After the release of Paul's Boutique, Capitol Records dumped their support for the Beasties tour that was supposed to follow the album in favor of "a Donny Osmond project."

With some extra time on their hands, the members of the band picked up the instruments they had shelved in favor of sampling on previous albums. They began by practicing at each other's apartments, then moved to this rehearsal space for several months before they rented and converted the space that became G-Son Studios.

The change from sampling other records to creating their own may have been at least partly financial. As Beasties producer/engineer recalled, "after [Beastie Boys] did Paul's Boutique, we realized we had spent a lot of money in the studio. We had spent about a $250,000 in rights and licensing for samples." Shortly after the Biz Markie vs Gilbert O'Sullivan case, the age of hip-hop sampling had sunsetted.

The subsequent album (3 years later) was the Beastie Boys Check Your Head.

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The photo on the cover of the Beastie Boys album Ill Communication was shot by acclaimed photographer Bruce Davidson at Tiny Naylor's on the corner of Sunset and La Brea in 1964. It was originally part of a set of photos intended for Esquire magazine that were never published.

The drive-in restaurant, an example of California's futurist Googie architecture, was opened by the 6'4" 320 lbs. W.W. Naylor in the 1950s. It closed in the '80s and was torn down to make way for a strip mall after a proposal failed that would have designated it as a cultural landmark.

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Dave Parsons selling records on the street in the days before he started Rat Cage records.

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Footage of the Beastie Boys performing at the Reseda Country Club (now closed) in September 1989 was used for the video for "Shadrach." This performance was one of the few live shows by the Beasties in support of Paul's Boutique.

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The Beastie Boys rented this house in Los Angeles while working on Paul's Boutique after their stint at the Mondrian Hotel. The G-Spot nickname came from the large gold "G" on the front of the building which presumably stood for the house's owner Marilyn Grasshoff. They would end up raiding her closet for the '70s clothes they wore in the video for "Hey Ladies."

The photo of the Beastie Boys underwater was shot by photographer Ricky Powell from Ad-Rock's underground guesthouse bedroom that featured a window into the swimming pool.

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