Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
You can now officially call the corner of Ludlow and Rivington Beastie Boys Square on the Lower East Side.
On Saturday afternoon, the city unveiled the new street blade during a ceremony that included remarks from founding members Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz.
The two NYC natives seem humbled by the honor, and expressed their gratitude to the city for making them who they are today. (You can watch the ceremony via the Beastie Boys' YouTube account.)
"We could not have ever been what we have become without growing up in New York City and hearing all this incredible music, being around all this incredible art, being just around all these incredible people that's only in New York City," Mike D said.
"Thank you for teaching us what to look at, what to listen to, what to wear, how to love, how to live," Ad-Rock said before delivering the afternoon's best line. "It makes me really happy to know that some kid on the way to school 50 years from now is gonna look up and say, 'What the fuck is a Beastie Boy? Why do they get a square?'"
The ceremony included a tribute to Adam "MCA" Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012. Said Mike D: "He was our brother on this amazing journey that we all got to go through."
This corner played a starring role on the cover of the group's iconic 1989 album Paul's Boutique.
LeRoy McCarthy had been behind this effort and kept with it even after Community Board 3 voted 24 to 1 to reject the Beastie Boys Square application in January 2014. CB3 also reportedly barred McCarthy from reapplying for the street naming for five years.
McCarthy — sporting a "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" t-shirt on a fire escape above the ceremony — received props from the crowd...
Despite the swampy weather, people packed the corner for the event, which also commemorated 50 years of hip-hop.
Here are a few scenes from the crowd...
... and the moment it became official...
You can read this post for more about the new mural here by Brooklyn-based artist Danielle Mastrion
