Eminem did not approach Beastie Boys before releasing a replica of their ‘Licensed to Ill’ cover for his ‘Kamikaze’ album.
In an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos Mike D said, “We saw it like everyone else. He likes us. I got like 10 text messages, 20 text messages and then why do I suddenly have 50 text messages. I didn’t know what was going on. Everybody was forwarding me the album cover, the Twitter feed or whatever. That’s how we found out”.
‘Licensed to Ill’, the debut album for Beastie Boys is the 77th best selling album of all-time in the USA with sales over 10 million. Eminem has two albums slightly under the ‘Licenced to Ill’ sales. ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ and ‘The Eminem Show’ have also sold just over 10 million.
Ad Rock says he only ever bumped into Eminem once. “I didn’t know him. It was nice. I met him once in a bathroom in Rome,” he said.
However Eminem once said, “I think it’s obvious to anyone how big of an influence the Beastie Boys were on me and so many others.”
During the Strombo interview Mike D said he didn’t understand how any new artists could make music full-time anymore. “I don’t know how people can pay rent,” he said. “I don’t know how if people aren’t buying records how people can be an artist full-time. I don’t know if you can”.
“Anybody who is doing anything creative you just have to be on the hussle and the hussle all the time. We got spared a lot of the hussle because we could focus on making what we wanted to make.”
Beastie Boys broke up after the death of third member Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch in 2012.
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