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 (for "Intergalactic") at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. In Beastie Boys Book (2018), 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,
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 acclaim 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, [and letting] rip with adolescent vigour." 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."
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 44
|-
!scope="row"| Melody Maker
| United Kingdom
| Best 50 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 2
|-
!scope="row"| Mixmag
| United Kingdom
| Best 10 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 5
|-
!scope="row"| Musikexpress
| Germany
| Best 50 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 22
|-
!scope="row"| Muzik
| United Kingdom
| Best 75 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 2
|-
!scope="row"| NME
| United Kingdom
| Best 50 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 2
|-
!scope="row"| Pitchfork
| United States
| Best 50 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 20
|-
!scope="row"| Q
| United Kingdom
| Best Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|-
!scope="row"| Rocksound
| France
| Best 50 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 17
|-
!scope="row"| Rolling Stone
| United States
| Best 5 Albums of the Year<br />The Essential Recordings of the 90s
| style="text-align:center;"| 1998<br>2009
| style="text-align:center;"| 2<br>*
|-
!scope="row"| Select
| United Kingdom
| Best 30 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 13
|-
!scope="row"| SPIN
| United States
| Best 20 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 10
|-
!scope="row"| Technikart
| France
| Best 10 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 2
|-
!scope="row"| The Face
| United Kingdom
| Best 20 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 11
|-
!scope="row"| The Village Voice
| United States
| Albums of the Year Poll
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 9
|-
!scope="row"| Uncut
| United Kingdom
| Best 40 Albums of the Year
| 1998
| style="text-align:center;"| 12
|}
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from the AllMusic credits.
- Beastie Boys – producers
- Mario Caldato Jr. – producer
- Mix Master Mike – DJ (8, 9, 12, 13, 19)
- "Money" Mark Nishita – keyboards (4, 14, 20, 21)
- Eric Bobo – percussion (3, 8, 14, 21)
- Brooke Williams – vocals (4, 18)
- Nelson Keane Carse – trombone (4)
- Paul Vercesi – alto sax (4)
- Biz Markie – vocals (7, 12, 13)
- Jill Cunniff – vocals (14)
- Joe Locke – vibraphone (14)
- Steve Slagle – flute (14)
- Miho Hatori – vocals (15)
- Duduka Da Fonseca – percussion (15)
- Richard Siegler – percussion (15)
- Jane Scarpantoni – cello (15)
- Brian Wright – violin, viola (15)
- Lee "Scratch" Perry – vocals (21)
- Pat Shannahan – sample clearance
- Steve Revitte – engineering
- Suzanne Dyer – engineering
- Andy VanDette – mastering
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Michael Lavine – photography
- Cey Adams – art direction
- Bill McMullen – design
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+Weekly chart performance for Hello Nasty
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! scope="col" | Chart (1998)
! scope="col" | Peak<br />position
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! scope="row" | Danish Albums (IFPI Denmark)
| 6
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! scope="row" | European Albums (Billboard)
| 1
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1998 annual chart performance for Hello Nasty
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1998)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 70
|-
! scope="row" | Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| 29
|-
! scope="row" | Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)
| 55
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 84
|-
! scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
|align="center"|33
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 25
|-
! scope="row" | Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
| 72
|-
! scope="row" | UK Albums (OCC)
| 58
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| 13
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1999 annual chart performance for Hello Nasty
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1999)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| 104
|}