Mike D and Ad-Rock Discuss Beastie Boys' Parting Ways with Def Jam, The Shaky Release of 'Paul' Boutique' and More
Mike D and Ad-Rock Discuss Beastie Boys' Parting Ways with Def Jam, The Shaky Release of 'Paul' Boutique' and More
Source: Youtube/NBC

"That's What We Wanted to Do" - Ad-Rock on Beastie Boys' 'Paul's Boutique' Getting Outshined by De La Soul and Public Enemy

The Tonight Show hosts a candid career-spanning chat with the surviving Beastie Boys members.

Joining the rest of late night's efforts to keep up with the quarantine content, The TonightShow shared an extensive discussion with The Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock and Mike D.

READ: Mike D Tells Q-Tip That Master Tapes of Beastie Boys' License To Ill Have Disappeared

In the first half of the two-part interview with resident Beastie Boys stans, Questlove and Jimmy Fallon, the surviving members of the legendary group recount working with Spike Jonze to adapt their memoir (and the accompanying sold-out mini-tour) to a small screen documentary feature. At the top of the second part, Questo airs a minor grievance, claiming the band didn't take enough pride in the impact of their sample-heavy sophomore album, Paul's Boutique, which went on to sell two million copies, but was considered a commercial dud at the time of release in mid-July 1989.

"We put every idea that he had into that record, every sample, everything that we thought was funny to each other," Mike D tells the panel. He adds, "It’s like that thing where you work really hard on a record and you think it’s dope…and we put it out and it's crickets." Ad-Rock tacks on how the arrival of De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in the months ahead of Paul's Boutique dampened the excitement surrounding their drop. Mike D described the experience of working up to the releaseas "this moment where you love these records so much and you're thrilled and you love them and you're completely defeated at the same time."

WATCH: The New Trailer for the Spike Jonze-Directed Beastie Boys Story

Watch both parts of Questlove and Jimmy Fallon's interview with Mike D and Ad-Rock below. Their new documentary, Beastie Boys Story, arrives on Apple TV+ on April 24th.

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