Beastie Boys - Sabotage

What this video is

Released in January 1994 as the lead single from Ill Communication, 'Sabotage' arrived at the apex of MTV's cultural dominance, when music videos functioned as genuine short-form cinema. The video's guerrilla production — no permits, one van, a skeleton crew — embodied the anti-corporate, DIY ethos the Beastie Boys had cultivated since Check Your Head (1992). Its sustained VMA controversy, including MCA's stage…

Why it matters

A canonical text in rap-rock crossover history, 'Sabotage' demonstrated that hip-hop artists could command cinematic video language previously reserved for rock acts, while the video's postmodern pastiche of 1970s TV cop aesthetics established a template for ironic genre parody that influenced a…

The director

Spike Jonze (Adam Spiegel, b. 1969) is an American filmmaker and photographer who began his career directing music videos in the early 1990s before transitioning to feature films. He co-created Jackass and directed acclaimed features including Being John…