It marked the addition of DMC champion Mix Master Mike to the group's line-up,[2] and was the last time the band worked with percussionist Eric Bobo or a co-producer.

One of the cassette formats was packaged for a limited run by BioBox in a small cardboard box, rather than a clear plastic case, in an attempt to distinguish the retail product and augment sales.

Caroline Sullivan, writing for The Guardian, named it the "Pop CD of the Week" and said it "fills a gap created by the current profusion of serious rock bands like Radiohead; elbowing its way up front, [and letting] rip with adolescent vigour.

[15] Although AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt the album's ending was "a little anticlimactic", he also saw Hello Nasty as a progressive step forward from the group's 1992 LP Check Your Head and praised the contributions of the group's new recruit, Mix Master Mike: "Hiring DJ Mixmaster Mike turned out to be a masterstroke; he and the Beasties created a sound that strongly recalls the spare electronic funk of the early '80s, but spiked with the samples and post-modern absurdist wit that have become their trademarks.

"[2] In his review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne highlighted the album's multi-genre sound as its most engaging aspect: Hello Nasty is a sonic smorgasbord in which the Beasties gorge themselves with reckless abandon.