Hello Nasty


Hello Nasty is the fifth studio album by the American hip-hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 6, 1998 in Europe and on July 14 in the United States, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. The album sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and won Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. In Beastie Boys Book, Ad-Rock said he felt Hello Nasty was the group's "best record".

Background

The album was released in July 1998, just over four years after the previous Beastie Boys album, Ill Communication. It marked the addition of DMC champion Mix Master Mike to the group's line-up, and was the last time the band worked with percussionist Eric Bobo or a co-producer. There are several guest vocalists on the album, including Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto on "I Don't Know", and Jamaican dub musician Lee "Scratch" Perry on "Dr. Lee, PhD".
On the many musical styles on the album, Mike D said in 1998: "We spent so much time in the studio that we weren't in touch with the things that happened around us, not what's going on in the music scene and not what other people think about our music. We didn't even hear other opinions; we were rather reclusive. You know, there is nothing planned on the album, we didn't plan anything. All you hear are different sounds, sounds we experimented with, nothing else. Maybe that's our problem: we were so far removed from everything, it was like being underground, really underground, like in a hole in the ground."
The title of the album was allegedly inspired by the receptionist of the band's NY-based publicity firm Nasty Little Man, who would answer the phone with the greeting "Hello, Nasty."
There were CD, double-vinyl LP, MiniDisc, and cassette tape releases of the album. One of the cassette formats was packaged for a limited run by BioBox in a small cardboard box, rather than a clear plastic case, in an attempt to distinguish the retail product and augment sales.

Music

Evan Rytlewski of Pitchfork assessed: "At its core, the album is a revisionist love letter to ’80s hip-hop, built from repurposed trappings of that era—808s, disco breaks, beatboxing, analogue synthesizers, Kool Moe Dee and Kurtis Blow samples, and scratches. But its true character lies in its tangents and outliers—the leisurely electronic pastiches, tipsy dub tracks, and earnest ballads that break up all the instant-gratification rap songs."

Critical reception

Hello Nasty received mostly positive reviews upon its release. Caroline Sullivan, writing for The Guardian, named it the "Pop CD of the Week" and said 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." Selects John Harris praised the Beastie Boys' lyrics for being as "fantastically off-beam as ever", while at the same time noting that they had "broadened their musical vistas yet further". Although AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt 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 contributions of the group's new recruit, Mix Master 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 review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne highlighted the album's multi-genre sound 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, make like a summit of Santana and Traffic, and subtly incorporate a drum-and-bass shuffle into the mix. 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.

Accolades

* denotes an unranked list
PublicationCountryAccoladeYearRank
Les InrockuptiblesFranceBest 50 Albums of the Year199844
Melody MakerUnited KingdomBest 50 Albums of the Year19982
MixmagUnited KingdomBest 10 Albums of the Year19985
MusikexpressGermanyBest 50 Albums of the Year199822
MuzikUnited KingdomBest 75 Albums of the Year19982
NMEUnited KingdomBest 50 Albums of the Year19982
PitchforkUnited StatesBest 50 Albums of the Year199820
QUnited KingdomBest Albums of the Year1998*
RocksoundFranceBest 50 Albums of the Year199817
Rolling StoneUnited StatesBest 5 Albums of the Year
The Essential Recordings of the 90s		1998
2009		2
SelectUnited KingdomBest 30 Albums of the Year199813
SPINUnited StatesBest 20 Albums of the Year199810
TechnikartFranceBest 10 Albums of the Year19982
The FaceUnited KingdomBest 20 Albums of the Year199811
The Village VoiceUnited StatesAlbums of the Year Poll19989
UncutUnited KingdomBest 40 Albums of the Year199812

Personnel

Adapted from the AllMusic credits.

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
US Billboard 200104