#192 Beastie Boys, 'Licensed to Ill' (1986)

Previously #219

The record that started it all for Beastie Boys and what a stellar entrance to make. Opening with the massive sounds of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham’s drumming from the song ‘When The Levee Breaks.’ An incredible reinterpretation of that song. Another great sample from that song is Black Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf,’ the opening track from their album, ‘Master Of Reality’ (#234). The band managed to create something completely new and original from previous material of a different genre, no less. And that’s what this record is about; taking music that they love, music that influenced them and injecting their own art and creativity into it. More Zeppelin was sampled on ‘She’s Crafty.’ In fact, I could spend this review listing the samples. There are so many and they span genres and decades. The fact is, Rick Rubin and the band created something so new and so original culminating in the party anthem of 1986, ‘Fight For Your Right’ and one of their signature songs, ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn,’ a song about an exhaustive tour ending in Brooklyn.

The ground-breaking album has gone on to sell more than 10 million copies. It’s an album that showed the world that this fledging genre of Hip Hop could be more than what it had come to be known; primarily rapping over classic soul and funk records, rock, punk and metal had now been brought into the equation, just like Run-DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’ earlier that year. Its lyrics were humorous & self-deprecating. They were a commentary on society, and when it comes down to it, they were just 3 mates in their 20s having fun, fighting for their right to party. I was 11 or 12 the first time I heard this record. My sister’s boyfriend, now brother-in-law had lent me his copy and I can clearly remember sitting on my bed playing it over and over and over.

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