“It took a lot of balls.” Mix Master Mike (né Michael Schwartz) recalls the courage it took to call up the Beastie Boys, who by the late ’90s were bona fide rap superstars, and leave multiple messages on Adam “MCA” Yauch’s answering machine. But these were no ordinary messages. They showcased Mike’s skills as a DMC World Champion DJ and Invisibl Skratch Piklz turntable magician. In fact, one of them opens the 1998 Hello Nasty single “3 MC’s and One DJ” with, “Hey yo Adam, what’s up? This is Mix Master Mike calling from Sacramento, um, I’ve been wanting to hook up with you maybe on some tracks. I got some shit right here. I turned my turntables into a wah-wah pedal. It’s called the tweak scratch.”
Hearing the innovative sounds Mike was making with his records was all it took. MCA and his fellow Beasties Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz welcomed Mike into the fold and “3 MC’s and One DJ” wound up being the first single they did together. The track featured production from longtime collaborator Mario Caldato Jr. (better known as Mario C), who engineered Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique in 1989 and co-produced 1992’s Check Your Head and 1994’s Ill Communication.
The accompanying video, shot “gorilla style” in the dingy basement of 262 Mott Street in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, undoubtedly marked the beginning of Mix Master Mike’s creative relationship with the Beastie Boys, which would go on until MCA’s untimely death in 2012. SPIN caught up with Mike to look back on the song that started it all.
More from Spin:
3 MCs, ONE DJ & A SPARK
It was spawned through the telephone messages I left to Yauch, right? That was the beginning of the song. I was doing all these tricks in the studio, and the guys were gathered around the DJ booth. I was just doing all kinds of shit and everybody was just watching me. Mario, Mike, Adam [Yauch], and Adam [Horovitz] were there, and I was just dazzling them. We weren’t even recording, I just started doing some shit, so they could wrap their head around me and what they had. Then I grabbed the drum and started scratching the drum by itself. They started freaking out. They’re like, “What the fuck? He’s scratching the drum and it sounds percussive.” Then I stopped and I’m like, “You guys should rap over this shit. It would be fucking crazy.”
That’s when the light bulb sparked. The light bulb blew up. And they were like, “OK, I’ll be right back.” So Adam, Adam, and Mike disappeared. They got in the car and started driving around Manhattan and thinking about ideas and lyrics. Two hours later while I was recording with Mario, doing the work on Hello Nasty, they came back and were like, “OK, we’re ready.” Me and Mario were like, “Oh shit, OK.”
THE NEW STYLE
It came together really fast, like five hours. Mario was just punching me in, and we’re getting all the tasty parts of the scratch, and then Mario made it into song form. I said, “Why don’t you just loop all these parts? Or just have me just go all the way through for two and a half minutes.” There were really no edits. It was like, “Just record me doing the drum scratch and keep going.”
Then we had that track. When they came in, it was already laid down so they went in the booth and started rapping, “I got the d-double-O-D-double-O-style,” and me and Mario were looking at each other like, “Oh shit!”
They all had the verses and just did it perfectly. Everything was perfect. They really wrapped their heads around it and really made it into a song. Especially at this point, they’re just like professionals, you know? When it was like, “Mix Master Mike, what you got to say,” that was it. We knew that our commitment to mastery was in full effect.
HE’S CRAFTY
I had no time to really think, it was more excitement, right? It was more like crafting it and being like, “OK, how can we make this better? How can we keep building upon this idea?” I can remember listening to Run-DMC live at the Funhouse, the “Here We Go” track—and big up to Jam Master Jay—that really lit a match under me. So I was just like, “How can I make up my own version of that, but just using one turntable?” It just all kind of fell together. I was thinking to myself, “We’re making a whole advanced version of that, but in our own way.” There was a lot of excitement.
TO THE MOON
I actually flew in from L.A. the night before we were to film the video. We were thinking about that whole video shoot, me and my manager Diane Copeland. I was thinking like, “Yo, I can’t just go in there. I need something extra.” I needed to do something and bring something, so we went to the 20th Century Fox prop shop, and I was like, “Give me a space suit or something I could take.” Me and Di were wrapping our heads around this. It was like, “What’s gonna be something that’s gonna stick in the people’s minds?” Then I was like, “Give me a jet pack.” Diane, being in the industry, took me to the prop shop. We went in there and found one jet pack. It was from the movie Enemy Mine with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. We actually rented that out and it was the perfect thing.
TSA TROUBLE
I remember getting it and it was like, “Oh this is gonna be awesome.” The boys had no idea that this was gonna be so fucking great until this day. I still remember checking that jet pack in at the airport. We had trouble checking that in on the plane. They were definitely questioning that jet pack. We had to do double screens to get that through. They’re like, “Mr. Schwartz, what is that for?” I’m just like, “Oh I’m filming a video. This is a prop.” So there was a whole situation. It’s like, “Dude, we’ve never seen something like this. It looks like a fucking jet pack bomb.” But we eventually got it through.
POSSE IN EFFECT
Diane also got me the NASA jumpsuit made for that, so we were ready. We landed in New York, went to sleep that night, woke up and I got dressed. I was ready to do this. I put on the jumpsuit and then walked to the rehearsal spot. I walk in and I’m like, “Oh shit, we’re gonna do a guerrilla-style shoot.” It only took six of us to make that video. We got there, walked down the stairs and the guys were all there. I walked in with my jet pack and the guys looked at each other like “Oh my god.” I knew at that time they’re like, “Yeah, we got our dude. This guy’s gonna fit right in.” They were high-fiving and everything.
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Yauch was like, “OK, you’re gonna start from the coffee shop.” I’m like, “Where the fuck is the coffee shop?” It was on the corner of Mott, but he told me I had to walk all the way down there and back. And I did that at least six times. I remember after the sixth or seventh take, Yauch pulled me to the side and he was like, “Bro how you doing, Mike?” He was checking in on me. I said, “Let’s keep going.” I remember having to guzzle iced coffee at the coffee shop to stay awake. We did 10 different takes. It took about four hours, but the funny thing is they ended up keeping the first take. The video showed that we don’t hide behind production theatrics. We have it all there. Everything we need is there. I am the CGI. I am everything. I am all the effects.
INTERGALACTIC
Every day I get people tagging me on it. It’s so crazy. I get sick of it sometimes. It’s like, “Oh no, again, again, again.” But at the same time, I’m grateful. I’m glad that it has a special place in everybody’s heart and I’m very proud of it, but it’s like, “Man, here we go again.” I get tagged on it every day. But I would say that song made me a household name. It kind of mentally scarred people in the correct way.
WHAT IF
I go through a lot of waves [regarding MCA’s death] and I think about it every other day now. I go through waves where I start getting in my feelings and I think of what would be if he was still here, what would be happening right now if he was still here and how much we would be creating together. I would still be part of the Beastie Boys. I think the Beastie Boys would still be making great music. We would have albums upon albums and music and more videos. I’ve become more dangerous as an artist when it comes to creating and being intuitive and being tapped in.
THE MCA EFFECT
I think of being connected to MCA as a blessing, as a lesson, as just everything, you know what I mean? I want to thank him for the opportunity and tell him that I appreciate that he fully trusted me. He rarely had to tell me what to do. He just knew. He always just told me, “Mike, just do what you do.” In some kind of weird way, he was kind of like a fan of me and what I did. And it was awesome. He made me feel confident. Even more so now. At my age [54], I’m such a rebel. I exude confidence. I have full confidence in myself. My power of intention is so magnified right now. Whatever I think about and what I want I will achieve it. Until the wheels fall off, I will achieve greatness.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.