Forty years ago hip-hop trio the Beastie Boys released their debut album Licensed to Ill. The New York group’s genre-defying, boundary crossing record was a massive success both critically and commercially, often being included on lists of the best albums of all time.
As important as it was to the world of hip-hop, the record was also heavily indebted to rock due to the members’ pasts in the hardcore punk scene. One of the most identifiable songs off Licensed to Ill is “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)”, a raucous anthem that was written tongue-in-cheek but soon became the group’s calling card. An ironic twist of fate seeing as the Boys wrote the song as a joke poking fun at the same kind of “party hearty” culture that embraced it.
Leaning heavily into the arena rock and hair metal that was prevalent in the mid to late 80s, the album’s producer Rick Rubin brought Slayer’s Kerry King into the studio to provide guitar solos for both this song and “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. It was a huge hit, and to date is the only song from the Beastie Boys to reach the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10.
There are also quite a few prominent samples from rock artists on Licensed to Ill, including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and War, as the band showed off their DJ skills crossing such classic tunes with rapping.
The album sold millions of copies, hitting Platinum status within a year and eventually even reaching Diamond certification. Seven singles in total were released, including other Beastie Boys staples such as “Girls”, “Brass Monkey”, and “Paul Revere”.
What’s more important though, is the legacy it left behind. The Beastie Boys’ fusion of rap and rock and creative looping and sampling influenced many artists to experiment with combining the two genres together. Prominent rap-rock groups like Rage Against the Machine and Cypress Hill took cues from the Beastie Boys, as did fellow 90s innovator Beck. Eminem borrowed a lot of his rambunctious irreverence from the Beasties, and paid homage to this album with the cover of his own record, 2018’s Kamikaze. Gorillaz’ ethos of blending different sounds from around the world comes from the Beastie Boys, and many modern genre-hoppers like Twenty One Pilots can trace their lineage back to Licensed to Ill. Forty years later and it is still as vital as ever.
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