The Beastie Boys were reading the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods while they were on their first tour. They read about the Zep-"mudshark" incident and decided to stay at the Edgewater.

The Beastie Boys tried to go fishing, but by the mid-80's all of the fish were gone. So they threw all their furniture out their window and into the Puget Sound.

view full location details...

Located in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, Oscilloscope Laboratories is the office and studio space for the Beastie Boys. Also included at the location are the film production/distribution offices of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which has released (and re-released) a number of films under the direction of MCA (Adam Yauch).

The Beastie Boy albums To the 5 Boroughs, The Mix-Up, and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two were all recorded at Oscilloscope Laboratories.

view full location details...

Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock)'s mother, Doris Keefe Horovitz, owned and operated the Gee, The Kids Need Clothes Store at this location in the West Village. Unique in that there were not many stores that sold children's clothes, let alone affordable and second-hand clothes, Doris was well-loved in the neighborhood. Parents and kids could walk out of the store with armloads of clothes for practically nothing, and runaways were helped with no questions asked.

As a neighborhood writer recalls, "...the interior was painted a bright yellow, and there was probably a mural or at least stencils of some sort decorating the walls. It had that happy sunny kid-friendly feel, and how I loved going in to try on clothes."

Doris attended all of Adam's shows, and the album Licensed to Ill is dedicated to her memory.

view full location details...

Adam Yauch (MCA) first met John Berry (the first guitarist for the Beastie Boys) at Tier 3. Yauch was a distinct figure: tall, lanky, trenchcoat, and combat boots.

At the time, John Berry was in a band called the Young Aborigines with Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Kate Schellenbach (later Luscious Jackson). Berry soon introduced Yauch to the group, and they went on to form the Beastie Boys.

view full location details...

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."

view full location details...