May
Def Jam recordings release
the 12" single "Hold It Now Hit It." The Beastie Boys proceed to promote the album's release by performing at a few concerts during the last week of May. These performances, all on the East Coast of the United States, provide the group with an opprotunity to practice the new songs before hitting the road on the Raising Hell Tour.
June
Joining the other opening acts:
Whodini,
Timex Social Club, and
LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys perform their three song set comprised of "Hold It Now Hit It", "Slow and Low," and "She's On It" night after night before the Raising Hell tour's headliners Run DMC take the stage.
Profile records releases the Cro-Mags album entitled The Age of Quarrel in 1986. After touring in 1986 with heavy metal bands including Megadeath, members John Berry and Mackie Jayson leave the band.
July
After suffering through a killer hot day in Miami, FL on July 11th,
Dr. Dre decides to rest in the hotel lobby before the buses leave for the next stop on the Raising Hell Tour. He awakes to find that the Beastie Boys left without him. Luckily he catches a ride on the Whodini tour bus, but decides that his stead as DJ for the Beastie Boys is over.
Wendell (DJ Hurricane) Fite, who at the time was working as tour body guard for
Run DMC, takes over behind the wheels of the steel and finishes off the tour.
October
Rick Rubin finds himself working long days and nights on the
Run DMC movie "Tougher than Leather." The direction of the movie is more street, and less Hollywood than it predecessor "Krush Groove." The "Tougher Than Leather" movie soundtrack promises to be as large as the film, with songs like the Beastie Boys'
"Desperado" and Run DMC's "Mary, Mary."
November
After touring across the United States and Europe, the Beastie Boys return to New York. Meanwhile the rest of the world braces for the impact of Licensed to Ill hitting store shelves. One of those embracing the new album is 18 year old
Eric Bobo, future precusionist for the Beastie Boys, who at the time is a freshman at Cal State in Los Angeles, CA. Eric is not alone, high school and college kids across America are popping the Licensed to Ill cassette into their walkmans and discovering the Beastie Boys for the first time.
With MTV begging for a
"(You gotta) Fight For Your Right to Party!" music video, Rick Rubin finances a $20,000 video (directed by
Adam Dubin and Ric Menello) shoot over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend (November 27, 28, and 29th). The Beastie Boys invite a room full of friends over to
Sunny Bak's studio and on short notice they record one of MTV's all time most popular music videos.
