Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the Beastie Boys–the iconic punk rock/rap trio from Brooklyn–aside from some of their biggest hits, including (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party). Turns out, 34 years after releasing that ironic frat bro anthem, that’s the song Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz are the most embarrassed about. In Spike Jonze’s live documentary, Beastie Boys Story (now streaming on Apple TV+), the remaining two members take to the stage to share the band’s journey through all of its highs and lows, heartbreaks, and made-it moments.

Beastie Boys Story plays like a TED talk, with a slideshow of visuals from the band’s early years aiding Mike D and Ad-Rock’s energetic and lighthearted storytelling onstage. For a Beastie Boys novice (like me), the stories about their childhood in the early 80s, running around the NY punk scene as a group of misfits, is endearing (and left me slightly envious- how were these 13-year-old boys that cool?) Their evolution from a four-piece (Kate Schellenbach was their original drummer) to collaborating with a college-aged Rick Rueben and eventually opening for Madonna on tour (and earning a whopping $500 a show!), is a trip as we live vicariously through the energetic stories of Mike D and Ad-Rock.

The Beastie Boys were Monty Python as much as they were Black Flag. They embraced the celebrity and had fun with it while it lasted. Mike D and Ad-Rock also make themselves vulnerable as they go into detail about their burnout and, heart-wrenchingly, the decision to stop performing after the death of Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012. Beastie Boys was MCA’s idea, after all.

For a group whose creative process has been described as “fucking around,” Mike D and Ad-Rock emphasize that being themselves, in all of it’s wacky and zany glory, is what skyrocketed them to success. That’s a lesson we can all live by. When in doubt just think, What Would The Beastie Boys Do?

Beastie Boys Story is now streaming on Apple +