Licensed To Ill

This had so many songs I knew and loved, and I had no idea they were all on the same album.

Rhymin & Stealin- 4.8/5 The New Style- 5/5 She's Crafty- 4.6/5 Posse in Effect- 4.9/5 Slow Ride- 5/5 Girls- 5/5 Fight for Your Right- 5/5 No Sleep Till Brooklyn- 5/5 Paul Revere- 4.8/5 Hold It Now, Hit It- 4.9/5 Brass Monkey- 5/5 Slow and Low- 4.9/5 Time to Get Ill- 4.7/5 Total- 4.9/5

On one hand, it's got some classics like no sleep till Brooklyn and girls. On the other hand, the flows, beats, and lyrics are all kinda wack. It's good knowing that in later albums they were able to round out their sound into something a little more cohesive, but this one is a miss for me

Meh just a lot of shit yelling. Even their top songs don’t really leave a lasting impression

Overall 6/10 Favorite Song - Hold It Now, Hit It Overall not much of a Beastie Boys fan but still a fun listen

Out of the 112 albums I've rated so far, this is by far the one I'm most familiar with. It was the perfect album 12-13 year old me could relate to. An immature, silly, rap mixed with hard rock was right up my alley at the time. Now, some of the lyrics probably haven't aged well for some people. "The girlies I like are under age" and "Girls, to do the dishes and clean up my room" come to mind. With that, all the White Castle references (I think I counted four), and all the other silliness in this thing, I still love it. My favorite rap is when the members of the group trade off verses, and the Beastie Boys do that on every track. The only song I even slightly dislike it "Slow and Low," and even that one isn't bad. Best track: Paul Revere

Hip to the hop rap

Favourites: • Fight for Your Right

Fuck yeah. Favorite track: Brass Monkey

Rap with a more rock-feeling backing track

Realizing that my favorite Beastie Boys songs are the ones that don’t look like Beastie Boys.

Favourite tracks: slow and low; fight for your right; no sleep til Brooklyn; rhymin and stealin; brass monkey

I was 10 years old when this album came out, & I was just branching out into developing my own music tastes beyond my parents' (Beach Boys, Beatles, Monkees) or Top 40 radio (Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Cindi Lauper). I remember there was a lot of parental anxiety over this album (& hip-hop & heavy metal in general). I can't remember if I wasn't allowed to buy it, or I had merely assumed the outcome of that conversation before it was had, so not only was it one of the first albums I acquired that was "my" music, this was the first tape that I copied off of a friend. Since Check Your Head came out (& completely blew my mind), I have hardly listened to License to Ill. I'd say "Girls" & "Fight for Your Right" are the two weakest tracks on the album, and the deep cuts were refreshing to revisit. I'd still take Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, & Hello Nasty over this one. 4/5 - a flawed classic.

Having listened to Ill Communication two hours earlier, I was pretty excited for this one. And it did not disappoint (aside from Girls). Solid. Favorite track: No Sleep till Brooklyn

There’s something about the Beastie Boys I just don’t like but if I hear them out in the wild and it’s a single, I won’t pretend like I don’t enjoy it. They’re obnoxious, they yell-rap for no reason, and have really immature lyrics and themes, but apparently had something to offer considering their legacy. 3/5 I wouldn’t listen to this album on purpose.

3.5

Doesn’t work for me. Sounds dull and shallow

4.5 stars. Brash debut from the Jewish trio from the Bronx is a lot of fun. The six track run in the middle of the album starting with "Girls" encapsulates what this group is all about. Combining creative beats and wide-ranging samples with rapping and yelling hedonistic and sophomoric lyrics brings the listener into a head-bobbing entertaining new world of hip-hop.

I find the Beastie Boys extremely overrated

This was an old favorite from when I was a teenager. There are a bunch of good songs even to this day. There are a few songs on this album that if I never ever heard it again it would be too soon.

that definitely was music from the 80s

was ass

Some songs reminded me of Public Enemy with the vocals. The instruments are pretty cool especially the percussions. It was overall a fun album, I will continue to listen i think. Also love the lyrics

Nothing quite like the audacity of beginning your debut album with the drums from When The Levee Breaks, but if you've got the chops to pull it off, you might as well go big. This album is pretty strange to listen to now. It has the same thin 80s drum machines that a lot of rappers were using at the time, but combined with these massive guitar riffs and other famous samples. It's one of those albums that it's easy to understand why it hit so big (in a country that may have been afraid to bring Run DMC into their living rooms). There's a lot of attention to the production that makes for a really hard hitting sound. Their rapping is...well it's good sometimes. It's an early rap album, so it's going to sound dated no matter what. They try a lot of things here, and some of them work really well. The lyrics are pretty shallow, but it's not like they get really deep later in their career. This album is a touchstone, but it doesn't hold up nearly as well as their other albums, though there are precious few hip-hop albums from this era that do hold up 4/5 Legacy is pulling a lot of weight here, but there are also some hard-hitting songs on here that really work as well

How are you gonna come out swinging dropping Zeppelin samples? But hey, it works. Although I think the group would go on to improve in what made their sound work best, this album is definitely not a bad start. It’s goofy but pretty fun. Plus you have No Sleep Till Brooklyn, so I can’t fault it too much.

