Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success, followed by Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), The Mix-Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).

Berry left the group in 1982 (later forming Thwig, Big Fat Love and Bourbon Deluxe) and was replaced by Horovitz, who had become close friends with the Beastie Boys.

The band also recorded and then performed its first hip hop track, "Cooky Puss", based on a prank call by the group to a Carvel Ice Cream franchise in 1983.

[17] It was a part of the new lineup's first EP, also called Cooky Puss, which was the first piece of work that showed their incorporation of the underground rap phenomenon and the use of samples.

[22] On July 22, 1986, the Beastie Boys opened for John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd.,[23] They headlined with Fishbone and Murphy's Law with DJ Hurricane, and later in the year the group was on the Raising Hell tour with Run-DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, and the Timex Social Club.

This culminated in a notorious gig at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, England, on May 30, 1987, that erupted into a riot approximately 10 minutes after the group hit the stage and the arrest of Adam Horovitz by Merseyside Police.

The addition of instruments and the harder rock sound of the album could be considered a precursor to the nu metal genre of music to come out in the later half of the 1990s.

Also in 1993, the band contributed the track "It's the New Style" (with DJ Hurricane) to the AIDS benefit album No Alternative, produced by the Red Hot Organization.

[25] The single "Sabotage" became a hit on the modern rock charts and the music video, directed by Spike Jonze, received extensive play on MTV.

In addition, the band performed three concerts (in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C.) to raise money for the Milarepa Fund and dedicated the royalties from "Shambala" and "Bodhisattva Vow" from Ill Communication to the cause.

In 1996, Yauch organized the largest rock benefit show since 1985's Live Aid – the Tibetan Freedom Concert, a two-day festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that attracted over 100,000 attendees.

[47] In 1995, the popularity of the Beastie Boys was underlined when tickets for an arena tour went on sale in the US and Madison Square Garden and Chicago's Rosemont Horizon sold out within 30 minutes.

[citation needed] In 1992, the Beastie Boys decided to sample portions of the sound recording of "Choir" by James Newton in various renditions of their song "Pass the Mic".

[51] The Beastie Boys began work on the album Hello Nasty at the G-Son studios, Los Angeles in 1995, but continued to produce and record it in New York City after Yauch moved to Manhattan in 1996.

[53] Released on July 14, 1998, Hello Nasty earned first week sales of 681,000 in the US[54] and went straight to number 1 in the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden.

[65] The Beastie Boys used both appearances at the Video Music Awards to make politically charged speeches of considerable length to the sizable MTV audiences.

Through Ian C. Rogers,[68] the band made live downloads of their performances available for their fans, but were temporarily thwarted when Capitol Records removed them from its website.

[70][63] The group got a high level of response and public awareness as a result including a published article in The Wall Street Journal on the band's efforts.

On May 1, 2007, this was further cemented by an e-mail sent to those on the band's mailing list – explicitly stating that the album would be all instrumental: OK, here's our blurb about our new album—it spits hot fire!—hot shit!

The Beastie Boys performed at the UK leg of Live Earth July 7, 2007 at Wembley Stadium, London with "Sabotage", "So What'cha Want", "Intergalactic", and "Sure Shot".

[95] They worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, on their 2007 summer tour,[96] and headlined the Langerado Music Festival in South Florida on Friday, March 7, 2008.

[106]On July 20, Yauch announced on the band's official YouTube channel[107] and through the fan mailing list, the cancellation of several tour dates and the postponement of the new album[108] due to the discovery of a cancerous tumor in his parotid gland and a lymph node.

[123] The founding Beastie Boys guitarist John Berry died on May 19, 2016, aged 52, as a result of frontotemporal dementia,[124] following several years of ill health.

[136][137] The events became annual, and shortly after went international with acts such as Live, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Rage Against the Machine, the Smashing Pumpkins, and U2.

[138] Originally a hardcore punk band,[139][140] the Beastie Boys had largely abandoned the genre in favor of hip hop and rap rock[141][142][143][144] by the time work began on their debut studio album Licensed to Ill.

[148] Around the time of the release of their debut album, Licensed to Ill, Mike D started to appear on stage and in publicity photographs wearing a large Volkswagen emblem attached to a chain-link necklace.

[151] The Beastie Boys are influential in the hip hop and rock music scenes, with artists such as Eminem,[152] Rage Against the Machine,[153] Hed PE,[154] Limp Bizkit,[155] Sublime,[156] and Blur[157] citing them as an influence.

[166] Actor Seth Rogen, who appeared in the video for "Make Some Noise", also said, "I'm a huge Beastie Boys fan and they just called and asked if I wanted to be a part of it, and I said yes without hesitation.

[173] Kid Rock wrote an in-depth tribute to Yauch after being influenced by the band, which said, "I thought I was the 4th member of Beastie Boys in 7th grade.

[175] In 2022, the New York City Council voted to rename the intersection of Ludlow and Rivington streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side—the location of the Paul's Boutique album cover—"Beastie Boys Square".