Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond of the Beastie Boys were on hand this weekend to help celebrate the naming of the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets on New York City’s Lower East Side -- now officially known as “Beastie Boys Square.”
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Thanks to the hard work of historian LeRoy McCarthy -- who has also taken part in the renaming of other NYC locations in honor of Biggie, Tupac, and Wu-Tang Clan -- the iconic location, made famous on the cover of the Beasties’ 1989 album, Paul’s Boutique, was named after years of planning and final approval from the New York City Council last year.
“I want to thank everyone that loves Beastie Boys music,” Ad-Rock told the crowd of fans gathered, although he did admit the entire ordeal felt “f***ing weird” and “f***ing awesome." He also admitted, "I don’t really understand why, but I know that I love it. So in a way, that makes us kind of friends, like we bonded over these weird records. So, thank you.”
Inserting a bit of humility into their landmark occasion, Horovitz added, “We walk around these streets and we don’t really think about who they’re named after, like Ludlow Street, Irving Street, Father Demo Square... But it makes me really happy to know that some kid on their way to school 50 years from now is gonna pass by this and look up and be like, ‘What the f*** is a Beastie Boy, and why the f*** do they have a square?’”
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Diamond explained that although he, Horovitz, and the late Adam Yauch (MCA) -- who passed in 2012 at the age of 47 after battling cancer -- were each from different parts of the city, they always viewed the LES area as a “cool place that we wanted to go and hang out... Now here we are all those years later. Thank you so much for everything,” he said. At the end of the ceremony, Mike D honored MCA saying, “He was our brother on this amazing journey that we all got to go through.”
Take a look at the batch of photos the Beasties shared from the event below.
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