Diamond: I did go [to Vassar] for a semester, and it was hard. I had to go [to my mom] and say, ‘It’s a total waste of your money and my time, because all I want to do is be in this band.’ Rick and Russell were like, ‘You’re gonna make a video for She’s On It.’ And in our minds, we were the biggest deal in the entire world. Our friends might not have agreed. But you know what I mean—all of a sudden we were making a video, and it started to get shown. We were big on the local video channel U68.

Ross: They went up to perform at the Apollo, and Beastie Boys shows at this point were a little haphazard at best. But by the second song, Mike D’s doing the Jerry Lewis, and the whole Apollo Theater is going, ‘Go, white boys! Go, white boys!’ In my head I’m like, ‘My friends are gonna be famous!’

Horovitz: And then the Madonna tour happened. We did like three songs, and then I did the electric boogaloo for a minute, and then we fucked with the audience. They hated us. Kids literally in tears, parents wanting to kill us. It was awesome. They wanted to kick us off the tour, and Madonna was like, ‘These guys are staying, these guys are great.’ We got back to New York, and we were really feeling ourselves. We were crushing our old spots.”