Sabotage is a song by the rap rock band Beastie Boys, released by Grand Royal Records on May 9, 1994 as the first single from their fourth studio album, Ill Communication (1994). The song features traditional rock instrumentation (Ad-Rock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D on drums), turntable scratches, heavily distorted bass guitar riffs and lead vocals by Ad-Rock. A moderate commercial success and later significant critical success, the song was applauded for its impactful lyrics and melody as well as its humorous video, directed by Spike Jonze; it was also nominated in five categories at the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards.
The accompanying music video for Sabotage, directed by Spike Jonze and played extensively on MTV, is a homage to, and parody of, 1970s crime drama shows such as Hawaii Five-O, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch. The video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the band members appearing as the show’s protagonists. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given. The characters appearing on the show are (in order of credits):
Sir Stewart Wallace guest-starring as himself (played by MCA), Nathan Wind as Cochese (also played by MCA), Vic Colfari as Bobby, “The Rookie” (played by Ad-Rock)Alasondro Alegré as “The Chief” (played by Mike D), Fred Kelly as Bunny (played by DJ Hurricane).
Tracklist:
- Sabotage (LP Version)
- Sabotage (Clean Version)
Beastie Boys
Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz: lead vocals, guitar, scratches
Adam “MCA” Yauch: bass guitar, backing vocals, scratches
Michael “Mike D” Diamond: drums, backing vocals
Additional musicians
Money Mark: organ
Eric Bobo: timbales
Adam Nathaniel Yauch (August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012).
