Interview with Ricky Powell on www.acclaimmag.com from 2012:

I was already going to hip-hop shows for my own love; I was going to the Apollo Theatre in '85 taking pictures of Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash shows. I was already into the music and that whole umbrella of rap, graffiti, breaking; it was all stirring in the pot in the mid-eighties.

As far as getting involved with it professionally it came from growing up with Ad-Rock's older sister, and I used see him around the Village, he was five years younger than me, which is a big difference when you're teenagers. Then I started hearing about him being in this group The Beastie Boys, they played in this little club called the Cat Club in that September of '85 so I was like "Let's go check out these kids".

They came out with the big 808 bass drum dropped, boom, and they came out skipping and laughing and cursing, slingin' beers, and the beats were dope and I was just like "Oh shit, I love this". I went backstage afterwards to say whatup to Adam and I met the other two, and I just started hanging out with them.