The Beastie Boys are fighting for their right to protect their music.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the popular hip-hop group filed a federal lawsuit in New York against the parent company of the restaurant chain Chili’s, Brinker International, for allegedly using portions of their song “Sabotage” in an advertisement.
The group alleges the company not only used the song without permission, but mimicked scenes from the song’s music video.
“Sabotage” debuted in 1994 and immediately became one of the band’s biggest hits. Much of the song’s success came from the popularity of the accompanying music video, which showed the three band members in wigs, fake mustaches and sunglasses as they parodied crime shows from the 1970s.
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An advertisement posted to the restaurant’s social media accounts in 2022 also featured three men dressed in similar disguises trying to burglarize a Chili’s restaurant.
Not only did the music video help boost the band’s popularity, it was also nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards and continues to be referred to as one of the most recognizable music videos of the genre. It has been said to have inspired the opening sequence of the film “Trainspotting” and helped launch the career of its director, Spike Jonze, who directed “Being John Malkovich” and “Her.”
The Beastie Boys formed in July 1981 and consisted of Michael Diamond (“Mike D”), John Berry, Kate Schellenbach and Adam Yauch, MCA. Berry and Schellenbach left the band soon after, and Adam Horovitz, “Ad-Rock,” took their place.
Together, the trio recorded eight studio albums, the last of which, “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two,” was released in May 2011. As of 2012, The Beastie Boys were the highest-selling rap group of all time, having sold 20 million albums since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.
Following the tragic death of Yauch from cancer in 2012, the band effectively broke up. Included in MCA’s will was the clause that “in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes,” according to Forbes.
This, however, is not the first time the hip-hop group has sued for the improper use of its music in advertising. In 2014, the remaining members of the group successfully sued Monster Energy for using several of the group’s songs, including “Sabotage” and “So What’cha Want.”
The group was awarded $1.7 million in damages, $500,000 for implied endorsement and $1.2 million for the unauthorized use of their song.
This time around, the group is asking for $150,000 in damages from Brinker International, in addition to attorney’s fees, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While the band is not making new music anymore, Ad-Rock and Mike D reunited in 2018 to write a memoir, “Beastie Boys Book,” which detailed the history of the band. The book was then turned into a documentary, “Beastie Boys Story,” which reunited Ad-Rock and Mike D with “Sabotage” music video director Jonze.
Fox News Digital has reached out to a rep for the Beastie Boys for comment.
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