Mike D Releases Solo Debut 'Thank You' After Yauch's Death
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- Mike D is releasing his debut solo album "Thank You" on 28 August — his first solo record 40 years after co-founding the Beastie Boys and their 1986 debut Licensed to Ill.
- Diamond says he couldn't make music for years after Adam Yauch's 2012 death from cancer: "I'd open a computer file and I'd just feel sadness." His return to rapping came from jamming with his sons.
- His sons Skylar and Davis, who perform as indie pop duo Very Nice Person, shaped the new record's sound; Diamond describes their sessions as "this liberating thing."
- "Thank You" is experimental and socially conscious, drawing on industrial, psych and dream-pop, with mortality reflections — Diamond's father died when he was 15 — and a political track called "Crypto" about greed.
- The album's title was inspired by a visit to a Buddhist monastery (the religion practised by Yauch), prompting Diamond to reflect on "who I get to make music with."
- Diamond currently produces records for Soft Play and the Hives, and praises Death Grips and Tyler, the Creator as artists continuing "an energy we brought" to mainstream hip-hop.
- The article revisits the Beastie Boys' 1987 UK tour, which sparked a Sex Pistols-style moral panic: MPs called to ban them, a Liverpool show was cut short after 12 minutes, and a riot followed.
Why it matters: "Thank You" is Mike D's first solo album ever and the first new Beastie Boys-adjacent music in 13 years, arriving 40 years after Licensed to Ill delivered rap's first US chart-topping album. It closes a creative drought triggered by Yauch's death and reframes the 60-year-old Diamond from grieving bandmate back to working recording artist, with ongoing production for Soft Play and the Hives alongside the new record.
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