They recently gave an interview to The Guardian where they told old war stories. In one portion of the interview, they talked about the tricky time between the success of Licensed to Ill, the group's debut, and Paul’s Boutique. Following the release of their debut, they were still signed to Russell Simmons' Def Jam label, but broke.
And, according to the profile, he was trying to get the Beastie Boys to make Licensed to Ill Part Two. Mike D said:
Russell was like, if you don’t go in the studio, then I’m not paying you...His calculation was that we would all be like, 'Oh we want our millions. OK, Russell we’re going to do it.' But we were all immediately, "Fuck you."
Ad-Rock said the two don't hold any ill will towards Russell Simmons, "because it all worked out." Ad-Rock goes on to say:
But that’s because it all worked out. Had it not worked out, had we broken up in '87 – and we never got paid by Rick and Russell and Def Jam – it wouldn’t be fine.
