You gotta fight for your right to have a street corner named after you. And theBeastie Boyscertainly proved they deserve it.
The surviving members of the legendary rap group — Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond — were celebrated on Saturday as a street corner in New York City’s Lower East Side was officially named after them.
The unveiling of the Beastie Boys Square sign took place on the corner of Ludlow and Rivington, over three decades after the intersection appeared on the cover of their1989 LPPaul’s Boutique.
Horovitz — who called the experience “f—ing awesome” — also took a moment to thank council members and the city of New York “for teaching us what to look at, what to listen to, what to wear, how to love, how to live.”
Diamond, 57, told the crowd Saturday that the honor was a “multiyear battle,” as he saluted the specific neighborhood in New York for being a “cool place that we wanted to go and hang out.”
“The second we heard rap music, it was so revolutionary and so exciting, the fact that we somehow got to go from being literally kids listening to every hip-hop record, mixtape, song we could possibly try to memorize every word, thinking that we’d be able to actually make a rap record, and go on to make those rap records, and now here we are all those years later, thank you so much for everything," he said, perRolling Stone.
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The Instagram account for theBeastie Boys Square initiativecelebrated the good news over the weekend, writing that “the fight was right.”
“Happy 50th Anniversary to Hip Hop, and thank you Beastie Boys for your significant contribution to the art & culture.”
The honor comes over 11 years after the loss of Beastie Boys member Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died in 2012 after athree-year battlewith cancer at age 47. It also follows several celebrations of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary last month, as the genre and culture celebrated the major milestone.
Over 30 musicians reflected on hip-hop’s 50th anniversary last month in conversation with PEOPLE, with rap legendSlick Rickcalling it “the pulpit of the people.”
“Personally for me, career milestones are never one set moment,” he said. “It’s about the continuous flow of being able to express myself through telling stories, be it on wax or streaming or even the shoes and clothes I wear or jewelry selection that enhance the presentation.”
source: people.com
