The Beastie Boys odyssey began in 1981 when Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Yauch (M.C.A.) decided to start a band, for the principal reason that all their friends had bands, so why shouldn't they? Together with Kate Schellenback (of Luscious Jackson) and John Berry, they started gigging at all the major clubs, including the now infamous CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, playing their own brand of hardcore punk rock to a small but faithful audience.

"They were just the same as they are now," recalled Schellenbach, the group's original drummer, "loud, obnoxious and ugly, and a lot of fun rather than a serious hardcore band. Whereas other bands, just as awful as the Beastie Boys, would actually believe they were good, for Mike and Adam the whole point was to be temble and to admit it." Later that year the group released their first record, the appropriately titled 7" EP, "Poly Wog Stew." Although the hardcore punk the band played bore little relation to the rap that would later make them famous, their attitude and approach was very much the same. And it was with typical good humor that group decided to celebrate their first release by breaking up.

When the group reformed in early 1983, it was with Adam Horovitz (Ad Rock) on guitar, and the new line-up went into tbe studio to record a followup to the EP. They emerged with Cookie Puss," a song inspired by the creation of New York soft ice cream mogul Tom Carvel. Essentiaily a joke hip-hop record, the single was an important turning point for the group: The record was embraced not onry by the downtown club crowd, but also attracted the attention of the rap community. The flip-side, "Beastie Revolution," was equally as important, if not so much for artistic reasons.
In 1984, Def Jam Records was formed, and thc Beastie Boys was one of their first signings. Now a threesome, Mike D (Mike Diamond), King Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) and MCA (Adam Yauch), went into the studio and produced "Rock Hard," one of the first teamimgs of rap and heavy metal on record. Simmons then sent them out to play thc black rap clubs figuring if they could get over there, they could make it anywhere. In this sink or swim situation, the Beastie Boys learned quickly, and their show benefited as a result. But nothing could have prepared them for what was to happen next.