Pretty cheesy, pretty grating, yet still pretty ill, which I suppose describes the Boys pretty well, doesn’t it?

Enjoyable if a little cartoonish. By the end of the album it all felt very similar with little light and shade.

Young me would have given it a 5. As I’ve grown it’s just average (compared to the 1000 other best albums in the world).

gutair riff in she's crafty sounds familiar like oohhh.... cow bell tickles could feel the 🦅 in fight for your right "your mom threw away your best porno mag" no sleep till brooklyn was written about brookyln nine nine duh im sorry but all these songs are mushing together - stop shouting!! time to get ill is actually a fever dream - the background tracks are throwing me off so much

Awful. Don’t understand how they were popular at one time.

listened to again good start but not the strongest for these boys

Man, what a fun listen.

Before Trump. Before the conspiracy theories. Before the antisemitism. It's easy to forget amongst all of his various controversies, that Kanye West was (is?) a rapper, and a good one too. He showed his promise on this debut album, with a charming, easy-going vocal style. There's some occasional wonky production, including on the hit single, but overall, an auspicious first effort.

Don't wanna waste any more bits of my life on such noises

lets go, caught back up and a dope album to kick off the new week. never was a huge beastie boys fan, i think the grungy* boombap sound kinda got corny after a while but i am 1000% open to having my mind changed. #letsgetit woah the beat switch on \"the new style\" is crazy, to hear that style of hiphop beat on a record from the mid 80s was WILD. yeah, rick rubin is the goat, if it weren't for his amazing production this record wouldn't have been anywhere as successful. girls is such a classic. so goofy, so good the gogo drums on Shes crafty is tuffff I wonder what peder would rate this album art *so after listening i don't think grungy is the best word, its just like white guy angst. very fraternal, beastie boys would've been nelk boys

badass.

"Fight for your right" is a total banger, but the rest feels a bit meh

Fight for your right is an all time great single The rest gets tedious very quickly

god i have no idea how this was as successful as it was. it sounds HARSH

This is fun

Some parts of the music are fun, but when they start yelling it is all ruined.

Would be better if the would sing/rap instead of just shout in the microphone

I really love no sleep till Brooklyn and fight for your right, but would have been fine listening to just those 2 songs. So much yellinf

A whole album of Beastie Boys is still a bit much but I enjoyed this one a lot more than Pauls Boutique

En mi opinión personal, no soy fan de este género. Pero me recuerda mucho a las películas de esa época

I just don't like the Beastie Boys, unfortunately

Yuck.

Дальше альбомы более мясные и крепкие (4-) Алкоальбом: темный стаут с горьким шоколадом

Ну смотрите, здесь как и с Run-DMC и их первым альбомом: я не настолько фанат рэп-культуры, чтобы прям боготворить Beastie Boys и начала хип-хопа. Ну реально же на любителя альбом: эксперименты с битами, лупами, это всё конечно интересно, но зная, как делают хип-хопчик сейчас, это уже прям совсем старомодное и непонятное. Отмечу Brass Monkey, я уже думал выключить альбом и пролистать до конца все треки, послушав по 5-10 секунд, но этот трек меня переубедил. Остальные же... ну как-то ну совсем не моё...

иногда прям 5, иногда 2

Undeniably classic, referenced and recognizable. It's a shame is so juvenile.

Beastie boys suck!

A classic.

3 white guys rapping like Bugs Bunny, apparently in 1986 this was mind-blowing there's a bit of charm and catchy beats here to save it from a 1-star rating, but this is a low 2-star. Nobody born after 1991 will ever think this is good music.

Welcome to Beastie Boys World: prepare to rhyme, steal and wank your way through adolescence, with the whole world at your fingertips as long as you shout loud enough. In their debut, Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA are anarchic, riotous and ridiculous: it’s good fun, when it isn’t incredibly grating. I reviewed Paul’s Boutique a year or so ago (IN ALL CAPS) and was turned off by a perceived lack of range, depth, and the yelling… oh, the yelling. But after hearing “Licensed to Ill”, and then revisiting “Paul’s Boutique”, I realise what a progression their second album was, how much more sophisticated and exciting. By comparison, “Licensed to Ill” is a series of bellowed brags, with all the grace and subtlety of a gang of spotty and horny college brats. To put it diplomatically, it’s much more direct and to-the-point, proudly leaving its maturity at the door. The samples are based in the crunchy riffs of rock music, with barely a funk or soul track in sight. Led Zeppelin are a key point of reference: the whole album opens with John Bonham’s titanic drum beat from “When the Levee Breaks”, before “The Ocean” and “Custard Pie” both make appearances later on. There’s also a typically bracing, edgy lyric- “if I played guitar, I’d be Jimmy Page; the girlies I like are underage”. Wow. After an immediately attention-grabbing opener, “Rhymin’ and Stealin’” (admittedly a great start) my two biggest and best tracks come back to back in the middle: “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” followed by “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. These best capture the Beastie Boys’ crossover with rock and emergent hip-hop, sitting comfortably in either scene right through to today. I’d also shout out “Slow Ride” and “Brass Monkey” for varying the mood very slightly with some brass samples. Elsewhere, though, the joke quickly wears thin as Rick Rubin’s relentless production and the gang’s strangled vocal cords allow for no breathing room. “Girls” at least shows some attempt at humour and levity, but is pretty puerile stuff. Throughout “Licensed to Ill”, the Beastie Boys revel in being obnoxious and crass: perhaps it’s a shared persona, or some kind of satire on adolescence, but not all of it lands forty years on. Just edging three stars on account of its best material and its place in music history, but it’s also one of the first times I’ve felt too old for an album on this list.

