Grand Royal Records, LLC
Company typeIncentive
IndustryMusic production
Genre
Founded1992; 32 years ago (1992)
FounderBeastie Boys
DefunctAugust 31, 2001; 22 years ago (2001-08-31)
FateBankruptcy
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
Websitegrandroyal.com
(Archived on July 6, 2001)
Footnotes / references
Distributed by Capitol Records

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]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Beasties Label Grand Royal to be Distributed by Capitol". Rolling Stone. December 9, 1993. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  2. ^ Woodbury, Jason P. (August 11, 2017). "The Magazine of Champions: On the Shabby Brilliance of "Grand Royal" Magazine". Flood Magazine. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  3. ^ Estes, Adam Clark (May 4, 2012). "Remembering Grand Royal, the Beastie Boys' Brief, Brilliant Magazine". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  4. ^ Archive-Courtney-Reimer. "Beastie Boys Compiling Book Of Grand Royal Highlights". MTV News. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  5. ^ NME (September 3, 2001). "GRAND ROYAL TO CLOSE". NME. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  6. ^ Moss, Corey (August 31, 2001). "Beastie Boys Close Grand Royal Record Label". MTV. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  7. ^ Werde, Bill (January 19, 2004). "For a Record Label Founded by the Beastie Boys, the End Is Less Than Grand". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  8. ^ Werde, Bill (January 19, 2004). "For a Record Label Founded by the Beastie Boys, the End Is Less Than Grand". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  9. ^ Cross, Alan (2012). The Beastie Boys: the secret history. Joe Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-9270-0216-2.
  10. ^ Russell, Josh (August 17, 2017). "Disco-Punk Legends Sue for 'Chef' Film Royalties". Courthouse News. Retrieved September 15, 2022.


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