Licensed to Ill

While the raps and grooves seem a bit simplistic 16 years after its release, it still sounds great. "Fight for Your Right" was and is a classic party theme. I also love "Brass Monkey." What's amazing about this CD is how many of the songs became classics (Fight for your right, Brass Monkey, Paul Revere, Hold it now, Slow & Low). Throw on this CD and just enjoy it.


Just sit and listen to it!   May 31, 2002
jay kenyon (LAS VEGAS, NV USA)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful

Sure it was overplayed in the 80's, but if you just listen to it, without all of the baggage from the time it was recorded and played (to death) it is really a great album. Every song grooves, the samples and perfect. It is great to hear them develop their own styles throughout their careers.


The Joke Is...   May 7, 2007
DJ TMS (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

In response to Rickey Wright's editorial review (this guy's an editor and didn't see this?)...

The joke, Mr. Wright, is not them crashing their jet into the side of a mountain and surviving, but rather what the image turns into when you unfold the album cover and hold it length-wise with the tail-end up. It's the image of a 'joint' being mashed out (like a cigarette in an ashtray). So I think the genius behind it works, making the obvious - unobvious.

Also, the call letters on the rear of the plane (3MTA3) actually spell 'EAT ME' when viewed in reverse - which is what is usually done when you're smokin' a fatty and 'Jake' is on ya.

As for the album itself - CLASSIC! True Beastie Boy gold!


Debut album that packs a punch   July 12, 2004
Erik (Camdenton, MO)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

No one expected the Beastie Boys to last as long as they have, and that is part of this album's appeal. Who would have thought way back in 1986 that these white boys who practically yelled and screamed over tracks that masterfully blended rock and rap would still be topping the charts nearly 20 years later?

The then-novel concept of rock-rap is courtesy of the genius of producer Rick Rubin. He really knows how to craft a song full of hooks. The beats on this album are so massive they practically burst out of your stereo. Every song has a hook that digs itself into your brain and stays put. The best example of this would be "Paul Revere", an undeniably entertaining and catchy classic.

This wouldn't be much of an album though if it was only a producer who makes it worth listening to. Mike D., Adrock, and MCA have a great chemistry and work very well together. They are so confident and playful it's impossible not to have as good a time as they're having. They even know how to pull off the silliest of rhymes (check out "Girls" for proof).

This is a fantastic album. I just got it last week and I have been listening to it over and over ever since. If you are a fan of good, dumb fun, then I highly recommend this CD. Sure, it may appear to be a lot of screaming and yelling, but why complain when it's done so well? There are so many good songs here, including the big hit "Fight For Your Right" (which has held up very well over the years). I give this album my highest recommendation.


As influential as it is "ill"   February 14, 2006
Mark Schaefer (Brockport, NY USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful


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 a 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.