Not great

very nice, very familiar adlibs and features to contemporary probably inspired 90s hip hop

Quintessential Beastie Boys. Certified all time banger.

The Beastie Boys defied conventions, combining rap, rock, and punk influences. This is well represented in this album, groundbreaking and entertaining. The energetic and infectious beats, coupled with the group's clever and often humorous lyrics, make for a truly unique listening experience. Tracks like "Paul Revere" and "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" showcase the Beastie Boys' ability to blend hard-hitting rap verses with rock-infused instrumentals, creating a sound that was exciting for its time but comes off as a bit dated in today's ears. One of the standout tracks on the album is, of course, the legendary "Fight for Your Right." Its catchy chorus and rebellious lyrics propelled the Beastie Boys into stardom and became quite an anthem. However, it's important to note that "Licensed to Ill" is more than just its hits. Tracks like "The New Style" and "Girls" demonstrate the group's lyrical dexterity and clever wordplay, while "Slow Ride" and "Time to Get Ill" showcase their ability to create infectious party anthems. What sets "Licensed to Ill" apart from other rap albums of its time is the Beastie Boys' ability to infuse their music with a sense of humor and playfulness. They embrace their bratty personas, often toying with stereotypes and expectations, and create a sound that is simultaneously rebellious and fun. While some may argue that the lyrics on the album can be seen as juvenile or offensive, it's important to view them in the context of the time they were released, much like other hip-hop albums from the same era. "Licensed to Ill" pushed boundaries and challenged societal norms, but it was also a product of its era, reflecting the youthful exuberance and rebellious spirit of the 1980s. The album's sound is raw and energetic, with heavy guitars, booming drums, and samples that add depth and texture to the tracks. The production complements the group's witty and aggressive delivery, resulting in a cohesive experience. The instrumentals are not exactly top tier, but they do a good job of laying the backdrop for the rap performances. Overall its a groundbreaking mix of hip-hop and rock that surely deserved its place on the list. Just reaches the 4.

this old man digs this old shit!

Beastie Boys are one of my favorite bands of all time and this was the first album I ever bought on CD. I have a lot of history with this record and a lot of great memories wrapped up with it. With that said, I don't revisit this often. There are some great tracks here but they cannot hold up to the masterpieces that the Boys would release in the following years. So today I will listen to Hot Sauce Committee as I haven't spent much time with that one.

bro how do i miss this

Haven’t listened to this whole album in years and I forgot about some of the deep cuts. This thing still bangs. Some of the lyrics are dated, but otherwise from start to finish this album is great. It starts with the crushing Led Zeppelin drum sample and doesn’t let up. It was so much fun to revisit a favorite from when I was young.

Very similar backbeats but all classics I've listened too. Highly enjoyed brass monkey, that funky monkey, girls, fight for your right and no sleep till Brooklyn. Overall a solid album.

This album is outstanding! Lyrically might be a little rough but the beats are on point and the skills on the mic are there, even if I would be ok never hearing the singles again this is still an easy 5/5

stop yelling at me

My boys ❤️ mmm… drop!

Rhymin and Stealin, Led Zeppelin Sample? More zeppelin in She's Crafty. cool. Time to Get Ill is pretty sweet. Billy Preston sample? This isn't my typical genre when I listen to music and honestly it's exactly what I imagine every single Beastie Boys song sounds like. Haven't listened enough to appreciate individual songs of theirs.

Never have and never will love this. Annoying.

Lol

Lots of yelling. I did like the song “Girls” so 1.5/5

Eh, not my thing. The production is interesting but I just don't like their voices and its very difficult for me to digest white boys talking about guns, hoes, gangs, shooting up places or whatever. Would not relisten.

Not as good as earlier efforts, but still pretty awesome.

Meh. Never understood the hype.

Sounded a bit more samey than some of their other albums

Some great tracks, some weird tracks. Everything I expected and more.

God rap music suuuuuucks Why do hip hop beats always have to sound so terrible? Whether it’s mordant hip hop or old school they almost always sound so annoying

My favorite moments here are the ones that are denser with samples, which probably explains why I vastly prefer Paul's Boutique. This does still hold up pretty well, and it's much more consistent than a lot of the other mid-80s hip hop albums I've heard. In fact, some of my least favorite tracks on here are a couple of the singles (most notably "Girls," which I cannot abide), and some of my favorites are either non-singles or ones that I don't think caught the same level of airplay ("Rhymin & Stealin," "Hold It Now, Hit It"). "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" is pretty undeniable. Rick Rubin's career is pretty fascinating too in that he worked so well on this and Reign in Blood, for instance, but then churned out some of the worst-sounding music of all time with Californication (among others) some 15 years later.

