Released: July 14, 1998

Featuring: Biz Markie

Songwriter: Grandmaster Melle Mel Beastie Boys Sylvia Robinson

Producer: Mario Caldato Jr. Beastie Boys

Dear Alex and Marilyn
The Lovely and Thurston howlin'
The grasshopper unit is prowlin'
And Rufus is back home growlin'

For all of y'all that be dozin'
On Hornblower's lederhosen
Like Walt Disney, he is frozen
And in the Swiss Hall of Fame he goes in

'Cause when he's out in space carousin'
Pick up my mic and start joustin'
My name plate medallion
Says never trust a Hal 9000

Check the horizontal hold and check the tint
Are these three fools back at it again?
Inspector Clouseau and Derek Flint
Nothin but sparks ignitin'

Check two one two mic testin'
This one goes out to Dechen
Rise fallen fighters take your stance again
Don't think too much about the color of skin

Order in vegetarian sharks fin
Try to keep my life non-violent
Mario, rewind the tape and punch me in
Like Chuck D with the where you never been I'm in

I'm a long way from where I've been
But I gotta keep movin', movin' on

Ooh my my I'm really not feeling it
Ooh my my something's really wrong

The p.a. sound is deafenin'
Bitin MCs I'm oustinin'
With spinach in your teeth you're grinnin'
So on your way out please take a mint

Got the studio to throw a craze in
The basslines Yauch just lays in
This song is the grass you're grazin'
Just add a little flange and phase in

Don't get mad 'cause I'm beguilin'
I'm off the hook so don't bother dialin'
They're gonna put me in the b.i.n
And if I die notify the next of kin

It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all
It's like that y'all

Movin' on

Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys is a groundbreaking, pioneering, Grammy award winning rap group from New York City that has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. The group has been inactive since the death of founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch in 2012. According to Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer, the name came from the code word ‘beast’, which was yelled whenever a policeman arrived as musicians were selling drugs outside a record shop that doubled as a rehearsal space for bands in the early 1980s.

Originally a punk rock band named The Young Aborigines consisting of Yauch, Kate Shellenbach, Michael “Mike D” Diamond and John Berry, the band renamed themselves Beastie Boys and released the Polly Wog Stew EP shortly before Berry’s exit in 1982. Berry was replaced by Adam “Ad-rock” Horowitz and the band recorded a disco-joke parody of Malcolm McLaren’s “Buffalo Gals” titled “Cookie Puss” the following year. Producer Rick Rubin took an interest in the song, envisioning the group as ‘the first white rap group’ – but without Schellenbach. Rubin founded Def Jam Records soon after and signed the group as a trio.

Their first rap single, 1984’s “Rock Hard”, featured an uncleared sample of AC/DC’s “Back In Black” and was promptly recalled. However, its b-side “Beastie Revolution” was used without authorization in a British Airways commercial, resulting in a $40,000 settlement that the band used to embark upon a full-time rap career.