Grand Royal was the Los Angeles, California based vanity record label set up in 1992 by the Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records after the group left Def Jam Recordings.
Due to mounting debts, Grand Royal went out of business in 2001. Its assets were sold off via auction on Bid4Assets; these assets did not include any rights to Beastie Boys music. The assets and back catalog were purchased by a group of fans who in turn started GR2 Records.
Grand Royal was also the name of a magazine written and published by the group. It was most famous for its article "Mulling Over the Mullet" in issue two, which lampooned the mullet hairstyle (the Beastie Boys also recorded a song called "Mullet Head", which was released on Grand Royal on its Sure Shot 12-inch single).
Famous quotes containing the words grand and/or royal:
“If the Christ were content with humble toilers for disciples, that wasn’t good enough for our Bert. He wanted dukes’ half sisters and belted earls wiping his feet with their hair; grand apotheosis of the snob, to humiliate the objects of his own awe by making them venerate him.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Not to these shores she came! this other Thrace,
Environ barbarous to the royal Attic;
How could her delicate dirge run democratic,
Delivered in a cloudless boundless public place
To an inordinate race?”
—John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)