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To paraphrase the song in question: The Beastie Boys are shutting Chili’s down with a push of their button. The rap crew — who famously rarely license their music for commercial use — have sued restaurant owner Brinker International for allegedly using their 1994 hit “Sabotage” in social media promos for the Chili’s chain without permission.
In a complaint filed in New York federal court Wednesday, the Beastie Boys allege that sometime around November 2022, Brinker posted Chili’s ads to social media featuring “Sabotage” without a license. The ad also apparently depicted three characters in ’70s-style costumes robbing a Chili’s, which the suit claims was a deliberate reference to Spike Jonze’s mega-famous “Sabotage” video. The band is asking for at least $150,000 in monetary damages, claiming the ads gave the public the false impression that the Beastie Boys would promote the restaurant.
The complaint reiterates that the band doesn’t license any of its intellectual property to third-party advertising. Late Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch went so far as to prohibit it in his will, and since his death from cancer in 2012, surviving bandmates Ad-Rock and Mike D have successfully sued Monster Energy and GoldieBlox for using their music. (TV, film, and video game soundtracks is another thing.) In fact, the first time the Beastie Boys officially licensed their music for promotional use was when “Sabotage” appeared in an ad for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Those were dire times.
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