In today's context, the Dust Brothers are a famous production duo comprised of John King and Mike Simpson. This was not always the case though...a step back into Beastie Boys history would reveal that at one point the Dust Brothers were in fact a trinity, which included a brilliant man by the name of Matt Dike. Matt's last name has been alternately spelled "Dyke" in print sources such as the Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science. For the sake of argument, this Who's Who entry will maintain that the correct spelling is "Dike."

The following quotes were selected to set the tone for just how important Matt was to the formation of what we now know as Paul's Boutique.

"We flew out to Los Angeles to meet with a couple of different record labels. While we were out there, Mike and I stopped by our friend Matt Dike's house. He was working with these two guys by the names of Easy Mike and Giz (later to be known as the Dust Brothers). Matt played us some of the music that they were working on. He played us a whole bunch of instrumentals. It sounded incredible...Soon after, we began working together. At first we were going to try doing just two songs with them. Our plan was to do a lot of work with different producers, but as we began to work with Matt, EZ, and Giz, things really began to click. We ended up doing our entire second album with them, Paul's Boutique." Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science liner notes.

"I went to this party in Los Angeles in early 1988 and they were playing this music like I don't know, like four breakbeat records playing at the same time. I was talking to this guy I just met that was friends of friends of mine, Matt Dike. I asked him what the music was, and he said that he had made it. Him and these two other guys, the Dust Brothers had been making these hip-hop tracks with all these ill loops...So basically we just stayed in Los Angeles and made a million songs with them that became the Paul's Boutique record." Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science liner notes.

"Matt Dike had most of the musical elements (of the song "Hey Ladies"), the guitar part and the beats. We were listening to it at home at the bummy little studio in the front of Matt's apartment where we did most of the pre-production wand even some of the actual tracking for Paul's Boutique." Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science liner notes.

"It was Matt's idea. He loved those guys (the Beastie Boys) and wanted to work with them. He found out they weren't working with Rick...So he sent them a tape with a couple of Dust Brothers demos and they heard it, liked it, and came over to Matt's one night." Mario Caldato Jr. (when asked 'So how did you hook up for Paul's Boutique?') from issue #2 of Grand Royal Magazine.

As a former founding member of the Dust Brothers and co-creator of the Delicious Vinyl record label, Matt Dike has produced some of hip-hop's most recognizable songs. He co-wrote and co-produced the incredibly influential Paul's Boutique and also co-wrote, produced and mixed classic hits like "Funky Cold Medina" and "Wild Thing" for Tone Loc and "Bust A Move" for Young MC. More recently he has branched out and also worked with Aerosmith on their song "Take Me to the Other Side", as well as Insane Clown Posse on "Halls of Illusion" and Barenaked Ladies on "Alcohol."

A once small, or "closet" operation, Delicious Vinyl has consistently delivered the phattest, most bombastic beats, scratches, samples, rhymes, and grooves that cannot be faded in any debatable context. In the early days of 1987, Michael Ross and partner Matt Dike were peepin' the newest urban tracks to hit wax as DJ's in the KDAY era of Los Angeles, CA. The ironic idea of two white DJ's from LA's Power Tools club starting a hip-hop label, root-down with a heavy go-go influence and a strong bias for early Ohio Players and Trouble Funk records was soon to become the indie label success story of the decade. Ross and Dike recruited hip-hop DJ Orlando Aguillen to head up the street and radio promotion. The "swapmeet" style of record promotion and distribution similar to the "Homies Shopping Network" that Delicious Vinyl demonstrated created a legit avenue to deliver rap and hip-hop to the kids on the street at every corner of Los Angeles.

The closet/apartment 8-track studio that Ross, Dike and in-house engineer Mario Caldato Jr. assembled became the conduit for some of the phattest hip-hop jams known today. "Dike scraped together some cash to buy an SP 1200, and that was the turning point for us as producers. After that point, we coincidentally hooked up with Tone Loc. We gave him some beats and he wrote some rhymes and it kinda started like that," says Mike Ross.

After making a major distribution deal with Island Records in 1988 and releasing hit records like Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" from the double platinum album Loc'd After Dark (1989) and Young MC's multi-platinum debut Stone Cold Rhymin' (1989) featuring the hit single "Bust A Move," Delicious was unloading phat hip-hop bombs to radio, MTV, and clubs around the world. New and raw talent would enter Delicious Vinyl to record a record and, soon after its release, these nubile new artists would quickly become high rollers in the music scene. Blowin' up worldwide, Delicious Vinyl showcased new careers for their early roster of Tone Loc, Young MC, Def Jef, Mellow Man Ace, and Body and Soul.

The 1990's introduced the next phase in the Delicious Vinyl sound. The Pharcyde rode in on their bugged-out, flippin' and trippin' West Coast lyrical style to inadvertently turn the rap scene upside down. They busted out "freaky-ass lyrical jiu-jitsu," on everyone with their debut gold album Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde in 1993. The Pharcyde soon became the essential rapping ingredients that every other rap group had to follow. In 1995, Delicious Vinyl released The Pharcyde's second album Labcabincalifornia, an extended collection of beats, lyrics and mad visions. The success of The Pharcyde's videos such as "Passin' Me By," "Ya Mama," and "Drop" demonstrated the outta-control vibes that resonated from the group. "Drop," the Spike Jonze directed video (which featured Beastie Boys Mike D and Adrock), flipped people out by creating a backwards/rewind-style video from start to finish. (Quoted from the Delicious Vinyl website)

Matt Dike then went on to work for the Waxploitation productions company whose line-up of talent is awe-inspiring. So although John King and Mike Simpson often get mentioned more often in the press, Matt is still keeping plenty busy with the work he gets through Waxploitation. Perhaps someday Mike, Matt, and John will reunite to remix a Beastie Boys' song or produce an entire album. Until that day comes, Beastie Boys fan will continue to wear out their vinyl copies of Paul's Boutique.