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Mad Professor performing live
Mad Professor

Mad Professor is a renowned dub music producer known for his work with Lee Perry and other artists.

Photo credit: John Doe

Mad Professor

In the Beastie Boys Anthology: Sounds of Science liner notes Mike D was quoted as having said the following in regards to the Beastie Boys song "Dub the Mic": "We had all been influenced by Lee Perry's productions. We were into how on reggae recordings there would often be a 'dub version' on the b-side of a single, a practice that got co-opted by a few punk and early hip-hop singles as well."

With that in mind enter Mad Professor, whose dub work with Lee Perry and other artists has created a huge catalog of recordings which are available through his label Ariwa's website. The one recording that you will surely want though is not available through that site. The recording in question is the unreleased album of dub instrumentals that Mad Professor and the Beastie Boys made presumably at some point between the releases of Ill Communication and Hello Nasty. Mario C is said to have been the producer of the dub album which for lack of a better name is referred to as Beastie Boys vs. Mad Professor.

Without any hard facts about the projects length, it is difficult to speculate upon how many songs or dub tracks were actually finished. Realizing that the Beastie Boys were kept busy touring a great deal between 1994 and 1998, along with the fact that they completed Hello Nasty as well as Country Mike's Greatest Hits, it is safe to assume that we are not talking about a 20 track opus. It is reasonable to think that this collection of dub instrumentals may sound a great deal like the track that the band did with Lee Perry which was included on Hello Nasty.