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Beastie Boys Are Effectively Done, Says Mike D

Beastie Boys No New Music MCA

As the Beastie Boys continue to testify against Monster Energy Drink in a copyright infringement lawsuit, surviving member Michael “Mike D” Diamond revealed a big piece of news about the group’s future. According to the New York Daily News, he said that he and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz will never make music as the Beastie Boys again following Adam “MCA” Yauch’s death in 2012.

“We have not been able to tour since MCA, Adam Yauch, died,” Diamond said. “We can’t make new music.”

The statement came by way of his explaining that he and Horovitz could indeed use the money that comes with product endorsement deals and licensing deals, but that they vowed to respect MCA’s wishes of never using his music, likeness, or any art he created to sell products. His will states, “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes.”

The Boys’ $1 million lawsuit concerns Monster Energy’s use of a bunch of their songs — via a Z-Trip DJ set — in videos to promote a snowboarding event. While testifying in a Manhattan court, Diamond said that if the beverage company had asked permission to use the tracks, their response would have been “absolutely no.”

Diamond also revealed that the denied Arnold Schwarzenegger the use of their hit “Sabotage” in his 2014 movie of the same name, a licensing opportunity that would have been quite lucrative. “It felt like too much of an endorsement,” he said. “We weren’t fans of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s recent … work.” The movie was a bomb both critically and financially, earning a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and just $17.5 million in theaters against a $35 million budget. 

On the music front, Diamond and Horovitz have been relatively quiet since MCA’s death. Last summer, they joined forces to provide “additional beats, programming, and other curve balls” on Yoko Ono’s “Bad Dancer.” Diamond also created a 10-minute punk-track trap called “Humberto Vs the New Reactionaries” for fashion label Kenzo. Until they say “never again,” we’ll remain cautiously optimistic that Mike D and Ad-Rock might release new tracks under a new moniker together one day.