History Trivia / BeastieBoys

* UncreditedRole: Music/RunDMC contributed ghostwritten lyrics to ''Music/LicensedToIll''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The outtakes from ''Licensed to Ill'' have never been officially released, including a cover of Music/TheBeatles' "I'm Down" and a song called "The Scenario," though the latter did make a brief appearance in the Creator/ChristianSlater movie ''Film/PumpUpTheVolume''.

* WagTheDirector: The music video for "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" was originally supposed to feature [[Music/{{Slayer}} Kerry King]] (who performed the guitar solo) getting knocked offstage by a gorilla. King's response was "If there’s gonna be anyone knocking anyone offstage, it'll be me knocking the gorilla", which is what subsequently happened.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Not long after MCA's death, various obituaries of his directorial alter-ego Nathaniel Hornblower appeared on fan websites.

* CreatorBacklash: The Beasties stopped performed "Fight For Your Right" live after 1987, think it "sucks" and are annoyed that its ironic, sarcastic nature was lost on its intended target of fratboys.

** ''Licensed to Ill'' was originally called ''Don't Be a Faggot''. Columbia Records refused to publish it under that title. The Beastie Boys [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools were quite thankful for this meddling in retrospect.]]

** "Rock Hard", their first Def Jam single, was quickly withdrawn due to an unlicensed sample of "Back In Black" by Music/{{ACDC}}. The Beastie Boys wanted to include it on the ''Sounds Of Science'' compilation, which would have been the first time the song was officially available on digital formats... They were denied permission by AC/DC.
* OfficialFanSubmittedContent: The live DVD ''Awesome:I Fuckin' Shot That'' was created by giving fans at a show camcorders and cutting together the best footage.

* PermanentPlaceholder: Their cover of "Time For Livin'" by Sly and the Family Stone: They wrote a HardcorePunk style instrumental and struggled with the lyrics, so they had Ad Rock shout Sly Stone lyrics over it as a placeholder until they came up with something original. In the end they just put it on the album as is and credited Sly Stone as a co-writer.

** The original idea behind the self-produced full-band sessions that led to ''Aglio E Olio'' was to write and record a few short songs in the HardcorePunk genre to include on what was to become ''Hello Nasty'', much like how the previous two albums included some brief throwbacks to their earlier sound. They ended up coming up with more songs than planned, so rather than throw any out or leave them for {{B Side}}s, they split all the hardcore songs into a separate EP. Though ''Hello Nasty'' has its moments of Main/GenreRoulette, it's still kind of hard to imagine any of the ''Aglio E Olio'' material fitting in.
** After ''Licensed To Ill'' became successful, there was a small trend of rap groups getting their own movies (Run-DMC in ''Tougher Than Leather'', The Fat Boys in ''Disorderlies''), so the Beastie Boys were going to have their own movie too: Titled ''Scared Stupid'', it would have been a slapstick comedy set in a haunted house. A script was written by Tom Cushman, a friend of the group, but it was never produced- according to Cushman, by the time they got a studio's interest, the group had fallen out with Rick Rubin; Rubin still owned the rights to their music and wouldn't let any of their songs be used in the film.

According to the Beasties themselves, ** They are apparently not fond of their early [=EPs=] and singles, given that they eventually re-released them on a compilation entitled ''Some Old Bullshit'' [[note]]They seem to at least have some affection for their early song "Egg Raid On Mojo" though - they included a lyrical reference to it in "Egg Man", occasionally played it live even after becoming primarily a hip-hop group, and it's one of two songs from this period to appear on the band-curated compilation ''Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science'' (the other one being their namesake song)[[/note]].

* CreatorBacklash: The Beasties haven't performed "Fight For Your Right" live since 1987, think it "sucks" and are annoyed that its ironic, sarcastic nature was lost on its intended target of fratboys.

* OldShame: According to the Beasties themselves, ''Licensed to Ill''. Their early [=EPs=] and singles also fit into this category, given that they eventually re-released them on a compilation entitled ''Some Old Bullshit'' [[note]]They seem to at least have some affection for their early song "Egg Raid On Mojo" though - they included a lyrical reference to it in "Egg Man", occasionally played it live even after becoming primarily a hip-hop group, and it's one of two songs from this period to appear on the band-curated compilation ''Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science'' (the other one being their namesake song)[[/note]]. They also regretted their party-boy antics when they hit it big, and cut out misogyny in their later albums.
** They consider their first Def Jam single "Rock Hard" cheesy and amateurish in terms of lyrics and vocal delivery. The official autobiography ''Beastie Boys Book'' has a short chapter discussing the single, which ends with the lyrics cited in their entirety- in the audiobook Adam Horovitz can't get through reading them without laughing.
** Adam Horovitz starred as a troubled teen in 1989 indie drama ''Lost Angels'', his first acting credit - in ''Beastie Boys Book'' he half-jokingly suggests fans ''not'' look it up online; he enjoyed the process of making the film but finds his performance embarrassing.

* ReferencedBy:
** In the rebooted ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'' universe, the Beastie Boys are James T. Kirk's favorite music. Their music is considered "classical" in the 23rd century according to ''Film/StarTrekBeyond''; the InUniverse PopCulturalOsmosis goes to the point that even ''Spock'' recognizes it as such.
** The group also appears in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' as preserved heads (before MCA's real-life death) that are still performing.
** ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'' introduces a character named Ello Asty. The ExpandedUniverse ensured that [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Abednedo#Behind_the_scenes every other member of his race is a Beastie Boys reference as well.]]

** Later on, the members of the band would collaborate on an unproduced script called ''We Can Do This'' with film and music video director Spike Jonze. Jonze had just directed the "Sabotage" video, and it seems that the movie would have been an excuse for the band to have more fun with acting out alter-egos: Adam Yauch would play both his "Sabotage" character Sir Stuart Wallace and Nathaniel Hornblower, while apparently Mike D's "Country Mike" alter-ego was born out of the same script.

** After ''Licensed To Ill'' became successful, there was a small trend of rap groups getting their own movies (Run-DMC in ''Tougher Than Leather'', The Fat Boys in ''Disorderlies''), so the Beastie Boys were going to have their own movie too: Titled ''Scared Stupid'', it would have been a slapstick comedy set in a haunted house. A script was written by Tom Cushman, a friend of the group, but it was never produced- according to Cushman, by the time they got a studio's interest, the group had fallen out with Rick Rubin; Rubin still owned the rights to their music and wouldn't let any of their songs be used in the film. A possibly apocryphal rumor had them working with Creator/SpikeJonze on ''We Can Do This'', a film supposedly based on their 70s cop show alter egos from the "Sabotage" music video - unlike ''Scared Stupid'' it's never officially been mentioned by the band.

* ReferencedBy: In the rebooted ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'' universe, the Beastie Boys are James T. Kirk's favorite music. Their music is considered "classical" in the 23rd century according to ''Film/StarTrekBeyond''; the InUniverse PopCulturalOsmosis goes to the point that even ''Spock'' recognizes it as such.