Beastie Boys – NYC Street Corner Named After Band

In keeping up with the tradition of us not telling you first, but telling you better, yesterday, the corner of Ludlow and Rivington on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was renamed “Beastie Boy Square. If you didn’t know, Ludlow and Rivington was the block featured on the album “Paul’s Boutique.”

The city has a minor history of naming real estate after musicians. Here are a few examples. Joey Ramone Place and Duke Ellington Boulevard in Manhattan, and Run DMC JMJ Way in Hollis, Queens. Then there’s Liam Sweeny Parkway in the Bronx (I just wrote that on a map. Yeah, paper maps still exist.)

But this wasn’t just a “what the hell” from the Division of Naming Streets after Cool Bands (look it up.) This started in 2012 when Adam “MCA” Yauch passed. Fans rose up and wanted this corner to be immortalized to the Beastie Boys in his honor, and it has been eleven years and they have finally finished the great fight for their right to party. (I really don’t know what they’ll do on that corner.)

“Paul’s Boutique” was the second Beastie Boys studio album, after “License to Ill.” It came out in 1989, three years after License and didn’t hit as big, but did you hear License? How to you top that? It did hit 14 in the Billboard 200. It was a success, and if it wasn’t, the cover pic wouldn’t have turned into Beastie Boy Square, that’s for sure.

The two remaining Beastie Boys, Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) were in attendance, and found melatonin to be ineffective on their trip to the after-party in Brooklyn. Said after-party was reportedly amazing, and rekindled a long-lost friendship between the remaining Beastie Boys and the Intergalactic Planetary Consortium, whose delegates left their probes on the ship, avoiding a sore subject for all parties.

So, go to Beastie Boys Square and get your groove on (but, you know, people live there and s**t.)Beastie