Beastie Boys Say They Were Caught Off Guard By Eminem's "Kamikaze" Cover

Ad-Roc and Mike D reveal that they weren't warned about Eminem replicating "License To Ill" cover for "Kamikaze."

BYAron A.Sep 17, 20185.4K Views

Back in 2013, Eminem paid homage to The Beastie Boys on his single, "Berzerk." He paid homage once again earlier this year with his latest album, Kamikaze. The album art for Kamikaze shares similarities with The Beastie Boys' cover for their 1986 album, License To Ill. However, it turns out Ad-Roc and Mike D from The Beastie Boys' were surprised by the fact Em paid homage to them.

The Beastie Boys are gearing up to release their highly anticipated Beastie Boys Book which comes out later this fall. They recently made an appearance on "The Strombo Show" where they discussed their book, their career as well as the cover art to Eminem's latest album. Both Ad-Roc and Mike D said that Eminem gave them no warning about the cover art to Kamikaze which bears similarities to License To Ill.

"All of a sudden I get 10 like text messages, 20 text messages. Then I'm like, 'Why do I all of a sudden have 50 text messages? I better see what's going on,'" Mike D said. "Everybody's forwarding me the album cover from, like, the Twitter feed, or whatever. So that's how they found out."

While many people caught on to the cover art for Kamikaze, Em's current feud with Machine Gun Kelly has been the main topic of conversation. Eminem responded to MGK's "Rap Devil" diss with "KILLSHOT" on Friday. MGK has since responded by claiming Eminem "missed" and wearing a t-shirt with the song's cover art on it during a recent performance.

Peep Beastie Boys' comments on Eminem's cover at the 43:42 mark.

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Aron A.

Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.