ALBUM RATING: 3.6 ALBUM GRADE: B- TRACK RATINGS: 1. Rhymin’ & Stealin’ - 4.0 2. The New Style - 3.5 3. She’s Crafty - 3.5 4. Posse in Effect - 3.5 5. Slow Ride - 3.0 6. Girls - 3.0 7. Fight for Your Right - 3.5 8. No Sleep Till Brooklyn - 4.0 9. Paul Revere - 3.5 10. Hold It Now, Hit It - 3.5 11. Brass Monkey - 3.0 12. Slow and Low - 3.5 13. Time to Get Ill - 3.5

i love this sm. bops most way through. good album to jam to.

Love it. But I don’t think it’s their best album

Best album in the history of recorded music!

I am, as I’m sure everyone is, very aware of the Beastie Boys by name but I had never heard any songs by them. I also recognise this cover as the large inspiration for Eminems ‘Kamikaze’ album which is not an album I hold in high regard, nevertheless I was looking forward to this. The main thing that through me off about this is the classic hip hop sound that the Beastie Boys go for, I really wasn’t expecting them to have that much lyrical focus. Honestly, for me the album starts off quite weak, the first 2 songs remind me so much of the intro to ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ at some points which I guess makes sense because of the time era, but I find their ecstatic tones to get a bit much at times. They really remind me of rap battling with your friends at lunch time at school sometimes. The 3rd song ‘She’s Crafty’ picks the album up for me due to the instrumental taking on a really cool guitar riff and the chorus being incredibly infectious, I just can’t help but say “she’s crafty!” every time. A similar theme runs on ‘Fight For Your Right’ as the rock instrumental stands out at the front which really brings some weight to the song and adds so much, also when all 3 sing on the chorus there’s so much power it’s great. Of course you see this on ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ too which is just as catchy on the chorus. There are also a handful of cheeky songs on here such as ‘Brass Monkey’ that really utilises these funky brass sounds, hence the title. You also see this on ‘Girls’ which has this almost xylophone beat to it making it a very playful song. Overall, I do quite like a handful of this album but as an album it’s not something I’m going crazy for. It’s alright but the start does take away a lot for me and their vocals get a bit annoying after a while. Glad this came up though.

We zijn back! Goed begin. Wel een stijl op zichzelf. Rock, hiphop en schreeuwen

A pretty great listen. Lots of classics and fun songs. It is at times too derivative of the classic rap rock Run-DMC sound, but quality music nonetheless. 8/10

Beastie Boys just before they became legendary, and yet still a damn awesome album.

With this extraordinary debut, The Beastie Boys didn't only takes "garbage" music of black people's street culture to get it married with party rock sounding of white people by serious attempt to set up a musical revolution, but also built a bridge between black people & white people by getting them laugh and dance and rock so hard yet highly funky through 3 distinct funny deliveries of humors. Fav Track: Fight for Your Right

This record is fun AF. I know it is a bit cheesy by today standards but it’s playful and unpretentious. Great album.

Bit conflicted over this one. I LOVED this when it came out, and the production still sounds fresh today. But some of the lyrics and general yobbishness are hard to digest now, no matter how much the Beasties latterly reinvented both their sound and their stance. The singles are forgettable, or maybe just overexposed, but Slow Ride, Slow And Low, Paul Revere and Brass Monkey are still up there sonically with any hip hop of that era. I guess we've all (hopefully) grown up a lot since this was first released.

My only memory of this album was getting pissed at lunchtimes as a 16 year-old whilst working on the record stall in the market. The local low dive boozer that specialised in under age serving had a video jukebox. The lead singles from Licensed were on rotation. Three pints of lunchtime lager, some Beastie snarling and I was KING OF THE WORLD and ready to take on the afternoon shift with added bile. How very Beastie Boys. Oh, it’s a bloody good album btw. SO much fun.

One good track, twelve not my type of stuff.

it's actually kind of irritating how good this record is lol, as a lifelong beastie boys hater it sucks to finally confront this record and realize yeah, its great lol

4.5 chillllllllll

Toen ik de Beastie Boys zag staan was ik eigenlijk heel pessimistisch. Maar dit album viel me nog mee. Misschien dat dit dan nog een relatief oké album is maar ondanks niet iets wat ik in mijn lijst zou zetten.

Debuutalbum van de Beastie Boys. Mijlpaal in de populariteit van hiphop, met o.a. de megahit "Fight For Your Right". Het album introduceert de stijl van de Beastie Boys goed en is misschien wel hun leukste album. leukste nummer: No Sleep Till Brooklyn Het album had bijna een cover van Beatles nummer "I'm Down" erop gehad zij het niet dat de Beastie Boys hiermee in de problemen kwamen met Michael Jackson, die de rechten bezat.

First song starts out with a sample of When The Levee Breaks by Led Zepplin, never knew that but great kick off. This was a fun one to finish out the week, fight for your right and no sleep till brooklyn are classics. Finding some other gems on here like the first song, and I also liked Paul Revere.

