INTERVIEWS > A conversation with the Beastie Boys

WIRED.COM: Pink Floyd's piano chords. Bernard Herrmann's Psycho score. These are the things a Beastie Boys song is made of. In their two decades, MCA (Adam Yauch), Mike D (Michael Diamond), and Adrock (Adam Horovitz) have proven themselves the most inventive samplers in hip hop. From cramming 200 sonic snatches into 15 songs on 1989's Paul's Boutique, to reworking the Sugarhill Gang's classic "Rappers Delight," one of 22 select samples on their latest, To the 5 Boroughs, the Beasties have made careers of transforming the sounds of the past into cool new music. Wired talks with the Boys about the art of sampling and how making music has changed over the years.