Maps of Music

The Mix-Up (2007)

Where the lyrics of The Mix-Up take you, and where it was really made.

The album has no vocals at all, though the band had planned a vocal version that would feature other singers.

Place unknown

Do you know where this album was recorded, or where its cover was shot? Tell us and we will add it to the map.

On May 1, 2007, an e-mail to the band's mailing list revealed the album is all instrumental
On June 21, 2007, a legal stream of the entire album was released on BrooklynVegan.com
Mike D said the band had no plans to drop vocals for good
The band was planning another version with collaborations with 'a pretty wide array' of 'mostly newer' vocalists
Jarvis Cocker and M.I.A. were speculated to be featured on the vocal version
Ad-Rock said the album was partly a reaction to the band's hip-hop
The previous record was an all-rap album, so the band wanted to work with instruments

The Beastie Boys were an American hip-hop group formed in New York City in 1981.
They began as a hardcore punk band, having previously been members of the Young Aborigines.
Adam Yauch replaced the departing bassist Jeremy Shatan, and the band took the name Beastie Boys.
The 1983 single "Cooky Puss" won local success and marked their full move into hip-hop.

The main line-up was Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums).
Yauch also directed many of the group's music videos under the alias Nathanial Hörnblowér.

Their debut album Licensed to Ill (1986) was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200.
Paul's Boutique (1989) was made with the Dust Brothers and was a commercial failure but gained critical acclaim.
Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success.
Hello Nasty (1998) and To the 5 Boroughs (2004) followed, and the instrumental album The Mix-Up came in 2007.
Their final album was Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).
The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, becoming the third rap group so honored.
Yauch died of parotid cancer in 2012, and the group disbanded.

Uncut magazine gave it four stars out of five and praised the record as a re-imagining of a huge record collection by a group in love with sound
Critics were mixed: Metacritic lists generally favorable reviews, a weighted average of 61 out of 100 from 22 critic scores
NME called the record repetitive and two-dimensional and rejected it outright
AllMusic and IGN praised the band for mixing jazz, funk, R&B and blues into a psychedelic record with strong basslines and Money Mark's contribution
Pitchfork Media also reviewed the album, but its verdict is not given in the source

Italian coverage notes that much of the critical response was not positive, probably because of the band's latest melodic turn
The album is treated as a deliberate break from the sample-based To the 5 Boroughs

'14th St. Break' was featured in the regional disconnection curtain of Chilean radio station Rock & Pop from 2009 to February 2014.
The French edition of the band's history notes this is the second instrumental album by the group, after The In Sound from Way Out! in 1996.
The Italian edition records the album as winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.