Our third from the Beastie Boys I believe, and I hope it's the last because this is the big one. Probably my last, best chance at enjoying their music. A handful of recognizable hits on here, especially "No Sleep Til Brooklyn." Some of the other ones like "Girls" and "Brass Monkey" are more of memes than actual hits, but "No Sleep" goes super duper hard. Quite a few Led Zeppelin samples on here, which is nice. But man, it really is just extremely basic hip hop. Sure, it's foundational, but the majority of this stuff just doesn't age well for me. A lot of the rapping sounds like Dale and Brennan in the Boats n Hoes video: "The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria. I'll do you in the bottom while we're drinking sangria." There's no mistaking that these are white boys. I know I liked Paul's Boutique more than this one, it's definitely more advanced. And then you've got "Ill Communication," which is even more advanced production-wise but I really didn't like that one at all. My verdict is these guys are overrated. Still, this is a pretty solid album with some great bangers. I respect it more than I enjoy it, but I do enjoy a decent bit of it. I can't deny it was fun trying to recognize the samples, and hearing bits that have been sampled to oblivion afterwards. [Sidebar: this came out four years after Grandmaster Flash's The Message, which I think aged EXTREMELY well, I gave it 5 stars on a first listen. Clearly going for different things (funky beats and more lyrical rap vs. party beats and going dummy), but that explains why one is more timeless to me than the other. No one wants to party to this stuff anymore.] Favorite tracks: No Sleep til Brooklyn, She's Crafty, The New Style, Brass Monkey. Album art: Definitely iconic, so much so that Eminem ripped it off for his Kamikaze album. White rappers be sticking together like rice, huh. 3.5/5

Best album ever

It's content was misunderstood and misconstrued a lot - even by its creators for a time but this remains an absolute steadfast classic.

Great album. The tunes are good and rocking and there is a fun sense of humor to it.

The second half is more rock influenced and stronger than the first half, but overall it's very fun and light-hearted.

Very fun, if kinda stupid. The beats are obviously dated but some of these genuinely rip. Girls maybe brought the whole album down a point on its own. Best song: The New Style

Thank you, next.

Musically this is really nice album. Especially considering that "Licensed to Ill" was their first album. Unfortunately lyrics are not so much for me. Nevertheless this album has it's good moments.

This album is so dumb and so fun, absolutely great Dudes Rock vibes

It's fine

Gave me a headache.

no

- Opening 3 tracks all go hard. - Slow Ride and Girls are both super goofy but catchy - Fight For Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn are both iconic - Paul Revere is a pretty cool song with a fun story - Brass Monkey Slaps Can see myself coming back to this album in the right mood for sure.

THE rap album. No one has come close to it. This is everything Kendrick wants to be. Hip hop started here. 3 1/2

a classic, the influence of this is crazy. probably a 3.4 for me

Solid debut. The voices still bug me a bit but the songwriting is clever and often funny. Masters of sampling.

Best Beastie Boys album!

This is a landmark album based solely on the sound and it is three white guys rapping for Def Jam. "License to Ill" was something completely different in the world of rap and while I have outgrown some of this frat-rap style (as did they) the number of samples and seemingly creating songs based on those samples creates a place for this album in this book.

Second Beastie Boys album this week. Found it tiring - and just too juvenile for me. I'd rather go shout at a cloud.

Very 80s rap with rock influences in some songs. Definitely a product of its time, but not quite as bad as you would think. Towards the end is quite a bit of filler and there are some weaker moments, but the highs are pretty good and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

3.5

There are tracks that I regularly come back to from the Beastie Boys, and I know I've listened to this album at least once before. This time through I'm finally paying attention to and recognizing the music that was sampled from other artists on many of these tracks. I'm sure I've still missed something. There are tracks on this album that are iconic for the band. "Brass Monkey" is such an ear worm, but not the only one on the album. There are lines from individual tracks ("No Sleep till Brooklyn", "Paul Revere", etc.) that are like little memory bookmarks for me. I've heard "Fight for Your Right" more than enough times. I'm even less enthusiastic about hearing others call out the main line from that track. "Fight for Your Right" is a good example of why I'm not rating this album higher. There is a more juvenile point of view for many of the tracks that keeps me from wanting to revisit much of this album.

Classic album. Still sounds good.

Very good. I’m really impressed by the variety of music they sampled and produced. 9/10

Rap rock. Está muy bien. Venga, vinilo.

Oh, to be young and stoopid again.

I liked a couple ofthese tracks but the shouty approach on all tracks wasn't for me.

Not my thing....

The Beasties debuted so confidently and fully formed. This album has everything they'd be known for - their sense of humor, hybrid of rock and hip-hop, etc. I love this album so much

I think it’s completely insufferable to listen to in one sitting. The samples feel pretty cheesy today, and the vocals are grating.

Beastie Boys have always been a one-trick pony, haven't they? It's a good trick, bringing us the likes of Sabotage, and (on this album) Fight For Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn, mixing beats and Guitar/Bass Riffs with their own brand of high energy Hip-Hop. But for an entire album, the formula just holds up for so long - too long in this case. I found listening increasingly tedious with every track. 2/5

Licensed to Ill is the debut album by American rap rock group Beastie Boys. It shocked the world by being the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 Albums chart, and has since release been certified diamond (10x platinum). It is also considered one of the best hip hop albums of all time, and has received tons of commercial and critical acclaim. While I enjoyed this album overall, I don't think it's as amazing as all the reviews state. Perhaps I am too used to modern hip hop/rap, so this album sounds different, but I have to appreciate the OG's. This was an innovative album and the group obviously had a lot of fun recording it.

