From Start To Finish by Scott Mehno

What a year it has been for the three unassuming Beastie Boys. Their License To III album was the first rap record to hit No.1 on Billboard magazine's pop charts, and was the highest selling debut LP in Columbia Records' history. Now the Beasties are in the middle of making their first movie, Scared Stupid and are writing songs for their next LP due sometime early next year. With all their success however, Mike D (Mike Diamond) Adrock (Adam Horovitz) and MCA (Adam Yauch) claim they haven't changed a bit.

"We're the same jerks we've always been. The only difference is we used to get thrown out of places and now we get a decent table," says Mike D. The Beastie Boys earned their reputation as the bad boys of rock a few years back when they bopped around New York's East Village as a struggling punk band. The boys were all under age then and had a hard time getting gigs.

"We got tired of the hardcore scene. It was very negative. The rap scene is a lot better because the rappers all have more camaraderie with each other," says Mike D.

The group soon met up with producer Rick Rubin, who had been struggling himself, trying to find clubs that would let him deejay. The Beasties and Rubin banded toaether with one goal in mind: to mix their brand of rock and rap into one musical formula.

"Rick became our manager and deejay. Then we met Russell Simmons (manager of Run-DMC and Run's brother) and he took us all under his wing," says Mike D. "People still hated us, but we liked what we were doing."

The biggest break came when Madonna asked the Beasties to open up on her U.S. Tour. "It was thousands of screaming girls telling us to get lost," says Mike D. Press reports covering their lead-off stint weren't much better. One writer called them "a pimple on the face of the music industry." The Beastie Boys were not dismayed, however.

"Someone wrote that we were the Three Stooges on acid," says MCA. "That's a pretty good description of our show."

The tour response did not buoy Columbia's expectations, however, and when the company released the group's first album this past fall, they only sent out 100,000 copies. "Those sold out so fast," says Mike D, "they ordered another hundred, then two hundred more went on order. Pretty soon Columbia started saying, 'what's going on here?' They didn't believe people wanted to hear the Beastie Boys."

The group is quick to point out that the success of rap mentors Run-DMC paved the way for the Beasties' own success story. "They're the best," says the brass-knuckled Adrock. "We toured with them a lot so they're also our best friends."

Rumors of the Beasties wreaking havoc on their own License To III tour follow them everywhere. Stories of flooded hotel rooms, beer bashes, food fights and even a report that they were fishing out of their hotel window, circulated throughout their U.S. roadshow. Mike D just laughs. "It's a wild tour. Some of these kids in the south just couldn't believe us when they saw us on stage. It's pretty different down there."

Executives at Budweiser were also angered by the Beasties' tour. The backdrop to the stage set consisted of oversized replicas of the trademarked beer can. The Beastie Boys had not asked for permission. "Hey, we drink their beer. We thought they wouldn't mind us letting everybody know," says Mike D.

One thing the group does not joke about is their fans. "We have the most mixed group of fans of any tour out there. We get an equal share of black kids and white kids, which is what is so great about rap and rock merging," says Mike D. He says the problem concerning violence at rap concerts is exaggerated and aims to prove it with what he calls "the biggest Beastie event ever".

"We're playing with Run-DMC at Madison Square Garden, he says. "Everyone is going to come and there won't be one fight. We're out to prove to the cynical people that everyone can hang out and party and do it without violence."