Beastie Boys Book, Diamond Michael, Horovitz Adam

NAMED ONE OF PASTES BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Rolling Stone - The Guardian - Paste

Formed as a New York City hardcore band in 1981, Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip hop superstardom. Here is their story, told for the first time in the words of the band. Adam ADROCK Horovitz and Michael Mike D Diamond offer revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the debut album that became the first hip hop record ever to hit #1, Licensed to Ill--and the albums messy fallout as the band broke with Def Jam; their move to Los Angeles and rebirth with the genre-defying masterpiece Pauls Boutique; their evolution as musicians and social activists over the course of the classic albums Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty and the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits conceived by the late Adam MCA Yauch; and more. For more than thirty years, this band has had an inescapable and indelible influence on popular culture.

With a style as distinctive and eclectic as a Beastie Boys album, Beastie Boys Book upends the typical music memoir. Alongside the band narrative you will find rare photos, original illustrations, a cookbook by chef Roy Choi, a graphic novel, a map of Beastie Boys New York, mixtape playlists, pieces by guest contributors, and many more surprises.

Praise for Beastie Boys Book

A fascinating, generous book with portraits and detail that float by in bursts of color . . . As with the bands] records, the books structure is a lyrical three-man weave. . . . Diamonds voice is lapidary, droll. Horovitz comes on like a borscht belt comedian, but beneath that he is urgent, incredulous, kind of vulnerable. . . . Friendship is the books subject as much as music, fame and New York.--The New York Times Book Review

Wild, moving . . . resembles a Beastie Boys LP in its wild variety of styles.--Rolling Stone

As nutty, irreverent, and fun as you think it would be.--Vogue