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Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio consisting of Mike D (Michael Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz). The name ‘Beastie’ allegedly stands for ‘Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence’.

Formed as a punk band in 1981, The Beastie Boys quickly earned support slots for established bands like Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys and Reagan Youth. Although primarily writing punk music, they experimented with the rap track Cooky Puss, and its success led to them being signed as a three-man rap crew by Def Jam in 1984.

They released the EP Rock Hard the following year, but it was 1986’s Licensed to Ill that made the boys famous, as it became the first rap album to reach the top of the Billboard chart. Propelled by hit single Fight for Your Right, the album sold over nine million copies and was the best-selling rap album of the 1980s. To this day it remains Columbia Records’ fastest selling debut album.

The group’s second album Paul’s Boutique was less successful, but still sold over one million copies and reached number fourteen on the Billboard 200. It was also an unequivocal critical success and would later be described by Rolling Stone as “the Pet Sounds/The Dark Side of the Moon of hip hop.”

1992’s Check Your Head went double platinum in the US and contained a variety of different music genres, with dance hit Pass the Mic, funk-inspired single Lighten Up and even hardcore punk song Time for Livin’ all included. This was swiftly followed by Ill Communication in 1994, which debuted at number one in the US charts and produced the Top 10 urban hit Get it Together as well as popular dance track Sure Shot.

More success was to come with 1998’s Hello Nasty going straight to number one in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. The album earned the band two Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards.

The band released two further albums in the noughties: 2004’s To the 5 Boroughs, which reached number one on the Billboard 200, and 2007’s The Mix-Up, a wholly instrumental record that won the group another Grammy. Their latest album, The Hot Sauce Committee Pt.1, is expected to be released in 2010. Its lead single Too Many Rappers, released in July 2009, was already nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award.