You know, it's the Beastie Boys. It's one of their most energetic, but also gets a little repetitive after the half-way point.

By far not my favorite Beastie Boys album, but they had to start somewhere. Funny how they grew out of this thing that worked really well for them, but if a group like this came along today, they just would've leaned into it and we would've had to endure a decade of party boy bro anthems instead of getting to watch them evolve, take risks, and change the culture.

Hard to listen to

girls is maybe the worst song i have ever heard no sleep till brooklyn is the only good song this is music for 14 year old white boys in the 80s, has not aged well

Hip hop ochentero con algún tema reconocido. Rítmico y con sintetizadores. Estilo parecido en cada una de las diferentes canciones

A classic rap album, the first one that went to the top of Billboard charts. A lot of songs are cool and fun to listen to, but musically they are so repetitive that it is a bit too much by the end. The mysogynistic lyrics are also a no.

I really vibed with this album, and I never realized they were a yell rapping group. They suffered a bit of the problem of their voices sounding similar since you lose some of that inflection ability since you're always yelling, but their beats really always held strong. Not many strongly stood out, but I would totally listen to this again if I want good beats.

All their lyrics are the same but I enjoy enough of the songs to let it slide

Banger after banger

Maybe the worst Beastie's album. Very juvenile in humor and appeal. 1.5/5

lot of hits, but not my jam

Just never really got The Beastie Boys. 2 stars

Took me a long time to appreciate these guys, but they (and this album) have really grown on me. One of the most important albums of my generation for sure.

Sampling is tip notch and worth the listen for alone. But I find their voices so annoying.

Highlights: "The New Style," "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," "Rhymin and Stealin" Not for nothing do these guys jokingly compare themselves to Jerry Lewis. That cuts both ways. It's appreciative musically. Some of these beats are really great for '86, with an inspired, intuitive ear almost like Madlib, flanging snares, reverse bass, jarring sample cuts dropping the bottom out of verses, swarming vocal panning and overdubbing. The use of noise and rock is also strong for the time. RunDMC was *referencing* rock with keyboard approximations of My Sharona and Walk This Way, but they lose the edge. They lose it in the vocal delivery as well. The Beastie Boys, meanwhile, are absolutely letting real guitar samples run amok and screaming their heads off like all their pop metal influences. But. I don't really buy their tongue-in-cheek approach all the way. It registers as satire for future periods, but in context it's more like racist bad faith. Especially when gun violence and pimping tropes were not at all the norm in hip-hop, it comes across as culturally toxic. Make that two counts, because 80s-90s get broadly characterized by a swell in "(mass) youth culture," and this definitely seems like a reference point for that predatory chimera. What is the *function* of the satire? Do we think that trying to name an album "Don't Be A Faggot" at the peak of the AIDs epidemic was the choice of some progressive allies who wanted to deflate stigma and break down boundaries? Just because Eminem joked about being Elvis in 2002 doesn't make it a joke. Just because Beastie Boys joked about being Jerry Lewis doesn't make it a joke.

Pretty samey, I don't think it's aged well

Rock rap just ain't my thing

Interesting

One famous, over-rated, over-played track and the rest are not even average.

Licensed to Ill is definitely a debut: The Beasties' sound isn't as refined or experimental as later releases, and there's a vein of casual misogyny. But you can feel the freshness, the energy, and I love the way it moves so fast. It's like being machine-gunned to death by rhyming couplets.

Woulda been 5 stars except for that pedo line in the 2nd song. Sus

This album is great. Dope samples, sick beats, awesome rapping. Funnily enough the famous tracks were the ones I liked the least.

Classic. Love the beats and style, and the humor

Well, that was fun!

This is great for what it is. A dumb, fun hip-hop and rock hybrid. The BBoys will top this, and almost all other recorded music, with their next album Paul's Boutique. Cant deny the classics, which is damn near every song on this album. so im giving it a 4

good

Can't argue it's not unique for 1986. I always think that they need to turn the vocals up though. 3.5

Beastie Boys’ debut is a lot more punk-rap than rap-rap, but it’s still littered with bangers. The production is so crisp for a 1986 hip-hop album. You can tell Rick Rubin had his sausage fingers all over this. Tickled a 5 you know

I was almost ready to give this album a 5 but then it seemed to take a dive after fight for your right (which is easily the best song along with she’s crafty). All the intense guitars and stuff seemed to disappear and it felt really repetitive. Overall thought it’s still some really fun white boy rap.

I don’t know if they’re the first ones that blended rap with rock, I’m assuming they’re not, but they’re the ones that stand out for me

Amazing album

Their act is a bit exhausting, but fun. And definitely deserves to be on this list.

J'aurais mis 2.5 si on me laissait le faire...

un tantinet répétitif mais dynamisant

This is a lovely album, and I know it is a classic. Still, for me, it is not better than "Ill Communication" (far from it), so I'll keep one or two songs from it and keep going with the latest releases from Beast Boys, which only increased in quality over the years and are getting old like wine, always better.

