Beastie Boys Book, Michael Diamond
Beastie Boys Book, Michael Diamond
49 Rating(s)
List: $25.00 | Sale: $16.50
Club: $12.50

Beastie Boys Book

Bestseller

Author: Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz

Narrator: Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Various

Unabridged: 12 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/30/2018


Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A panoramic experience that tells the story of Beastie Boys, a book as unique as the band itself—by band members ADROCK and Mike D, with contributions from Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Wes Anderson, Luc Sante, and more.
 
The inspiration for the Spike Jonze “live documentary” Beastie Boys Story, coming soon to IMAX theaters and Apple TV+

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 album’s messy fallout as the band broke with Def Jam; their move to Los Angeles and rebirth with the genre-defying masterpiece Paul’s 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, featuring a collection of voices reminiscent of your favorite mixtape.

Photo Credit © 1987 Lynn Goldsmith 

Audiobook Cast Includes:
Steve Buscemi / Ada Calhoun / Bobby Cannavale / Exene Cervenka
Roy Choi / Jarvis Cocker / Elvis Costello / Chuck D / Nadia Dajani
Michael Diamond / Snoop Dogg / Will Ferrell / Crosby Fitzgerald
Randy Gardner / Kim Gordon / Josh Hamilton / Adam Horovitz
LL Cool J / Spike Jonze / Pat Kiernan / Talib Kweli / Dave Macklovitch
Rachel Maddow / Tim Meadows / Bette Midler/ Mix Master Mike
Nas / Yoshimi O / Rosie Perez / Amy Poehler / Kelly Reichardt
John C. Reilly / Ian Rogers / Maya Rudolph / Rev Run
Luc Sante / Kate Schellenbach / MC Serch / Chloe Sevigny
Jon Stewart / Ben Stiller / Wanda Sykes / Jeff Tweedy / Philippe Zdar

Praise for Beastie Boys Book

“A fascinating, generous book with portraits and detail that float by in bursts of color . . . As with [the band’s] records, the book’s structure is a lyrical three-man weave. . . . Diamond’s 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 book’s 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

About The Author

Beastie Boys is a trio consisting of Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "ADROCK" Horovitz, and the late Adam "MCA" Yauch (1964-2012), formed in 1981 as part of New York's hardcore punk underground. The group's first full-length album, Licensed to Ill, was the first rap album to reach #1. With seven multi-platinum albums from 1986 to 2011, including Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, To the 5 Boroughs and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Beastie Boys are one of the longest-lived hip hop acts worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, were awarded the MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 1998, and have won three GRAMMY Awards.


Reviews

Goodreads review by britt_brooke on November 04, 2018

Oh man, I loved this Beastie Boys history lesson! The audiobook is sooo pleasing to the ear. In addition to Diamond and Horovitz, there’s a full cast of narrators that will blow your damned mind. The essays and anecdotes are well-written, thoughtful, and often humorous. There are a few guest essayis......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on November 27, 2018

I just want to preface this by saying a couple of things. First of all, I don't really write reviews on here, as writing about music is more my forte. Secondly, Beastie Boys have been my favorite band since I was five or six years old, and Ill Communication was the third CD I owned as a kid. While m......more

Goodreads review by Nigeyb on January 04, 2020

Beastie Boys Book is wonderful. Just like the group, it's chaotic, kaleidoscopic and packed with humour. The hard back edition is a surprisingly heavy coffee table type book packed with photos, essays, cartoons, recipes, trivia, mixtapes etc. The overall effect is a mesmerising panorama of memories,......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on September 26, 2018

The Beastie Boys Book by Mike Diamond is a coffee table book full of pictures but it also contains quite a lot of thoughtfully written essays covering the life of the band in detail. This is a chance for the surviving members and close associates to tell their stories and they take full advantage. I......more


Quotes

“A fascinating, generous book with portraits and detail that float by in bursts of color . . . As with [the band’s] records, the book’s structure is a lyrical three-man weave. . . . Diamond’s 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 book’s 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

“As freewheeling and funny as their albums . . . a beautifully messy (and large) talisman containing within it many of the great joys and surprises that come with listening to the Beastie Boys”The AV Club

“Horovitz and Diamond share sincere moments of reflection about their music, their friendship and the guy who taught them to fix radiators, to care about human rights, to own up to mistakes and to grow up.”—NPR, Morning Edition

“Teeming with tour anecdotes, personal letters, playlists, comics and photographs—[Beastie Boys Book] unspools the crew’s thirty-year run in the music industry and is appropriately massive.”Los Angeles Times

“Diamond and Horovitz alternate as narrators, and their prose is as infectious as their music. Other contributors chime in with their own idiosyncratic takes. Roy Choi offers a mini cookbook of Beastie-themed dishes. Amy Poehler delves into the videography of the group. Luc Sante takes the reader on a musical tour of New York City streets in the early 1980s. The result is a book Beastie Boys fans will clamor for and a must-read for music enthusiasts.”Booklist (starred review)

“This entertaining look at Beastie Boys history is as innovative and raucous as the band’s music.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life of New York City in the 1980s, and the alternative-nation zeitgeist of the ’90s.”Kirkus Reviews