About

Licensed to Ill is the debut studio album by American rap rock group Beastie Boys. It was released on November 15, 1986 by Def Jam and Columbia Records, and became the first rap LP to top the Billboard album chart. — (via Label)

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Perhaps Licensed to Ill was inevitable - a white group blending rock and rap, giving them the first number one album in hip-hop history. But that reading of the album's history gives short shrift to the Beastie Boys; producer Rick Rubin, and his label, Def Jam, and this remarkable record, since mixing metal and hip-hop isn't necessarily an easy thing to do. 

Just sampling and scratching Sabbath and Zeppelin to hip-hop beats does not make for an automatically good record, though there is a visceral thrill to hearing those muscular riffs put into overdrive with scratching. But, much of that is due to the producing skills of Rick Rubin, a metalhead who formed Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons and had previously flirted with this sound on Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell, not to mention a few singles and one-offs with the Beasties prior to this record. He made rap rock, but to give him lone credit for Licensed to Ill (as some have) is misleading, since that very same combination would not have been as powerful, nor would it have aged so well - aged into a rock classic - if it weren't for the Beastie Boys, who fuel this record through their passion for subcultures, pop culture, jokes, and the intoxicating power of wordplay. 

At the time, it wasn't immediately apparent that their obnoxious patter was part of a persona (a fate that would later plague Eminem), but the years have clarified that this was a joke - although, listening to the cajoling rhymes, filled with clear parodies and absurdities, it's hard to imagine the offense that some took at the time. Which, naturally, is the credit of not just the music - they don't call it the devil's music for nothing - but the wild imagination of the Beasties, whose rhymes sear into consciousness through their gonzo humor and gleeful delivery. There hasn't been a funnier, more infectious record in pop music than this, and it's not because the group is mocking rappers (in all honesty, the truly twisted barbs are hurled at frat boys and lager lads), but because they've already created their own universe and points of reference, where it's as funny to spit out absurdist rhymes and pound out "Fight for Your Right (To Party)" as it is to send up street corner doo wop with "Girls." 

Then, there is the overpowering loudness of the record - operating from the axis of where metal, punk, and rap meet, there never has been a record this heavy and nimble, drunk on its own power yet giddy with what they're getting away with. 

There is a sense of genuine discovery, of creating new music, that remains years later, after countless plays, countless misinterpretations, countless rip-off acts, even countless apologies from the Beasties, who seemed guilty by how intoxicating the sound of it is, how it makes beer-soaked hedonism sound like the apogee of human experience. And maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but in either case, Licensed to Ill reigns tall among the greatest records of its time. — (via AllMusic)
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Licensed to Ill was more than just a remarkable blow for instant integration. The Beastie Boys muscled their way to the front of the bus on the basis of sheer bravado and a snotty sense of New Yawk humor not heard since the Dictators released the great Go Girl Crazy! Mike D., MCA, and Ad-Rock were that crazy kid down the block who lived to get high, liked to egg cop cars, and had that insane stash of Hustler magazines. And who thought everything was funny; hell, he even laughed while he was PUKING.

What made the Beastie Boys so great was they didn’t turn their backs on rock; they subsumed it in a whole slew of songs that juxtaposed their bragging and boasting against all manner of immortal rock samples like, just to take opener “Rhymin’ and Stealin’,” Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks,” Black Sabb’s “Sweet Leaf,” and the Clash’s “I Fought the Law.”

Licensed to Ill is a spastic, nonstop ADD-afflicted paean to being young and hungry (let’s go to White Castle!) and horny and not giving a shit, and the mood is contagious. I may think their 1989 follow-up Paul’s Boutique is the better album, and I may listen to Paul’s Boutique more, but Licensed to Ill was more than just a Boeing 727 that delivered the goods, more than just the album that produced a seismic shift in music for that matter. It struck a cosmic blow for fun, and fun is always in short supply. — (via The Vinyl District)

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Reissued on 2LP, 180g vinyl
30th Anniversary Edition

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Label: Def Jam Recordings
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180 Gram, Gatefold, 30th Anniversary Edition
Reissued: 2016 / Originally Released: 1986
Genre: Hip Hop
Style: Rap

File under: Hip-Hop
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