Company type | Incentive |
---|---|
Industry | Music production |
Genre | |
Founded | 1992 |
Founder | Beastie Boys |
Defunct | August 31, 2001 |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Website | grandroyal.com (Archived on July 6, 2001) |
Grand Royal was a vanity record label founded in 1992 by rap group Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records after the group left Def Jam Recordings. [1] It was based in Los Angeles, California.
Grand Royal was also the name of a magazine written and published by the group. [2] Described as a publication that "came to define part of Generation X," [3] the total distribution of the six issues of Grand Royal was estimated at 300,000 copies. [4]
Due to mounting debts, Grand Royal closed down on August 31, 2001, and formally declared bankruptcy in July 2002. [5] [6] [7] Its assets were sold off via auction on Bid4Assets; these assets did not include any rights to Beastie Boys music. [8] The assets and back catalog were purchased by a group of fans who in turn started GR2 Records. [9] In 2016, GR2 sold the rights and master recordings of Grand Royal's second release My Crazy Life to a member of the band Dead Fucking Last.
In 2017, Stiletto Entertainment, the company that currently owns GR2, was sued by dance-punk band Liquid Liquid for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and not paying them royalties over the unauthorized licensing of their music and sales of the 2008 reissue of their 1997 compilation Liquid Liquid, which was originally distributed by Grand Royal. [10]
Beastie Boys were an American hip hop/rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1981. The group was composed of Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Michael "Mike D" Diamond. Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band The Young Aborigines, which was formed in 1979, with Diamond on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach later joining on percussion. When Shatan left New York City in mid-1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the resulting band was named Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.
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Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.
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