This re-listen of Licensed To Ill was a nostalgia trip. I've listened to this album a LOT in my youth and I still know every song. I very much enjoyed listening to this incredibly fun and energetic album again. Listening and almost giggling to the bashful and playful lyrics. And it certainly belongs on this list due to the impact it had on music. But putting the sentiments of my youth aside - this is not a really good album by itself. Neither is it revolutionary. The music was a couple of white boys doing what Run-DMC had already been doing for years - and was doing better. This brought a bit more punky and ska ('Girls') feeling to it. A few standout songs are still on here, 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn' is still a catchy and hilarious rocky anthem that should bring a smile to anyone's face. 'Paul Revere' and 'Brass Monkey' are standout tracks on this album and are giving a glimpse of what brilliant madness is to come on Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head

If I break it down into its parts, no one bit is massively to my taste. But as a whole... Fantastic. Great fun.

Not my thing

Cool

Crap

Great debut from a very influential band.

How nice for them.

Have to say a lot of Beastie Boys stuff doesn't hit the spot with me. I enjoy their delivery but I think its the accompanying music that I don't like quite so much. But its always fun though

I like the Beastie Boys, I appreciate the Beastie Boys, but I don't really often want to listen to the Beastie Boys.

I enjoyed this album and liked to imagine myself back in the 80s when this came out, what the response would have been. Sad that I will never get to see them live, but theme the breaks.

A quick disclaimer: I fully realize I'm going to sound like an old curmudgeon yelling at kids to get off his lawn with the review. Having said that, I just don't get it. It's like hearing a bunch of kids yelling at me for 45 minutes. Fight For Your Right is the one exception - I like it because it's actually musical in nature. Still shouting but at least there is more going on than that. I also (slightly) enjoyed hearing some of the samples from Led Zeppelin and CCR. Sorry, but it's just not for me. 2 stars.

The beastie boys have a cool sound for a time and place, but damn this album is just grossly immature. I just can’t get past the smash your neighbor’s property fuckboy-ness of it. I mean, girls? The song is awful. All this album ends up making me do is remember all those asshat dudes when I was younger who made their whole personalities about “fucking shit up” and misogyny. Give me some beastie boys after they grow up, until then, no thanks.

Can’t do it. Recognize its energy and it does have its merits, but at the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, most songs are annoying and the lyrics are stupid.

More than a few cringy dated lyrics, but otherwise influential, interesting, groundbreaking, entertaining.

It's classic hip-hop week for me on the generator and this sounds better to me now than it did when it came out. I didn't quite know what to make of it back then but I really appreciate it now. A fun frenzy of white rap. What a band.

Not my style but interesting album. For sure, an album you have to know and listen to. I can here some Led Zepp samples.

Excelente

Not their best, but still a lot of fun

Efficient and annoying as it wants to be!!

It was a fun album. It was relatively short and I would listen to it again.

Weet niet zeker of ik dit tof had gevonden als ik het nu voor het eerst zou horen, maar op basis van jeugdsentiment is dit gewoon geweldig. Wat een beats, sfeer en attitude.

Ik vond dit behoorlijk tegenvallen. Enorm gedateerd, steeds diezelfde beat en raps. En waar is de beat nou? Ik werd er een beetje 'ill' van.

Ik heb dit vroeger heel veel gedraaid en ik hoor nu nog altijd de toffe dingen in bepaalde nummers. Maar ik betrapte me er nu op dat ik het nu bij vlagen ook best irritant begon te vinden. Dat nasale geschreeuw. Ruwe diamant die op latere platen veel beter tot zijn recht is gekomen, gelukkig.

Het vorige album dat we van de jongens moesten luisteren viel een stuk beter.

Coincidentally got this the day after Paul's boutique. Nowhere near as good is it?

I always thought that these guys were a bunch of fakers. I know the songs, lived through the music in high school at the time and it never clicked. It was dumb and frat boyesque. I have to say, WHOA! It clicked this time. So much so that I pulled my wife's Check Your Held off the CD shelf and hit it and then Paul's Boutique. I'm now a fan. Thanks 1001 Albums Generator.

Iskreno me čudi što ovaj album nije bolan na rym, al razumijem. Nije toooliko dobar ko njihov ostatak diskografije, al opet.

Start of a new sound? Perhaps, but I struggle to listen to much of the Beastie Boys because the singer sounds too much like Glibert Gottfried. Still, some great sampling work (which then got sampled).

Estrena discogràfica més destacada pel que va suposar en el seu moment que pels seus atributs propis. És refrescant i divertit i d'escolta fàcil, tres conceptes no fàcils de trobar en el génere. La multitud de samples i referències al rock també puntuen en el seu benefici

Classic of they're style. Interestingly listening back to it, the cultural knowledge alluded and referenced within lyrics is quite dense, but also much more white bread Anglo than I recall. I wonder if that contributed to their mainstream success. However, I'm not a mad fan of their overall sound. Like it's punchy and good, but for more than a couple songs it's a bit much.

This is a great debut album by the Beastie Boys. Lots of fun hits on it. I do think they only got better from here though. I had this album growing up and listened to it a ton. It's a great intro into their music and vibe. Standout Tracks: Rhymin' & Stealin', Slow Ride, Girls, Fight for Your Right, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Paul Revere, Brass Monkey, Slow and Low

A classic that probably is your Facebook using Uncle’s favourite

Meh. Sounds like garage band. Few hits.

