''The Mix-Up'' is the seventh studio album by Beastie Boys, released on June 26, 2007. The album consists entirely of instrumental performances and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

Background

On May 1, 2007, an

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sent to those on Beastie Boys' mailing list revealed the album is all instrumental. On June 21, 2007, a legal stream of the entire album was released on BrooklynVegan.com. Drummer

Mike D 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 Cit ...

said that "even though ''The Mix-Up'' is a '

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

instrumental' album, the Beasties have no plans to ditch vocals for good. In fact, they are currently planning another version of the album that will feature collaborations with 'a pretty wide array' of 'mostly newer' vocalists." Two singers speculated to be featured on the vocal version were

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...

and M.I.A. In an interview with '' The Aquarian Weekly'', published in February 2008, the band was asked if they were making a statement about the status of hip-hop music by releasing an album strictly of instrumentals. “In a way, the album was a reaction to our hip hop," said

Ad-Rock Adam Keefe Horovitz (born October 31, 1966), popularly known as Ad-Rock, is an American rapper, guitarist and actor. He was a member of the hip-hop group Beastie Boys. While Beastie Boys were active, Horovitz performed with a side project, BS ...

"Our last record was an all rap record, so when we started recording 'The Mix Up''we wanted to work with some instruments, and it just sounded cool, so we kept with it.” ''The Beastie Boys: Still Mixing It Up''
, by Daniel Alleva, The Aquarian Weekly, 2/27/08 Mike D expanded on Ad-Rock's response, adding, "We get asked, ‘What do you think of the state of hip hop today?’ a lot. Maybe I’m being defensive, but it seems like people always look for us to come out and criticize hip hop. But hip hop is what we grew up on, and it continues to be one of the only forms of music left that strives on evolution and innovation. Yeah, we might be in a spell where we’re waiting for that next record to come out and change everything—but still, that’s what hip hop is and that’s what puts it in its unique place.”

Critical reception

The album debuted at number 15 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, selling 44,000 copies in its first week. It was their lowest charting album in the US. ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' magazine gave it four stars out of five, saying "''The Mix-Up'' is the best record collection ever thoroughly digested and re-imagined by a bunch of guys in love with sound." Uncut (p.96) – 4 stars out of 5 – "THE MIX-UP is the best record collection ever thoroughly digested and re-imagined by a bunch of guys in love with sound." ''The Mix-Up'' won a Grammy in the Best Pop Instrumental category.

Track listing

Personnel

Beastie Boys *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s, producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

, art direction * MCA –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

and upright basses, producer, engineer, art direction *

– drums, producer, engineer, art direction Additional musicians *

Money Mark Mark Ramos Nishita (born February 10, 1960), known professionally as Money Mark, is an American producer and musician, best known for his collaborations with the Beastie Boys from 1992 until 2011. Early life Born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawai ...

– clavinet,

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

Farfisa Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professio ...

* Alfredo Ortiz –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Technical * Jon Weiner – engineer * Greg Calbi – mastering * Bill McMullen – illustration, package design

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mix-Up, The 2007 albums Beastie Boys albums Instrumental rock albums Funk rock albums by American artists Jazz-funk albums Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album Soul jazz albums