What's there to say about the Beastie Boys? An awful lot, actually. They were formed in 1979 as a hardcore punk band, and over the years turned into a hip-hop band, and then finally, a hip-hop/hardcore punk/instrumental/jazz/rock band.
The Beastie Boys are made up of Adam 'MCA' Yauch on vocals/bass, Adam 'King Ad-Rock' on vocals/guitar Horovitz, and Michael 'Mike D' Diamond on vocals/drums. Over the years they have also had DJ Hurricane, Money Mark, and Mix Master Mike, who is their current DJ.
Licensed To Ill, originally to be titled 'Don't Be A Faggot' is their first release, and some magazines even said they wouldn't be around in a few years, that they were going to die out, etc, but that was 1986, and they're still going strong today.
I've always loved these guys since I first heard them. They have a lot of personality and humor in their music. Their voices are part of what makes it great, from MCA's deep voice, to Ad-Rock's high voice, to Mike D's voice which is somewhat in-between.
On this album, there's less of a traditional hip-hop sound than their later albums showed. The songs are mostly rock songs with the Beastie Boys rapping over them, with Kerry King of Slayer even appearing on a few songs to play guitar.
Some tracks fall a bit short of expectations if you're expecting the most amazing hip-hop album ever, but if you're expecting the only good song to be one of the singles off of it, you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. There's no way to really dislike the Beastie Boys, and if you do, you should die. You really should.
It's a shame people only know this album for the song everyone was playing in the '80s '(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)' because they're so much more than that. They stopped playing that song live in 1987, just a year after this album came out, because they were sick of it and hated it. Plus the irony of the song (it actually makes fun of party songs) was lost on people.
They also aren't as good at rapping as they are on later releases, and the lyrics, while silly and occasionally clever, leave a bit to be desired sometimes.
7/10
Recommended Track(s): No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Time to Get Ill
