Hello Nasty was released on July 14, 1998, four years after the band's previous album, Ill Communication—and marked the addition of DMC championMix Master Mike to the group's line-up. "I Don't Know" features Miho Hatori on vocals, and "Dr. Lee, PhD" guest stars dub musician Lee "Scratch" Perry on both vocals and percussion. Hello Nasty also marked Eric Bobo's last appearance as percussionist in the band, as well as the last time the Beastie Boys worked with a co-producer. The title for the album was allegedly inspired by the receptionist of their NY-based publicity firm Nasty Little Man who would answer the phone with the greeting "Hello, Nasty". In addition, the title is mentioned in the song "Putting Shame In Your Game." The cover art depicts all three members wrapped in an aluminium sardine tin and getting baked in the sun. The band makes a reference to this in the song "Body Movin'", in which the lyrics goes, "MCA, where have you been? Packed like sardines in a tin." But instead of packaging it in a tin container, it was packaged exactly like a pack of cigarettes, including the cellophane strip that must be pulled around the box to open it. This cover only lasted several days before it was replaced with a standard plastic packaging.
Critical reception
Hello Nasty received mostly positive reviews upon release. Caroline Sullivan, writing for The Guardian, named the album the "Pop CD of the Week" and stated that it "fills a gap created by the current profusion of serious rock bands like Radiohead; elbowing its way up front, rip with adolescent vigour." She went on to summarize the record as "the perfect party soundtrack by the perfect party band." Selects John Harris praised the Beastie Boys' lyrics as being as "fantastically off-beam as ever" while at the same time noting that they had "broadened their musical vistas yet further". Although AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that 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 input of the group's new recruit, Mixmaster 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." In his review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne highlighted the album's multi-genre sound, along with the group's use of a wide range of musical styles, as its most engaging aspect;
Hello Nasty is a sonic smorgasbord in which the Beasties gorge themselves with reckless abandon. They dabble in lounge-pop kitsch, make like a summit of Santana and Traffic, and subtly incorporate a drum-and-bass shuffle into the mix. The melange makes for a looser, more free-spirited record than their earlier albums; the music invites you in, rather than threatening to shut you out.
