FEATURE:
Licensed to Ill: A Legendary (If Complex) Debut Album
Beastie Boys at Forty
___________
THIS will be the final…
PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Levine/Getty Images
feature I do in regards the Beastie Boys turning forty. Like I have said in the other features, I have to qualify the anniversary being July. In July 1981, that is when the name, ‘Beastie Boys’, was created. Even though the line-up and sound was different to what it would be on their debut album, I am counting that moniker inception as being the birth of the group. As I recently looked at Beastie Boys’ final studio album, 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, I am going to the start. It was over five years from the Beastie Boys name being known until we got a debut album from the classic line-up of Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch and Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz. Released on 15th November, 1986, there is no denying the fortitude and importance of Licensed to Ill. I am going to come to the legacy and greatness of the album soon enough. As a brash and bold New York trio, perhaps there wasn’t as much self-editing and awareness on some of the songs. With writing and production by Beastie Boys and Rick Rubin, a few songs on Licensed to Ill created some problems. There is an article I want to come to that explores some problematic elements to the 1986 debut. In 2016 – to mark thirty years of the album –, Matthew Reyes wrote a splendid article for Medium. I am going to come back to it when discussing the legacy of Licensed to Ill. Maybe one can say it was a product of 1980s Rap that there was sexism and misogyny. It is an issue that still blights Hip-Hop and Rap. The Beastie Boys themselves have since distanced themselves from their early controversy:
“I was 7 years old when I bought Licensed to Ill and — like everyone else who got into music in the 80s and 90s — I was immediately obsessed with it. That obsession wasn’t just because “Fight For Your Right” and “No Sleep Til’ Brooklyn” were really catchy. The Beastie Boys themselves were extremely charismatic and it was their personalities as much as anything that made them into superstars.
But when we look back at them now, we see that they were actually pretty insufferable. They were great at upsetting out-of-touch parents and cultural authority figures; as a matter of fact, their parody of MTV’s hair-metal obsession in the “No Sleep Til” Brooklyn” video is one of the all-time best disses of pop culture’s gatekeepers. Even though they tried to play off their frat boy stereotype schtick as just having a good time, looking back at the group during this era is like revisiting your favorite John Hughes movies. We begin to realize that so much of 80s pop culture was really offensive.
Even the most charitable interpretations of “Girls,” “Brass Monkey,” and the “wiffle ball bat” line of “Paul Revere” don’t sit well today. At least Columbia forced the Beasties to change the album title from Don’t Be a F*ggot — yes, the group actually wanted this to be the name of the album. A mistake like that would have been impossible to redeem themselves from.
Of course, this was the 1980s and there’s always going to be a debate around how much we should excuse antiquated attitudes for being a product of a different time. This is especially true of the Beastie Boys, who for the rest of their career made it a priority to apologize for their offensive lyrics during this period. The most notable instance of this was MCA’s now legendary verse on “Sure Shot,” where he publicly repented for the group’s earlier sexism:
“I want to say a little something that’s long overdue,
The disrespect to women has to got to be through,
To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends,
I want to offer my love and respect till the end.”
This was a complete 180 for a group that were as famous for having go-go dancers and a 20-foot hydraulic penis on stage as they were for any talent they had. They should be celebrated for having the courage to throw away a large part of what made them successful — much easier said than done — in order to stand up for what’s right. In doing so, they laid the blueprint for how artists can mature in public without excusing the impact of their early mistakes”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith/Getty Images
One cannot excuse some of the lyrics and ideas expressed through Licensed to Ill. Whilst Beastie Boys channelled their bravado and cocksure attitude into future albums with fewer issues, maybe some link their debut with a bitter taste. Even if some lyrics are problematic in 2021, there is no escaping the fact that Licensed to Ill is one of the most important and influential albums in Hip-Hop history. Maybe many fans would rank it below their second studio album, 1989’s Paul’s Boutique, or 1994’s Ill Communication in terms of prominence. I am not certain how many Rock-Rap albums there were prior to 1986. In many ways, Beastie Boys were forebears and pioneers. The thirteen tracks across Licensed to Ill are phenomenal! Beasties classics such as (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!), No Sleep till Brooklyn and Paul Revere can be found. In fact, that is a run of three songs that appears half-way down the order. Any other band would have put those tracks at the start! Beasties knew they had a classic on their hand and had more than enough genius higher up (including The New Style and She’s Crafty) to justify having these classics lower down. Full of wit, confidence, innovation and variety, Licensed to Ill was a perfect introduction. It is a world away from their 1982 mini-album, E.P., Polly Wog Stew (it is the first recorded release by Beastie Boys, released on the independent record label, Rat Cage).
