After the Beastie Boys settled with British Airways for using a snippet of "Beastie Revolution" off their Cooky Puss EP in an ad without permission, they received a $40,000 payout. The first time the Beasties had any money, they moved into an apartment at this Chinese sweatshop building.
According to Adam Yauch (MCA), the apartment had something he had "...never seen before or since in any apartment anywhere in the world- the floor was actually laid blacktop. Somebody had rolled out tar on the floor- like from the street."
The apartment allowed them to play music anytime of day or night and generally party. At one point, a bullet went through the toaster oven from a gunshot upstairs. They ran upstairs and there was an old woman and nobody else in the room. They asked what happened, but she didn't speak English.
Yauch: "You know some crazy shit had just happened in that sweatshop and they had quickly covered it up- dragged the body out."
