Beastie Boys Book is a sprawling omnibus of an autobiography featuring essays from Beastie Boys‘ Mike D and Ad-Rock, as well as contributions from other friends and celebrities including Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Spike Jonze, and Wes Anderson. The 600-page volume is out on October 30, and the former Beasties will be setting off on a book tour promoting it next week, complete with live Mixmaster Mike soundtrack, an art exhibit, and more.
Now, another ambitious component to the project has been announced: an all-star audiobook treatment. As Pitchfork reports, the modern book-on-tape will feature readers such as Chuck D, Kim Gordon, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, Ben Stiller, Jon Stewart, Will Ferrell, Wanda Sykes, Spike Jonze, Jeff Tweedy, LL Cool J, and (why not) Rachel Maddow. A release date has not yet been announced.
Vulture recently published an excerpt from the book, which, among other things, features Mike D discussing why the Beasties didn’t want to give into label pressure and diss a “nice guy” like MC Hammer. Read it here, and see the full list of audiobook contributors below.
Steve Buscemi
Tim Meadows
Ada Calhoun
Bette Midler
Bobby Cannavale
Mix Master Mike
Exene Cervenka
Nas
Roy Choi
Yoshimi O
Jarvis Cocker
Rosie Perez
Elvis Costello
Amy Poehler
Chuck D
Kelly Reichardt
Nadia Dajani
John C. Reilly
Snoop Dogg
Ian Rogers
Will Ferrell
Maya Rudolph
Crosby Fitzgerald
Rev Run
Randy Gardner
Luc Sante
Kim Gordon
Kate Schellenbach
Josh Hamilton
MC Serch
LL Cool J
Chloë Sevigny
Spike Jonze
Jon Stewart
Pat Kiernan
Ben Stiller
Talib Kweli
Wanda Sykes
Dave Macklovitch
Jeff Tweedy
Rachel Maddow
Philippe Zdar
Michael Diamond
Adam Horovitz
