Beastie Boys — Original Home Studios, New York

The Beastie Boys — Michael 'Mike D' Diamond, Adam 'MCA' Yauch, and Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horovitz — emerged from the New York hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s before becoming one of the most important groups in hip hop history. Their early rehearsal space at 59 Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side was a loft where they transitioned from punk to rap, a shift that would produce Licensed to Ill (1986), the first hip hop album to top the Billboard 200. The Lower East Side — then a rough, affordable neighbourhood of squatters, artists, and musicians — was the backdrop for their entire early career.

The Beastie Boys' significance extends far beyond their commercial success. Paul's Boutique (1989), recorded with the Dust Brothers, is considered one of the greatest and most innovative albums in any genre — a psychedelic collage of hundreds of samples that could never be made again due to subsequent changes in copyright law. Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) saw the group playing their own instruments again, fusing hip hop, punk, funk, and jazz. Adam Yauch's growing political activism — including his organisation of Tibetan Freedom Concerts — added a dimension that set the Beastie Boys apart from virtually every other act in hip hop.

Adam Yauch (MCA) died of cancer on May 4, 2012, at the age of 47. A section of Palmetto Playground at the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets on the Lower East Side was renamed Beastie Boys Square in 2022. The surviving members have said the group will not continue without Yauch.