After the Beastie Boys released Paul's Boutique, they wanted to spend a serious amount of time getting instrumental before their next album.

Their manager at the time recalls Ad-Rock getting outfitted for his guitar at Westwood Music. Apparently, Ad-Rock wanted a guitar with a finish like the one Bob Marley had- consideration of tone wasn't the primary motivation for selection.

At the time of the release of Check Your Head, not many people realized that the Beastie Boys actually knew how to play instruments before they started rapping. The cover of Check York Head (taken by famed photographer Glen Friedman) is supposed to evoke an instrument-armed Beastie Boys version of the Minor Threat Salad Days cover (which Friedman also shot).

view full location details...

When the Beastie Boys arrived in Los Angeles after leaving Def Jam Recordings in New York, they initially stayed on the ninth floor of the Modrian Hotel.

It was summertime, and across the street there were lines of people waiting to get into The Comedy Store. Never ones to let an opportunity pass, the BBoys decided to throw eggs at them from the ninth floor. This led to a series of "drive-by eggings, plaguing L.A." and is the subject of the Paul's Boutique song, "Egg Man."

view full location details...

Back when the Beastie Boys had their G-Sons Studio in Silver Lake, CA, Spike Jonze came over to check things out. Mike D, MCA, and Jonze went out to some thrift stores, a K-Mart, and this wig and beauty supply store. They bought a bunch of wigs and started to play around. By the next day they knew they were on to something...

They used the wigs (and the clothes) in the Spike Jonze-directed "Sabotage" video. For the video, they were all supposed to grow mustaches, but only Ad-Rock (the actor) ended up growing a real po-po 'stache.

At the 1994 MTV Video Awards, "Sabotage" was nominated for five different categories and lost in all of them.

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...

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...