Michael Louis Diamond (born November 20, 1965), better known as Mike D, is an American rapper, musician, and music producer. He is best known as a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys.

Early life

Diamond was born in New York City to

Harold Diamond Harold Diamond (1926–1982), was an American art dealer. Diamond worked as a teacher in New York City's public school system, later becoming an art dealer specializing in 20th-century work. He worked as a private dealer, negotiating for the di ...

, an art dealer, and Hester (née Klein) Diamond, an interior designer and art collector. He grew up on the Upper West Side surrounded by artwork, including pieces by

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

, and

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of ...

. He attended the arts-oriented Saint Ann's School and Walden School.

Career

Mike D singing with the Beastie Boys at Trans Musicales 2004 in Rennes

In 1979, Diamond co-founded the band The Young Aborigines. In 1981,

Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), better known under the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bass player, filmmaker and a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed ...

, aka MCA, a friend and follower of the band, became their bass player, and on the suggestion of their then-guitar player, John Berry, the band changed their name to the Beastie Boys. By 1983, Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) joined, and their sound began to shift away from punk to hip hop. In 1992, Diamond founded the Beastie Boys' now-defunct record label Grand Royal Records. He is also interested in interior design, and designed Brooklyn-themed

toile Toile (French for "canvas") is a textile fabric comparable to fine batiste with a cloth weave. Natural silk or chemical fiber filaments are usually used as materials. The word ''toile'' can refer to the fabric itself or to a test garment sewn ...

wallpaper; it was used in the renovation of the Marquee nightclub in Chelsea, which reopened in January 2013. A year after the death of Yauch in 2012, Diamond told ''Rolling Stone'' he was "excited about making new stuff again" and released "Humberto Vs the New Reactionaries (Christine and the Queens Remix)" in July 2013. A remix of Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band's "Bad Dancer" by Diamond and Adam Horovitz was streamed online in August 2013. The pair is credited with "additional beats, programming and other curve balls". In October 2014, Diamond stated that he had been working in the studio with American rock band

Portugal. The Man Portugal. The Man is an American rock band from Wasilla, Alaska, currently based in Portland, Oregon. The group consists of John Baldwin Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O'Quin, Jason Sechrist, Eric Howk and Zoe Manville. Gourley and Carothers met a ...

as a producer. He has also produced English punk duo Slaves' second studio album, '' Take Control'', which was released on September 30, 2016. He hosts the

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple ...

podcast The Echo Chamber.

Personal life

In 1993, Diamond married film, television and music video director

Tamra Davis Tamra Davis (born January 22, 1962) is an American film, television and music video director. Early life Davis was born the second out of four children in Studio City, California. She was exposed to the media industry at an early age by her gr ...

; They have since legally separated. They have two children, Davis Diamond and Skyler Diamond who formed the group Very Nice Person. They lived in

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Cobble Hill is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. A small neighborhood comprising 40 blocks, Jackson, Kenneth T., and Kasinitz, Philip. "Cobble Hill" in Cobble Hill sits adjacent to Brooklyn He ...

. He grew up on

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan ...

. He later lived in Brooklyn and Tribeca, and as of 2016 was living in

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Mali ...

Discography

with Beastie Boys * '' Licensed to Ill'' (1986) * '' Paul's Boutique'' (1989) * '' Check Your Head'' (1992) * '' Ill Communication'' (1994) * ''

Hello Nasty ''Hello Nasty'' is the fifth studio album by American rap rock group Beastie Boys, released by Capitol Records and Grand Royal Records on July 14, 1998. It sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 alb ...

'' (1998) * '' To the 5 Boroughs'' (2004) * '' The Mix-Up'' (2007) * '' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mike D 1965 births Living people Alternative hip hop musicians American male singers American male rappers American rock drummers American rock singers Beastie Boys members East Coast hip hop musicians Rap rock musicians Grammy Award winners Jewish American musicians Jewish rappers People from Tribeca Rappers from Brooklyn Rappers from Manhattan Vassar College alumni Jews in punk rock 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 21st-century American rappers Saint Ann's School (Brooklyn) alumni People from Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Walden School (New York City) alumni People from the Upper West Side Remixers