable penis, similar to what the Stones used in their
mid-'70s concerts -- caused even more outrage. Throughout their 1987
tour, they were plagued with arrests and lawsuits, and were accused of
inciting crime.

While much of the Beasties' exaggeratedly obnoxious behavior started out
as a joke, it became a self-parody by the end of 1987, so it wasn't a
surprise that the group decided to revamp their sound and image during
the next two years. During 1988, they became involved in a bitter lawsuit
with Def Jam and Rick Rubin, who claimed he was responsible for the
group's success and threatened to release outtakes as their second album.
The group finally broke away by the end of the year and they relocated to
California, where they signed with Capitol Records. While in California,
they met the production team the Dust Brothers, and they convinced the
duo to use their prospective debut album as the basis for the Beasties'
second album, Paul's Boutique. Densely layered with interweaving samples
and pop culture references, the retro-funk-psychedelia of Paul's Boutique
was entirely different than License to Ill, and many observers weren't quite
sure what to make of it. Several publications gave it rave reviews, but when
it failed to produce a single bigger than the number 36 Hey Ladies, it was
quickly forgotten about.

Despite its poor commercial performance, Paul's Boutique gained a cult
following, and its cut-and-paste sample techniques would later be hailed as
visionary, especially after the Dust Brothers altered the approach for Beck's
acclaimed 1996 album, Odelay. Still, the record was declared a disaster in
the early '90s, but that didn't prevent the Beasties from building their own
studio and founding their own record label, Grand Royal, for their next record,
Check Your Head. Alternating between old school hip-hop, raw amateurish
funk and hardcore punk, Check Your Head was a less accomplished than
Paul's Boutique, yet it was just as diverse. Furthermore, the burgeoning cult
around the Beasties made the album a surprise Top 10 hit upon its spring
1992 release. Jimmy James, Pass the Mic and So Whatcha Want were
bigger hits on college and alternative rock radio than they were on rap radio,
and the group suddenly became hip again. Early in 1994, they collected their
early punk recordings on the compilation Some Old Bullshit, which was
followed in June by their fourth album, Ill Communication. Essentially an
extension of Check Your Head, the record debuted at number one upon its
release, and the singles Sabotage and Sure Shot helped send it to double-
platinum status. During the summer of 1994, they co-headlined the fourth
Lollapalooza festival with Smashing Pumpkins. That same year, Grand Royal
became a full-fledged record label as it released Luscious Jackson's acclaimed
debut album, Natural Ingredients. The Beasties' Grand Royal magazine was
also launched that year.

Over the next few years, the Beasties remained quiet as they concentrated on
political causes and their record label. In 1996, they released the hardcore EP
Aglio E Olio and the instrumental soul-jazz and funk collection, The In Sound
from Way Out. Also that year, Adam Yauch organized a two-day festival to
raise awareness and money about Tibet's plight against the Chinese government;
the festival went on to become an annual event. The Beastie Boys' long-awaited
fifth LP, Hello Nasty, finally appeared during the summer of 1998.