Spike Jonze Teams With Beastie Boys for Emotionally Live Doc

Things in life never come full circle and you rarely have an opportunity to revisit, remember and revere a once in a lifetime kind of friend and life. Rap and Hip Hop was at its height in the late 80’s and early 90’s and was dominated by primarily Black artists.  Others would infiltrate like Eminem, Vanilla Ice and The Beastie Boys.  Adam Yauch, Mike Diamond and Adam Horowitz were the best of friends and a highly successful group of the 90’s.  Unfortunately, music stopped for Beastie Boys in 2012 and Yausch succumbed to cancer at  47 years old. Yauch, before passing put on concert in honor of non-violence that became bigger than Live-Aid and active practiced Tibetan Buddhism.

Presented in a live scripted format, Beastie Boys allows Adam Horowitz and Mike D to stand on stage in Brooklyn telling an intimate, personal story of 40 years of friendship through a chapter/video/spoken word format with humor and humility.   From their earnest beginnings as a punk rock band to what they would ultimately become, we learn every band goes through major incarnations of members, sound, brand, etc… before they strike gold firing on all cylinders.  When Adam says, “Run DMC was the sh*& and we wanted to be just like them,” you know these dudes had finally resonated and found a lane that would become unique unto them. Only thing is, they literally made a career out of crazy lyrics and antics likened to the WWE on steroids.

One crazy entertaining story they shared is about going to Def Jam watching Kurtis Blow learning to break dance, spinning on his head surrounded by members of the group Full Force.  Sounds crazy right?!  Or the fact hanging out and playing gigs with cool girls (like their drummer Kate) who they unceremoniously got kicked to the curb because it was decided their ‘brand’ couldn’t have girls in it. Yet, a novelty of white boys in rap becomes another cautionary tale of one more recording artist who lost royalties, fell out with bandmates and management (Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin).

Set to premiere on the heels of their 26th anniversary release of “Ill Communication,” this doc reunites them with Spike Jonze, who over 25 years earlier directed their music video for the album’s immortal hit single, “Sabotage.”

Alongside Jonze, “Beastie Boys” is produced by Grammy Award winner Jason Baum and  Amanda Adelson for Apple by Fresh Bread and Pulse Films in association with Polygram Entertainment. Growing out of Adam’s and Mike’s collaboration on their bestselling “Beastie Boys Book” fans and non-fans will be moved and discover it’s definitely is not too late ‘fight for your right to party’ when this hella entertaining doc hits Apple TV + on April 24th.