0029. Beastie Boys
Licenced To Ill

Finally! Some hip hop all up in this (as the youngsters say).
So, here's three white guys making tracks in a predomenatly black genre by not respecting any (and all) of the rules - how is that possible?
Maybe it's just due to the sheer energy they're putting in it. From the very start on Rhymin' & Stealin' it's the biggest, baddest sound your turntable's heard for some years and the first line ("because mutiny on the Bounty's what we're all about") is a declaration of intent - this is anarchy in hip hop form. (also it's one of the albums that established Rick Rubin as The hip hop producer)

I could go through the tracklist song by song, but since some things are best to just discover for yourselves, I'll contain myself to just a short mention of one: No Sleep Till Brooklyn is Run DMC-style tag-team-rap at it's best! Musically it's high powered and the cameo from Slayer's Kerry King is a straight up treat.

From the Black Sabbath riff in Rhymin' & Stealin' to Creedence Clearwater Revival in Time To Get Ill it's a charter of good samples - although not all of the original songs are as great as the tracks their samples are made part of.

If I got to say some negative things about Licenced To Ill it's that it paved the way for acts like Kid Rock. It's also pretty sexist - showing off the stupidest adolescent imagery of women (yeah, "stupidest" - tracks like Girls is an 8,5 on the international d'uuuh-scale).
Also, luckily their label didn't accept the album's working title - Don't Be A Faggot - which would have put it on a solid 10 on the scale as well as probably put a halt on the Beastie Boys' carreer before they straightened out and got some IQ behind their (still magnificient) releases.

It's silly, it's sexist, it's stupid, but it goes on the GotToGet's.