Mike D: ‘After Yauch died I couldn’t make music. I’d open a computer file and just feel sadness’ — SkimNews
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- Mike D (Michael Diamond) will release his debut solo album "Thank You" on 28 August, his first solo record since the Beastie Boys disbanded in 2012 after Adam "MCA" Yauch's death from cancer.
- Diamond told The Guardian that after Yauch died, he "couldn't make music for a while" — opening a computer file made him "just feel sadness" — until free-wheeling home-studio jams with his sons Skyler and Davis (indie pop duo Very Nice Person) reignited his creative passion.
- The Beastie Boys' 1987 UK tour of Licensed to Ill triggered a Sex Pistols-style moral panic over its jokes, inflatable penis, and tabloid rumors (instantly denied) about mocking sick children at Montreux — MPs called to ban them and a Liverpool show ended in a 12-minute riot, nearly splitting the group.
- After nearly splitting, the Beastie Boys were creatively reinvigorated by the Dust Brothers in Los Angeles, producing 1989's "Paul's Boutique," initially panned by critics but later hailed as an experimental masterpiece.
- The group later publicly apologized for past lyrics on tracks like Sure Shot ("the disrespect to women has got to be through") and Alive ("homophobics ain't all right"), moving in the opposite direction from increasingly toxic mainstream rap of the 1990s.
- The album's track Crypto was inspired by a 19-year-old acquaintance of Diamond's sons getting rich from cryptocurrency, with Diamond describing it as a reflection on greed and capitalism in "the reality of the world we are in."
- The album title was inspired by a visit to a Buddhist monastery — the religion practiced by his late friend Yauch — prompting Diamond to reflect on gratitude for those he has made music with.
Why it matters: For fans, "Thank You" marks Mike D's first solo step away from the group that delivered rap's first US #1 album (Licensed to Ill, 1986). His decision to credit his sons' jams with pulling him out of post-Yauch creative paralysis reframes his return as a family-driven collaboration, and the album's grief-tinged reflection on mortality contrasts with the cartoonish frat-rap persona that built the Beastie Boys' fame.
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