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{{quote|'''Fry''': Back in the 20th century, I had all five of your albums!<br />
'''Ad-Rock''': That was a thousand years ago! [[Self-Deprecation|Now we]] [[Hilarious in Hindsight|got seven!]]<ref> This joke refers to constant long gaps between their album releases. However, ''Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'' ramped the number up to ''eight'', though one is an all-instrumental album.</ref>|''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'', "Hell Is Other Robots".}}
 
The Beastie Boys are a famous rap trio that have been around since 1979, enjoying critical and commercial success throughout their career, helping invent and popularise [[Rap Rock]] (alongside [[Run DMC (Music)|Run DMC]]), playing an important role in the popularisation of hip-hop as a whole, being one of the few rap groups whose members play instruments, being one of the main influences on [[Alternative Rock]] before they even actively tried to court the genre's fans with their later work and being the first white rap group to gain massive success.
 
Not too bad for three Jewish kids from New York City.
 
Initially formed as a hardcore punk band in 1979, the group changed its name to "The Beastie Boys" in 1981. Its initial line-up had Michael "Mike D" Diamond on vocals, John Berry on guitar, Adam "MCA" Yauch on bass and Kate Schellenbach on drums. Supporting such famous bands as Bad Brains, [[Dead Kennedys (Music)|Dead Kennedys]], The Misfits and Reagan Youth, the band recorded its first hardcore EP, ''Pollywog Stew'' in 1982. Berry left in 1983, being replaced by Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, and the group recorded its first rap song, "Cooky Puss". Gradually, they created their specific style, quickly switching between rapping, shouting and line-trading.
 
The now-rap-oriented Beastie Boys were signed to Def Jam in 1984. Schellenbach left, Rick Rubin took over as producer and the classic line-up of Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock became permanent. A few singles followed, such as a contribution to the ''Krush Groove'' soundtrack named "She's on It", "Hold It Now, Hit It" and the double A-side "Paul Revere/The New Style", along with opening spots for [[Public Image Ltd]]., Madonna and a joint tour with Run DMC, LL Cool J, Whodini and the Timex Social Club.
 
Bourgeoing success or not, the Beastie Boys were still undoubtedly a [[Token White]] among [[The Eighties]] rap scene. However, they sidestepped any problem of credibility within the rap community by aiming their music directly at an audience of rock fans that probably didn't really care about rap. Their debut album, ''Licensed to Ill'' (1986), relied on a simple recipe of pounding beats, loud guitars, punk riffs, [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]] samples and hilariously over-the-top lyrics full of Bacchanalian excess, guns, drugs, alcohol abuse and tons of [[Boastful Rap|boasting]] about the Boys' prowess with the ladies and similar matters. ''Ill'' sailed straight to #1 on the US charts, becoming the first rap LP to do so, attracted predictable whining from people who didn't understand that it was all an elaborate joke, sold over 10 million copies and produced a massive hit single: the goofy [[Punk Rap]] "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)", a parody of "attitude songs" with guitars by Kerry King from [[Slayer (Music)|Slayer]], accompanied by a video depicting the Boys crashing a dorky party and making all hell break loose.
 
In the resulting tour, the Boys did all they could to live up to their self-imposed [[Memetic Badass]] status, trashing hotel rooms, attracting lawsuits and arrests (including a gig in Liverpool where Ad-Rock was arrested after only 10 minutes) and having a set that included female members of the audience dancing in cages and giant inflatable motorized penises. They also found the time to leave Def Jam, Rick Rubin and New York altogether - they signed with Capitol, moved to Los Angeles and worked with the [[Dust Brothers]] on their next album, which would be a [[New Sound Album|change of pace]] towards more funky, sample-heavy material. The result was ''Paul's Boutique'' (1989), routinely considered their masterpiece of [[Sampling]] as art - nearly 105 songs were sampled, from [[wikipedia:Paulchr(27)s Boutique|sources as varied as]] [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]], hip-hop, funk and soul tracks, [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]], [[Pink Floyd (Music)|Pink Floyd]], [[Elvis Costello (Music)|Elvis Costello]], [[Isaac Hayes]], [[The Ramones (Music)|The Ramones]], the [[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]] theme, the "Shower Theme" from [[Psycho]] and others, with the result being 15 catchy, diverse tracks ranging from funky hip-hop to rap-rock ("Johnny Ryall", "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun"). While not matching ''Ill'''s monumental commercial impact, it did sell well enough and drew critical acclaim where the band was previously dismissed as [[One-Hit Wonder|One Hit Wonders]]. It's still considered one of the best hip-hop and alternative music albums ever made.
 
