The Beastie Boys were just on LL Cool J's Rock The Bells radio show.
During the chat, LL credited Ad-Rock with helping to discover him, and asked the Beastie to explain how it went down.
“So Rick Rubin produced a record with DJ Jazzy Jay and rapper T La Rock called ‘It’s Yours,'” Ad-Rock tells LL. “And it was a big record in a small circle — in a small scene in New York. Off of that record, people started sending demo tapes in because it was a rap record, and some kids started sending demos in. There was just an address on the record itself.
And it was actually — I’m sure nobody knew that [Rubin] lived in a college dorm room. And so he would get all these tapes, and there was a box of tapes. And instead of being at school, I would cut school and go to Rick’s dorm, and I’d hang out ... I would listen to the tapes, and I heard this one from this kid named LL Cool J. Which is already a weird name and it was really good. You were rapping. It was this kid, and I really liked it cause you can tell he was still in high school, and you were using all of these words like 'cumulus cloud.' And all the shit that you had just done for your homework ... and it had all of these big words that you only use in high school and was like 'This guy -- this kid's -- really good. You should meet this kid. So Rick listened to it and somehow contacted you."
Ad-Rock went on to say that LL, who was about 15, came to Rubin's dorm room and jumped on a beat Ad-Rock made, which became LL's first single "I Need A Beat." The rest is history.