Beastie Boys dismantled their ‘Paul’s Boutique’ gold record plaque to find it didn’t contain their own music

Beastie Boys have shared the story of how they discovered that the gold record plaque they received after the certification of ‘Paul’s Boutique’ didn’t actually contain a pressing of their own music.

Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) and Mike D (Michael Diamond) from the New York hip-hop innovators recently revealed the issue with their gold record plaque for the seminal 1989 album during an interview on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast.

The certification came when ‘Paul’s Boutique’ sold 500,000 copies just two months after its release. However, when the bandmates closely examined the plaque years later, they noticed that the record displayed inside did not contain the same amount of tracks as the album’s tracklisting.

“So we’re at our studio here in California and I was smoking the pot,” Ad-Rock said, recalling the discovery. “This was a long time ago. We had a gold record on the wall, it was our record, ‘Paul’s Boutique’. I was looking at it and I could see it had our label and I could see that it had like nine songs on the one side. But I was looking at the actual gold record and it only had four songs on it.”

Curious about the discrepancy, the band decided to break the glass and remove the record from the plaque. Upon inspection, they found that instead of ‘Paul’s Boutique’, the vinyl contained piano versions of songs like Barry Manilow’s music and Morris Albert’s ‘Feelings’.

When asked by O’Brien if this was common for all gold record plaques, Ad-Rock replied, “I don’t know about anybody else…” while Mike D speculated that major stars like Barbra Streisand or Donna Summer probably received plaques with their actual records.

While the plaque didn’t feature their music, ‘Paul’s Boutique’ continued to gain recognition after its gold certification. The album was certified platinum in 1995 and reached double platinum status in 1999.

Listen to the podcast below.

Revisit Ben Cardew’s Solid Gold feature on how Beastie Boys’ cult classic second album was a high-water mark for rich sampling and undiluted fun.

From May, read DJ Mag’s feature on how the legendary band’s fourth album, ‘Ill Communication’, set a benchmark for ’90s eclecticism.