Beastie Boys' Press Conference at Soho House

From NME:

"The clubs didn't really have hip-hop functions in Brooklyn back then, probably because they would end badly" said Adam 'MCA' Yauch.

Yauch, Michael 'Mike D' Diamond and Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horovitz spoke about the show and the band's recent spate of 'gala' events during which they perform material from their instrumental album 'The Mix-Up'.

Speaking at Soho House in New York, the trio dressed in suits and sunglasses revealed they consciously decided to dress smartly when recording 'The Mix-Up'.

"When we recorded the record we decided we were going to start wearing suits to the studio" MCA said.

"But" continued Mike D "We didn't record so much during the summer, we took the summer off so we didn't really have to wear suits to the studio during the hot weather."

MCA also discussed his film project entitled 'Of Toys And Kings' which is on ice after he failed to raise the initial funds to make the movie .

"It was a film about graffiti writers in the early eighties, and I was working on it and to be totally honest I was having trouble raising the money to do because I was trying to do it without any famous people. It was an expensive project and it's not a very good equation to try to have five million dollar budget and no movie stars, so I put it down for a while.

The band also discussed the recent trend of playing an album live in its entirety, as per Sonic Youth and Slint, joking that they would cover someone else's with MCA suggesting Feetwood Mac's 'Rumors'.

"It's ambitious but 'Thriller', just start there, the world's biggest album" said Ad-Rock "And Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' would be good.'

The band also talked about how they are at the mercy of Mix Master Mike during their live show, when even they don't know what's coming

"The rule with him is that we say just play the song that's our part of the song from our record and go from there" said Mike D "Part of what keeps it fun for us, all our songs are basically like a different remix every night that Mike does, some of the beats we know, some of them we don't know and we don't know when they're going to drop exactly."

"He definitely keeps you on your toes because when some other beat comes in you gotta figure out how to make it work" concedes MCA.

From Blackbook:

An eager journalist raises his hand to ask something about the stultifying state of contemporary hip-hop. Michael “Mike D” Diamond groans, “People are always looking for us to criticize hip-hop.” They don’t.

When asked about the lack of other white rappers, Diamond wonders how we forgot lyricists like Vanilla Ice, Snow, and “esteemed actor Marky Mark.” When another reporter tries to switch gears, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz pleads, “Sorry, but can’t we please go back to the part about us feeling like special white people?”

They’re grilled about their religious beliefs, and respond with a sycophantic chorus of “Oy Gevalt!” Then comes the unholy turkey. “Do you still feel the need,” a journalist begins, “to fight for your right…to parrrrrtay?” Immediately, from Adam “MCA” Yauch: “Do you still need to ask that question?” One point for the boys.

They fast-forward through getting the U.S. out of Iraq and something about sustainable energy, into their love for Lily Allen and their New York malaise—“It’s more and more like Boston,” Horovitz gripes.

Just before the curtain call, Diamond addresses the elephant in the room, the urban legend that he and Screech Powers from "Saved by the Bell" are brothers. Not so, apparently. For the record, he hasn’t been romantically involved with Neil Diamond—the “Jewish Elvis,” affectionately—either, despite my attempts at a “scoop.” He does however keep dying in the media, “which has slowed down recently. It’s so weird too, ‘cause I’m only getting older.” Indeed, and maybe even a little better with age.

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