Mike D performs Beastie Boys classics with sons in surprise Ojai Valley show

Mike D has surprised fans with a guest appearance at his sons’ band’s show, performing classic Beastie Boys tracks alongside them at the Ojai Valley Women’s Club. The 60-year-old rapper joined his sons Skyler and Davis Diamond on stage with their alt-band Very Nice Person on April 11.

The set leaned hard into Beastie Boys nostalgia. Mike D delivered energetic renditions of ‘So What’cha Want’ from 1992’s Check Your Head and ‘Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun’ from 1989’s Paul’s Boutique. The footage from the night has since gone viral across X, Instagram and TikTok, with fans flagging the moment as a generational handover in real time.

Very Nice Person had teased a “very special guest” days before the gig. The whole show came together in less than a week. The intimate Ojai Valley venue gave the moment the kind of low-key charm that no big-budget reunion stage could replicate.

Mike D, real name Michael Diamond, hasn’t toured as a Beastie Boy since the 2012 death of Adam “MCA” Yauch. The trio (Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock) effectively retired the project after that, with most of the surviving activity since being archival reissues, the ‘Beastie Boys Story’ Apple TV+ documentary and Spike Jonze’s stage production. Live performances of the original catalogue have been rare and almost always nostalgic.

What landed differently here was the family handover. Skyler and Davis Diamond fronted the night as the active band, with their dad guesting on his own old material rather than headlining it himself. The framing turned the moment from a comeback set into something closer to a passing of the torch.

Mike D has spent recent years on production projects, label work and DJ sets. The Ojai Valley appearance is his most prominent on-stage moment in a while, and the reaction across socials suggests there’s appetite for more.

For more on iconic surprise sets covered by We Rave You, browse the archive.