Ari's involvement with the band dates back to before Check Your Head. He directed the music video for "Somethings Got to Give" plus one coolest looking promotional photos from 1992 was taken by Ari. Yet, several of the Ari Marcopoulos-Beastie projects that we are more familiar with are from 1994-1995. Things like the Sabotage Homevideo in 1994 and the very popular 8 X 10 promotional photos from 1995.

Others that have gained fame through photographing the band over the years, like Glen Friedman and Ricky Powell, grew up in New York City with the band. Ari hooked up with the band much later, but his work is no less important in providing us with a visual history of the Beastie Boys.

Ari Marcopoulos who was born in Amsterdam, Holland (yet lives in northern California) is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Interview, Paper, Blind Spot, and most major snowboarding magazines such as Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder.

The 2001 release of his book Pass the Mic, is the one must have for every Beastie Boys collector. Ari himself said the following about it:

"The Beastie Boys photos is like a six year period, but I didn't constantly shoot. The hardest part was when you do a subject like the Beasties, they're such a popular band that the subject is bigger than you, and it's almost like you're riding the wave of them. That was the first thing I considered, then I was like 'Forget it, I'm just going to do it.' and the band was really into it. A lot of these pictures were not taken for assignment or anything. I was just hanging out with them and going to the studio." - Ari Marcopoulos in Slap, 8 page portfolio and interview of the artist's work