One of the tracks on ''Boutique'', "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun", featured live instrumentation, with MCA on bass and Ad-Rock on guitar. Their follow-up album, ''Check Your Head'' (1992), saw the Boys pick up their instruments again (Mike D on drums, Ad-Rock on guitar, MCA on bass), accompanied by Mark "Money Mark" Ramos-Nishita on keyboards and longtime collaborator Mario "Mario C." Caldato Jr. as engineer and producer. This was another [[New Sound Album]], seeing the Beasties engage in a game of musical [[Mix and Match]], putting together hip-hop with a ton of samples (including the one they're most proud of, one from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" by [[Bob Dylan (Music)|Bob Dylan]]), jazz- and funk-inspired jamming, instrumentals and a punk rock cover of "Time for Livin'" by Sly and the Family Stone. ''Head'' also marks a crucial point in the band's evolution, being the moment where they left behind their earlier over-the-top [[Badass]]-ery: while they would still boast from now on, they would be more blatantly humorous and not discuss ingesting of every controlled substance known to man, sex, and wacky fratboy hijinks. They also found the time to sign others to their label Grand Royal Records and publish ''Grand Royal Magazine'', credited with coining the term "mullet".
 
Evolution continued with ''Ill Communication'', which built on the musical smorgasbord of ''Head'' and managed to return the Boys to #1 on the charts. This was mostly achieved through another massive hit single, the furious, one-chord rap-rock "Sabotage", with a Spike Jonze-directed video parodying [[The Seventies|1970s]] cop shows. The Beasties continued touring but became more involved with charity and political activism - MCA had converted to Buddhism in the meantime, organising the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996 and including the Beasties' first overly political/spiritual tracks, "The Update", the instrumental "Shambala" and "Boddhisatva Vow", on ''Ill Communication''.
 
Adding Michael "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz as DJ and returning to New York after nearly a decade in California, The Beasties churned out ''Hello Nasty'' (1998), which added an [[The Eighties|eighties]] electro-funk influence to the huge [[Mix and Match]] of genres from ''Head'' and ''Ill'', and sneaking in some Brazilian, Latin, lounge and dub influences. This album's big hits were the Rachmaninoff-sampling "Intergalactic", "Body Movin'" and the minimalist "[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Three MCs and One DJ]]". The first two had their own requisite humorous videos, "Intergalactic" being a parody of kaiju films and "Body Movin'" parodying the film ''Danger: Diabolik'', famous as the last episode of [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]. The Boys won the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1998 and "Intergalactic" won the VMA for Best Hip Hop Video in 1999. They used both appearances to make lengthy, political speeches about how Muslims aren't terrorists (for the former) and the debacle that was Woodstock 1999 (the latter). They also took the time to appear in the ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' episode "Hell Is Other Robots" in 1999. However, MCA was unavailable at the time of the recording, so he was voiced by Ad-Rock.
 
A long hiatus followed, filled by side-projects (Mike D's Country Mike project, Ad-Rock's BS 2000), a planned tour with [[Rage Against the Machine (Music)|Rage Against the Machine]] that was cancelled after Mike D was seriously injured in a biking accident and organising further Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Also, the group's label Grand Royal Records collapsed in 2001 due to mounting debt issues. Its non-Beastie Boys assets and back catalog were purchased by fans who started [[GR 2]] Records.
 
The first new song by the band appeared in 2003, the [[Protest Song]] "In a World Gone Mad". The self-produced ''To the 5 Boroughs'' (2004) followed. While it again hit #1 on the US charts, the [[New Sound Album|minimalist sound]], heavy old-school hip-hop influence and [[Anvilicious|explicit political slant to the lyrics]] divided the fanbase.
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* Eric Bobo - percussion (1994-1998)
* AWOL (Amery Smith) - "[[Hardcore Punk|hardcore beats]]"<ref>according to the ''Ill Communication liner notes''</ref> (1994-1996, plus the BS 2000 project)
* [[Music/Biz Markie|Biz Markie]] (Marcel Hall) - made guest apperances on ''Check Your Head'' (singing to a [[Ted Nugent (Music)|Ted Nugent]] sample on "The Biz Vs. The Nuge"), ''Ill Communication'', ''Hello Nasty'' (providing [[Studio Chatter]] [[Piss-Take Rap|Piss Take Rapping]] on "Intergalactic") and ''The Sounds of Science'', as well as on tour. Surprisingly given Biz's [[Hollywood Tone Deaf|famous hit]], he mostly sang on key.
* Alfredo Ortiz - percussion (2007-present)
 
