Hello Nasty

Hello Nasty is the fifth studio album by the Beastie Boys. It was released on July 14, 1998 via Capitol Records and sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart. The album took home two awards at the 1999 Grammys, in the categories of Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Intergalactic".

Background:

Hello Nasty was released in 1998—four years after the band's previous album, Ill Communication—and marked the addition of DMC champion Mix Master Mike to the group's line-up. "Song for Junior" features Miho Hatori on vocals, and "Dr. Lee, PhD" guest stars dub musician Lee Scratch Perry on both vocals and percussion. Hello Nasty also marked Eric Bobo's last appearance as percussionist in the band, as well as the last time the Beastie Boys worked with a co-producer.

The title for the album was allegedly inspired by the receptionist of their NY based publicity firm Nasty Little Man who would answer the phone with the greeting "Hello Nasty".

Critical reception:

Hello Nasty received mostly positive reviews upon release. Caroline Sullivan writing for The Guardian Review awarded the album "Pop CD Of The Week" claiming that it "fills a gap created by the current profusion of serious rock bands like Radiohead; elbowing its way up front, rip with adolescent vigour." She went on to summarize the record as "the perfect party soundtrack by the perfect party band." Although Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that the album's ending was "a little anticlimactic", he also saw Hello Nasty as a progressive step forward from the group's 1992 LP Check Your Head, and praised the input of the group's new recruit, Mixmaster Mike; "Hiring DJ Mixmaster Mike turned out to be a masterstroke; he and the Beasties created a sound that strongly recalls the spare electronic funk of the early '80s, but spiked with the samples and post-modern absurdist wit that have become their trademarks." In his B+ rated review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne highlighted the album's multi-genre sound, along with the group's use of a wide range of musical styles, as its most engaging aspect;

Hello Nasty is a sonic smorgasbord in which the Beasties gorge themselves with reckless abandon. They dabble in lounge-pop kitsch (the loser put-down Song for the Man), make like a summit of Santana and Traffic (the Latin-flavored "Song for Junior"), and subtly incorporate a drum-and-bass shuffle into the mix ("Flowin' Prose"). The melange makes for a looser, more free-spirited record than their earlier albums; the music invites you in, rather than threatening to shut you out.

(from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Nasty)