The reviews for Licensed to Ill are hugely positive. I want to quote from an extensive one from AllMusic. They noted the following when they described the strength of the Beastie Boys’ debut:
“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 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”.
If Paul’s Boutique is seen as the trio’s masterpiece, then one acknowledge the impact and legacy of their debut. There are some who feel Licensed to Ill is immature and a product of its time. I want to come back to that Medium article. It mentions the popularity of Licensed to Ill; how it is just as innovative as some of their later work:
“But if we look beyond the surface, Licensed to Ill was actually a really innovative album — only a few hip-hop artists like Doug E. Fresh and Mantronix were making such experimental hip-hop at the time. There’s the amazing “Hold it Now, Hit It,” one of the strangest hip-hop singles of the period; “Paul Revere,” a fake western origin story propelled by a backwards sampled loop; and “Rhymin’ and Stealin,’” which contains the legendary, yet super-random bridge that has the group screaming “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” over and over. This is by no means a normal hip-hop album.
Licensed to Ill doesn’t get looked at as a creative breakthrough because it’s unfairly judged against the rest of the band’s catalogue and not appreciated on its own terms. Of course, Paul’s Boutique was creatively groundbreaking, but that doesn’t mean that what preceded it is therefore generic. Both albums were extremely progressive in their own ways, but because hip-hop as a whole progressed by leaps and bounds between 1986 and 1989, Licensed to Ill looks basic in comparison. But they didn’t simply go from immature idiots to musical geniuses by the time Paul’s Boutique came out, like many would have you believe. Ad Rock, MCA and Mike D were always extremely creative and simply took the experimentation they learned on Licensed to Ill to another level as they moved on from Def Jam”.
Hip-hop had been constantly increasing in popularity since its humble beginnings in the mid-70s, but it was Licensed to Ill that really shook up the culture and catapulted rap music to new levels of acceptance. It’s easy to group the Beastie Boys in with the rest of the closely-knit, Def Jam and Rush-affiliated artists like LL Cool J and Run-DMC. But at the time, Licensed to Ill stood out completely from the rest of rap music as a cultural phenomenon in itself. Of course, we must not ignore the obvious racial implications here — after years of critics dismissing hip-hop as being “too black” for mainstream America, it was three obnoxious Jewish boys who helped bring hip-hop to the masses.
The industry waited for years for another hip-hop album to do as well as Licensed to Ill, but no other album came close. In fact, it remained the best selling rap album until MC Hammer’s breakthrough in 1990. And if we’re only counting critically respected hip-hop artists — sorry, Hammer — it wasn’t until 1992’s The Chronic that a rap album made the kind of legitimate mark that Licensed to Ill made. For all the well-deserved love and adoration that the Golden Era gets, it’s important that we don’t forget that for hip-hop’s first 20 years, Licensed to Ill and The Chronic stand out as the two records that made the biggest impact in hip-hop becoming a mainstream cultural force”.
Aside from arguments regarding some outdated and unpleasant lyrics on Licensed to Ill, it is a phenomenal album that stands alongside some of the best ever released. Thirty-five years since it came out, there is so much to enjoy. I love the interplay and relationship between Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock. Forty years after Beastie Boys formed, I wanted to write a feature about their debut album. Worlds away from what they were producing in the early-1980s, it took a lot of people by surprise! Licensed to Ill remains…
A truly sensational debut.