Mid-way through Dedication, track number 20 on the Beastie Boys' fifth studio album, Hello Nasty, rapper Mike D gives an unexpected shout-out to "Newcastle - where Venom are from." The reference likely went right over the heads of purist hip-hop fans, but this wasn't the first time that the New York trio had referenced the legendary English metal band. On their 1992 album Check Your Head, Mike D, Ad Rock and MCA incorporated a snippet of Cronos' band live onstage at Trenton, New Jersey’s City Gardens on April 2, 1986, on their song Mark On The Bus.
"Venom fucking rocked," Mike D enthused to me in 1995. "They had the speeches, the routines, the metal! Venom were an early crossover band. I used to listen to this hardcore radio show in New York, and they used to mix stuff like Venom in amongst the Black Flag and Minor Threat.
"We thought Venom were excellent. But then they came to New York to do some gigs, and we found out that they weren't joking at all! They were a serious band, and that kinda let a lot of us down!"
Famously, when the New York trio were signed to his Def Jam label, producer Rick Rubin persuaded Slayer guitarist Kerry King to play on the their hit single No Sleep Till Brooklyn.
"I don’t think he liked the song," Rubin admitted to Rolling Stone in 2016. "I think he just thought it was bizarre... I don't think it spoke to his aesthetic. And honestly, in retrospect, I don't think he really spoke to the Beasties' aesthetic. They didn't really like him either [laughs]. It was kind of mutual."