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* [[Alternative Hip Hop]]
* [[Alternative Rock]]
* [[Bad to Thethe Bone]]: "Sabotage" has been heard in every other movie since it came out, including last year's ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]''.
* [[Big Applesauce]]: It ''is'' their hometown...
* [[Boastful Rap]]: Taken to hilarious extremes. "I got more hits than Sadaharu Oh!" anyone?
* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: ''Paul's Boutique'' dropped the frat gimmick (but still included cartoonishly over-the-top violence), and ''Check Your Head'' dropped their trademark cartoony attitude altogether.
* [[Character Asas Himself]]: The music video for "Sabotage" features Sir Stewart Wallace (played by MCA) guest-starring as himself.
* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: While they're not as bad as a lot of other rappers, several of their albums have been salty enough to earn the Parental Advisory warning (''Ill Communication'', for example).
* [[Cover Version]]: A [[Hardcore Punk]] take on [[Sly And The Family Stone]]'s "Time for Livin'" appears on ''Check Your Head'', and earlier on the same album there's the jokey "The Biz vs. [[Ted Nugent (Music)|The Nuge]]", which samples Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" and has Biz Markie [[With Lyrics|sing new lyrics]].
* [[Credits Gag]]: On ''Ill Communication'', Biz Markie appears "courtesy of his own damn self".
* [[Epic Rocking|Epic Rapping]]: "B-Boy Bouillabaisse".
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys]]: "Brass Monkey".
** References to Brass Monkey appear in the lyrics of "Funky Ass Shit".
* [[Genre Busting]]
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* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: "Car Thief", from ''Paul's Boutique'' is based chiefly on a mellow, slightly psychedelic sample from the funk song "Rien Ne Va Plus" by Funk Factory. The first verse begins by describing smashing somebody's face with a cue ball, moving on to general destruction, and then extensive discussions on what substances the Beasties enjoy smoking.
* [[Metal Scream]]: "WWWHHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!" from "Sabotage". In fact, most of that song is screamed, yelled or shouted.
* [[Nerd Core]]: Not exactly, but they've referenced ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'', amongst other Sci-Fi films, in their raps.
** And ''Star Trek'' returned the favor, when they featured "Sabotage" in [[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|the new movie]].
* [[New Sound Album]]
* [[N-Word Privileges]]: "Like John Holmes, the X-rated nigga". To be fair, [[A Tribe Called Quest (Music)|it's rapped by Q-Tip]].
* [[Pirate]]: "Rhymin' and Stealin'" is a rap song about being pirates. And it's awesome. The [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]] and [[Black Sabbath (Music)|Sabbath]] samples help a lot.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: In "So Whatcha Want" and "Sabotage".
* [[Punk Rap]]
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* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]
* [[Retraux]]: "Intergalactic". It's a callback to the early days of rap when it was about coming up with the best possible rhymes.
* [[Rhyming Withwith Itself]]: "Pass the Mic". This was an accident, but they liked it enough to [[Throw It In|keep it in]].
* [[Rockstar Song]]: "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
* [[Sampling]] + [[Sampled Up]]: Chuck D himself said that "the dirty secret" in the rap community back in 1989 was that "''Paul's Boutique'' had the best beats."
* [[Sex, Drugs and Rock Andand Roll]]
* [[Shout-Out]]: Far too many to count in their albums. Everything from ''The Flintstones'' to Dick Butkus gets namechecked. And it never gets old.
** Even "fine wine" gets a nod in "Body Movin'": "Like a bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pap/I'm fine like wine when I start to rap."
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** ''One man's ceiling is another man's floor, so get that money out yer ass, you whore!'' (from "What Comes Around") and ''Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money'' (from "B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak") are shots at Russell Simmons, the head of Def Jam Records who treated the Beasties so poorly they moved to Capitol.
** Their diss of 3rd Bass in "Professor Booty".
** In "Alive": "[[Nu Metal-metal|Goatee]] [[Rap Metal|Metal Rap]] Please Say 'goodnight'"
* [[Token White]]: Back in [[The Eighties]], they were the first white rap group. Considering that they were a [[Hardcore Punk]] band beforehand, when ''Licensed to Ill'' came out, people were ''still'' convinced that it was all a [[Piss-Take Rap]]. The [[Genre Motif/Hip Hop|Hip Hop]] community began to take them more seriously with ''Paul's Boutique'' onward, however...
* [[Wall of Text]]: The liner notes to ''Paul's Boutique'' and ''Hello Nasty'' print the lyrics like this, combined with [[All Lowercase Letters]] and [[No Punctuation Period]], and also no indication of where a song starts and begins. Also, several of the lyrics are ''intentionally'' printed wrong.
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