The surviving Beastie Boys and the city of New York will celebrate the renaming of Beastie Boys Square at the corner of Ludlow Street and Rivington Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Saturday, September 9th, the pioneering hip hop band confirmed on Wednesday.
The street corner was immortalized in Beastie Boys lore in 1989 when it was pictured in the cover art for the group’s sophomore album, Paul’s Boutique.
As the announcement of the street sign unveiling ceremony notes, “In association with the City of New York, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond will join Council Member Christopher Marte and fellow New Yorkers at the site of the Paul’s Boutique Album cover photo to commemorate the unveiling of Beastie Boys Square and 50 years of Hip Hop.”
The free, two-hour celebration will feature a “special guest DJ set” in addition to A-1 Records and Beastie Boys pop-up shops, live screen printing, and more.
The process of getting the street corner renamed in honor of Ad-Rock, Mike D, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch took nearly a decade to come to fruition. A group of fans initially made the request to New York City Council in 2013, but that and other previous attempts were unsuccessful. The request was finally approved on Thursday, July 14th, 2022, nine years after it was initially submitted.
The fight for the right to party rename the square for the Beastie Boys hinged on whether the group met the city’s guidelines, which include a “demonstrated and consistent voluntary commitment to the area,” according to Susan Stetzer of Manhattan’s Community Board 3, who voted not to approve the measure in 2019.
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One of the campaign’s main proponents was former Bad Boy Records representative LeRoy McCarthy, who also worked on the city’s recent The Notorious B.I.G. and Wu-Tang Clan street dedications. As McCarthy told the New York Post when the measure was passed last summer, “It has been a long road to get Beastie Boys Square accomplished, but I am happy to see New York government formally embracing the indigenous arts and culture of hip hop, and the street sign is very appropriate because hip-hop is from the NYC streets.”
Find more information about Saturday’s Beastie Boys Square unveiling ceremony below.
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