“Sabotage” was the first single off the Beastie Boys 4th studio album. In the liner notes of the Beastie Boys Anthology “King Ad-rock” said that “Sabotage” was originally recorded as an instrumental and didn't have lyrics until two weeks before the album was completed.
Three scenes from the original music video had to be removed before it would receive airplay on MTV. A scene involving a knife fight, a falling off a bridge scene and one where a man was thrown from a car into the street.
Regardless of the edits the video was huge and was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction in a Video and Viewers Choice at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. It lost all five categories. When R.E.M. lead singer Micheal Stipe was giving his speech to accept the Video of the Year award he was interrupted by Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch (MCA), dressed as his alter ego “Nathaniel Hornblower,” who only die hard Beastie Boys fans would recognize, who protested the shutout of “Sabotage.”
In 2009, Beastie Boys finally got their MTV Video Music Award for “Sabotage” in the category Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman).
Beastie Boys “Sabotage” 1994
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