Area was a themed nightclub that was extremely popular in downtown Manhattan in the 1980's. The theme of the club would change every six weeks, and the interior would be redecorated to reflect the new theme: specific themes included "Night" (with a masked welder), "Surrealism", "Suburbia", "Red", and "Gnarly" (with skate ramps and boarders.

New York artist (and former boyfriend of Madonna) Jean-Michel Basquiat displayed his work here. Andy Warhol often mention Area in his diaries.

When the Beastie Boys were making the transition from a hardcore band to a hip-hop band, they were hanging out with Rick Rubin quite a bit. After Beasties drummer Kate Schellenbach returned from an out-of-town trip one weekend, she went to Area and saw the members of the Beastie Boys. Rubin had purchased the boys (MCA, Ad-Rock, and Mike D) matching red Adidas sweat suits and sneakers. Kate was not given a suit, and it became clear she was not welcome in the new group.

Kate S. later played drums for the band Luscious Jackson.

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Rogue Music is a vintage instrument dealer that has been operating in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan since 1983.

The Beastie Boys had gotten a chunk of settlement money after British Airways had used their song "Beastie Revolution" from the Cooky Puss single in an ad without clearing it. With some of the money, Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys bought a Roland TR-808 drum machine at Rogue Music in the early 80's.

Ad-Rock then used that drum machine to create the beats for LL Cool J's first single, "I Need a Beat."

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Trude Heller's was a venue at the SE corner of 6th Ave and 9th St from the early 60's to the early 80's. Named after the proprietor, Heller also owned a record label, Tru-Glo-Town Records.

Joey Dee and the Starliters played at Trude Heller's (when Peter Criss was drumming, later to play with Kiss).

A Variety column from 1968 wrote, "Salvador Dali showed up at Trude Heller's Greenwich Village fruggery with his pet ocelot for his date."

The Beastie Boys played here with Reagan Youth and Even Worse in 1980. HR from Bad Brains saw them perform, and asked the Beastie Boys to open up for Bad Brains for the final night of Max's Kansas City.

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Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights, NYC is a private school with rigorous programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Students do not receive grades at Saint Ann's, but receive full-page anecdotal reports for each individual.

In a 2004 survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Saint Ann's was rated the number one high school in the country for having the highest percentage of graduating seniors enroll in Ivy League colleges.

Beastie Boy Mike D attended the school, as did filmmaker Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture, and the HBO series Girls).

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The Kitchen is a New York art space that has existed in three different locations from 1971 to the present. It originated as a video art gallery, but evolved into a plastic and performance space, and eventually into a non-profit arts organization.

In the early 80's, the Beastie Boys first met Rick Rubin (hip-hop producer and founder of Def Jam Records) during an art show at this Kitchen location (its second home from 1973–1986). Rubin was hired as the Beastie Boys DJ, under the handle DJ Double R. Rubin would go on to produce the Beastie Boys debut LP, Licensed to Ill.

The Beastie Boys gave one of their early performances at The Kitchen on December 12, 1983

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