Beastie Boys Comment on Eminem Kamikaze Album Cover

Matthew Strauss
Updated
Ad-Rock and Mike D say that Em did not ask them about mimicking License to Ill for his cover artwork

Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and Mike D have sat down for an hour-long interview with “The Strombo Show” host George Stroumboulopoulos to discuss their long-awaited memoir Beastie Boys Book, which arrives October 30 (via Spiegel & Grau). At one point, the conversation shifted to Eminem and his new album Kamikaze, which features artwork that bears a striking similarity to the Beasties’ 1986 debut Licensed to Ill. They said that they did not get any advance warning about Eminem’s cover art.

“I got maybe 10 text messages, 20 text messages. And I’m like, Why do I all of a sudden have like 50 text messages? I better see what’s going on,” Mike said. “Everybody’s forwarding me the album cover from, like, the Twitter feed, or whatever. So, that’s how we found out about it.” Watch the full interview below; the Eminem discussion begins at 43:42.

Licensed to Ill placed at No. 103 on Pitchfork’s “The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s.” Check out the full list here.

See the video.