Justin ‘Casper’ Layman, who plays Alter Ego in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 3, 2025. Credit: Photo by DJ Kueba

The shelves at Alter Ego are peppered with relics and paraphernalia that gives insight into the mind of Music Director Justin “Casper” Layman, and tonight he’s going to let people in on the biggest obsession of his life.

Known to the city as Casper, Layman, who helped open the Water Street Tampa hotspot just over a year ago, has spent his entire career collecting any Beastie Boys vinyl he can get his hands on, but his fascination with the iconic hip-hop trio started well before that.

While he was too young to get into the grips of License To Ill, he remembers “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party),” the “Hey Ladies” video from Paul’s Boutique and “Shake Your Rump.”

“That was cool to me, but I vividly remember vividly when Check Your Head came out. It was ‘Pass The Mic,’ ‘So What’cha Want?,’” Casper told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I was BMX-er, and obsessed with skateboarding culture, so that was huge for me.”

That’s when he started to collect all of it, from magazines, VHS tapes, and even X-Large streetwear made popular by Mike D. From interviews, to behind the scenes snippets, unreleased music, studio sessions and live performances from all over the globe, Casper has it.

“I think I have almost three full crates of just Beastie Boys records. The obsession is insane,” he added.

It all comes out tonight, Sunday, Aug. 3, at Alter Ego when Casper celebrates what would’ve been what would have been Adam Yauch’s 61st birthday (this Tuesday) with a four-hour deep dive into the band’s catalog featuring special cuts and edits that tell the entire story of the band that changed pop music forever.
It’s a concept that Casper first tried at Dante’s Hi-Fi in Miami about a year ago, and has since been fine-tuned. In fact, he’s been working on the final tweaks since the middle of last month after he wrapped another immersive set into the music of MF Doom.

Now Casper—a co-founder of Ybor City’s sorely-missed Ol’ Dirty Sundays—gets to bring it to the Water Street nightclub that he now calls home. “The vibe in that room, you can cut it with a knife. I mean, people get done with their sets and the whole room is clapping for the DJ. It’s absolutely beautiful.”

Expect hints of the samples the Beastie Boys brought into their music (Eagles, Led Zeppelin), and audio glimpses into rare live sets and segments on Brazilian radio stations and Japanese night clubs during the no-cover set complete with custom cocktails and merch, too.

“I really want to tell a cohesive story. I’m just gonna touch everything from the punk-rock stuff to the Rick Rubin stuff, you know, the Dust Brothers stuff, Mix Master Mike,” Casper explained. “I mean, everything—everything.”

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This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2025.