Michael Louis Diamond (born November 20, 1965), better known as Mike D, is an American rapper, musician, and music producer. He is a founding member of the

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

group

Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...

Early life

Diamond was born in New York City to Harold Diamond, an art dealer, and Hester (née Klein) Diamond, an interior designer and art collector. He grew up on the Upper West Side surrounded by artwork, including pieces by

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

, and

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American painter. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense ...

. He attended the arts-oriented Saint Ann's School and Walden School.

Career

Mike D singing with the Beastie Boys at Trans Musicales 2004 in Rennes

In 1979, Diamond co-founded the band The Young Aborigines. In 1981,

Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), also known by the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker and a founding member of the Hip-hop, hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed m ...

, (known professionally as MCA), a friend and follower of the band, became their bass player, and on the suggestion of their then-guitar player, John Berry, the band changed their name to the Beastie Boys. By 1983, Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) joined, and their sound began to shift away from

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

. In 1986, the group's debut album ''

Licensed to Ill ''Licensed to Ill'' is the debut studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on November 15, 1986, by Def Jam and Columbia Records. The album became the first rap LP to top the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, and was the second ra ...

'' was released on

Def Jam Records Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

and became a huge success. Though it spawned several singles, only one would reach the top twenty of the US Hot 100, the number 7 "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)". Sales of ''Licensed to Ill'' were extremely strong, going multi-platinum during the time of its run. Several years later, it would be certified diamond status. The group would release several albums, some attaining platinum or multi-platinum status. In 1992, Diamond had founded the Beastie Boys' now-defunct record label

Grand Royal Records Grand Royal was a vanity record label founded in 1992 by rap group Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records after the group left Def Jam Recordings. It was based in Los Angeles, California. ''Grand Royal'' was also the name of a maga ...

. He is also interested in interior design, and designed Brooklyn-themed

toile Toile (French for "canvas") is a textile fabric comparable to fine batiste with a cloth weave. Natural silk or chemical fiber filaments are usually used as materials. The word ''toile'' can refer to the fabric itself or to a test garment sew ...

wallpaper; it was used in the renovation of the Marquee nightclub in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City, which reopened in January 2013. A year after the death of Yauch in 2012, Diamond told ''Rolling Stone'' he was "excited about making new stuff again" and released "Humberto Vs the New Reactionaries (Christine and the Queens Remix)" in July 2013. A remix of Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band's "Bad Dancer" by Diamond and Adam Horovitz was streamed online in August 2013. The pair is credited with "additional beats, programming and other curve balls". In October 2014, Diamond stated that he had been working in the studio with American rock band

Portugal. The Man Portugal. The Man is an Alaskan rock band from Wasilla, Alaska and based in Portland, Oregon. The group consists of John Baldwin Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O'Quin, Eric Howk and Zoe Manville. Gourley and Carothers met and began playing music t ...

as a producer. He has also produced English punk duo

Soft Play Soft Play (stylised in all caps) are an English punk rock duo formed by Isaac Holman (lead vocals, drums) and Laurie Vincent (backing vocals, guitar, bass) in Royal Tunbridge Wells in 2012. They were known as Slaves until 2022, when they change ...

's (formerly Slaves) second studio album, '' Take Control'', which was released on September 30, 2016. He hosts the

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

podcast ''The Echo Chamber''.

Personal life

In 1993, Diamond married film, television and music video director

Tamra Davis Tamra Davis (born January 22, 1962) is an American film, television and music video director. Early life Davis was born the second of four children in Studio City, California. She was exposed to the media industry at an early age by her grand ...

; they have since legally separated. They have two children, Davis Diamond and Skyler Diamond who formed the group Very Nice Person. They lived in

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Cobble Hill is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. A small neighborhood comprising 40 blocks,Kenneth T. Jackson, Jackson, Kenneth T., and Kasinitz, Philip. "Cobble Hil ...

. He grew up on

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

. He later lived in Brooklyn and

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

, and as of 2016 was living in

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...

Discography

with Beastie Boys * ''

'' (1986) * ''

Paul's Boutique ''Paul's Boutique'' is the second studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 25, 1989, by Capitol Records. Produced by the Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers, the album's composition makes extensive use of samples ...

'' (1989) * ''

Check Your Head ''Check Your Head'' is the third studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on April 21, 1992, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. Three years elapsed between the releases of the band's previous studio album '' Paul's Bou ...

'' (1992) * ''

Ill Communication ''Ill Communication'' is the fourth studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on May 31, 1994, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. Co-produced by Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato, Jr., it is among the band's most varied rel ...

'' (1994) * ''

Hello Nasty ''Hello Nasty'' is the fifth studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 14, 1998, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. The album sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 cha ...

'' (1998) * ''

To the 5 Boroughs ''To the 5 Boroughs'' is the sixth studio album by the American hip-hop group Beastie Boys. The album was released on June 14, 2004 internationally, and a day later in the United States. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200, b ...

'' (2004) * '' The Mix-Up'' (2007) * '' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mike D 1965 births Living people Alternative hip-hop musicians American male singers American male rappers American rock drummers American rock singers Beastie Boys members East Coast hip-hop musicians American rap rock musicians Grammy Award winners Jewish American musicians People from Tribeca Rappers from Brooklyn Rappers from Manhattan Vassar College alumni 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 21st-century American rappers Saint Ann's School (Brooklyn) alumni People from Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Walden School (New York City) alumni People from the Upper West Side American remixers Drummers from New York City