Updated: December 2002

"The Beastie Boys photos is like a six year period but I didn't constantly shoot. The hardest part was when you do a subject like the Beasties, they're such a popular band that the subject is bigger than you, and it's almost like you're riding the wave of them. That was the first thing I considered, then I was like 'Fuck it, I'm just going to do it.' and the band was really into it. A lot of these pictures were not taken for assignment or anything. I was just hangin'' out with them and going to the studio." —Ari Marcopoulos in Slap, 8 page portfolio and interview of the artist's work

"Ari Marcopoulos is the Cartier-Bresson of the post-slacker generation. Or maybe the William Claxton of the post-apocalyptic proto-renaissance generation. Yeah, that’s more like it.... He has also hung with the Beastie Boys—gentlemen of his own generation—leisurely and profoundly and at great length, capturing their lives behind the scenes, the curtains, the doors, the hype. He is more the fourth Beastie than Murray the K was ever the fifth Beatle.... He is deeply in there, fully communing with Beastie consciousness... The Beastie Boys, with whom he has also worked cinematically...provided him with three perfect accomplices: they share a droll, syncopated, codified yet anarchic, perverse yet beserkly sane sensibility. As an insider, Marcopoulos’s photographs constitute an official portrait and are fully licensed—to ill, of course.” —Glenn O'Brien, Arena +

"What one thinks of their music is irrelevant, however, because the selections are so resonant and captivating that one cannot help but feel the pulse of Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA's creativity. Readers get glimpses from the stage as well as impromptu shots of backstage life; all communicate the passion that the Beastie deliver to their audience....this oversize book is an outstanding photographic record of a longstanding group. Highly recommended for music collections." —Library Journal

"Hip-hop stars Adam Yauch, Adam Horovitz, and Michael Diamond—the Beastie Boys—sing, clown around, play video games, shoot baskets, mug for the camera and seemingly never stop moving in Pass the Mic: Beastie Boys 1991-1996, a collection of intimate photographs by Ari Marcopoulos...now seems a poignant testament to youth culture..." —Publishers Weekly

“It's easy when you know the right people. Photographer Ari Marcopoulos...befriended Mike Diamond of the Beastie Boys while shooting other rap musicians. The friendship led to hundreds of laid-back images that only friends get to take.... Marcopoulos's images are a far cry from most rock-star iconography. He forgoes gloss for grit and 'real' situations, drawing more comparisons to Larry Clark than to Anton Corijn...." —Photo District News

"... a compilation of candid shots of the band in the studio, on the road, playing basketball, and rehearsing dance steps.... The end result is a cohesive, chronological collection that looks and feels loose, unforced, and intimate." —Spin

"...a beautiful, grainy, never-seen-before collection... Marcopoulos ultimately reveals the serious devotion and tight-knit, mutually inspired process of music-making hidden even then, behind the goofy, down façade of the Beasties." —V magazine

"International superstar photo-guy Ari Marcopoulos follows up last year's stellar snowboard photography book, Transitions and Exits, with this new title, a candid, behind-the-scenes lookat the lives of the Beastie during hip-hop's hey-day.... His photos offer a rare glimpse at the chemistry between Mike D, MCA, and Ad Rock that has kept the group so fresh for so long. Shake your rump-uh." —Strength

"...an intimate (and surprisingly solemn) record of the band's evolution from flannel-funk skate punks to hipster eminences grises. Fans will enjoy watching the Beasties grow in their gravitas, but it's the blurry, kinetic live shots that give the book its pulse." —Blender, 4 Star Review

"...imagine Margaret Mead sent on the following assignment: live with the Beastie Boys tribe of New York, eat their food, keep their hours, and travel their travels. The result is another feather in the acclaimed skate, snow, art photographer and filmer's cap: slices of Beastie Boys life mostly in stark baclk and white shot over a period of six years." —Tansworld Stance

"The fact that the Beastie Boys lasted for the duration of the five-year photo shoot (and are still together) says a lot about the group itself.... Pass the Mic is a great photo album for fans..." —Mugshot

"Marcopoulos has put together a thick slice of history with his new book...which follows the Boys on the Check Your Head tour, into the studio for Ill Communication, to Lollapalooza and the first Tibetan Freedom Concert." —Nylon

"Pass the Mic is a picturesque glimpse into the world of the beloved 'three bad brothers' we think we know so well... From all three funking around in the studio to Ad Rock playing with Marcopoulos' son, to Adam Yauch in colorful Buddhist-wear at Tibetan Freedom Festival, these aren't the posed press pics we're used ot seeing—Pass the Mic is the real deal captured by an insider.... It's a keeper and a must have for any true fan's collection,. Don't sleep." —Heckler

"Pass the Mic collects many of his best photos from this period, and Marcopoulos' work is technically stunning: his rich and stark black and white portraiture is evocative and beauiful, and his concert photography is breathtaking." —Maxim Online

"Marcopoulos avoides the expected slick approach and goes for the guts of the moment; organic and rough edged as opposed to glossy media fare. Pass the Mic ends up being as much about a band as it is about a moment in history, a genre of music and relationships." —Picture

"...a thorough photo record of the greatest hip-hop-punk-artsy-wiseass-Buddhist-party band on the planet, during their most innovative and influential period." —Rev

"Marcopoulos...has harvested years of materials...for the new photo album Pass the Mic, integrating images of casual brainstorming sessions with onstage rabble-rousing." —CMJ New Music Monthly, double-page feature

"... a collection of never-before-published shots of the band performing, recording, and raising hell that will serve as a vivid, painful reminder that you should have stuck with those guitar lessons." —Stuff