Ik weet hoe goed dit zou moeten zijn en enorm veel serieuze rappers vinden dit ook heel goed, maar ik word vaak toch wat moe van de oudere Beastie Boys nummers. Dat over elkaar heen schreeuwen met maximale reverb doet het niet voor mij. Laatst nog Pauls Boutique geluisterd en daar speelt dat ook.

Really a classic with lots of hits. "Girls", "Brass Monkey", "No Sleep Til Brooklyn", and "Paul Revere". I'm not a gigantic fan of the Beastie Boys but can't deny how great this album is. 8/10.

This is very fun. Makes me wish I could dance like a cool New Yorker. There’s a hell of a lot I recognise, either from samples of other songs or having been sampled on others. Fight for your right brought back nice nostalgic memories from a random casette I had as a kid - me and my sister used to play that on repeat circa 96. Never properly paid enough attention to these, but glad I have now. Very iconic, can instantly recognise their sound, and a lot more layered at times than I expected

Ridiculous and fun, they sound like American chavs at this point and it's class. Prefer later beasties, think the music and lyrics get better, but still some brilliant tracks on this.

No Sleep till Brooklyn is great, but a whole album of very similar songs became a little bit too much.

Never listened to a Beastie Boys album before but I recognised quite a few tracks. I thought it was pretty good overall, some great guitar riffs that work well with their rock rap style. Highlights were "Fight For Your Right", "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and "Brass Monkey".

I've listened to Paul's boutique before but not this one.... I know it's all tongue in cheek but a lot of it is a bit silly and I wouldn't generally think to go back to this. I think the Beasties sound best when there's guitars (guitar sounds) involved and it's a bit heavier. Fight for your right and no sleep till Brooklyn are the highlights here. And obviously can't forget brass monkey! In fact, the second half of the album is much better than the first. Was going to give it a 3 but the latter half brings it to a 4

This is a pretty strong debut and some of these songs are classics I can't help but feel that Rick Rubin's production is probably the most innovative thing about this album. The Beastie Boys lyrics on this one are purposely aggressive, in your face, and puerile at times (just look up the original title for the album). Luckily for all of us (and their legacy) they evolved.

This is quite a debut. 3.5/5

I like this old school Album, not listening to it much but there is so much to find, the good kind of experimental.

Juvenile, ridiculous and a ton of fun. Definitely one of those albums where they captured lightning in a bottle. Their goofy lyrics and signature shouted vocals are only part of the equation though. The music is fantastic and a lot of the credit for that goes to producer Rick Rubin (though the Beasties are credited as producers too). Crisp, hard-hitting drums, blasts of fiery electric guitar and a lot of fun sampling. Some of the samples are just long enough to register in your brain but too short to figure out what they're from. It's almost a game to try and guess them. (The closing track "Time to Get Ill" goes wild with that.) "Fight for Your Right" and "No Sleep till Brooklyn" are mega hits and personal favorites but there's a bunch of other great songs here. The album is pretty close to being a masterpiece but some of the childish lyrics hold it back a little for me. Still, it's definitely a classic and I had fun revisiting it. Jeez, so many White Castle references. Between that, Budweiser and Chef Boyardee, I hope they got paid for the product placement.

ALI BABBA AND THE FORTY THIEVES ALI BABBA AND THE FORTY THIEVES sheeesh there's so many good sing-along moments on this record. I've heard this album a ton of times and I am only now realizing that "Fight For Your Right" and "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" are consecutive tracks on an album. That's pretty amazing- both of these songs are so entrenched as legendary tracks that it only adds to their impressiveness that they are right after each other. "Brass Monkey" is such a fun upbeat song. I used to yell along to this song with my heavy metal friends. Same with "She's Crafty". There's many many things about these songs that make them great. You can really pull them apart into enjoyable layer after enjoyable layer. It's a perfect representation of good musicians doing their own thing and their own thing being gold. It's just so good. The beat / tempo change in "The New Style" around the 3 minute mark is serious mastery of expectations in music and how to misdirect a listener in the best way.

This album hasn't grown with me. I remember hearing this when it was released and loved it. As I've aged, I'm not sure I appreciate it as much. I do appreciate the history and BB in general. 3 stars.

notes - Debut album by the beastie boys - Originally had a different title, which im very glad they didn’t end up going with - Produced by rick Ruben, repeat name on this list - Has been described as punk-rock rap - Hip hop production with punky vocals and attitude - I’ve never been the hugest beastie boys fan outside of a couple songs - Their style kinda wears on me after a while fav - Fight for your right - This is the easy choice but its the best one least fav - Paul revere - This song is annoying 2/5 - this band is better in short doses

fun metal-hiphop fusion at times but dated and obnoxious at others

Good album, brings me back to high school.

love it, a bit dated

hahahah white boys go brrrrr (great production, great chemistry, great energy, some questionable lyrics) fav songs: Fight For Your Right, No Sleep Till Brooklyn least fav songs: Slow Ride, Girls

I wouldn't exactly call this music

Much of this sounds dated, but Fight For your Right still hits hard.

i didn’t love any specific songs but i can 100% see myself putting this album on in the car

Wel there is only one Beastie Boys and this was the start. Loud, brash, funny and in your face it's suprisingly musical and well produced. What's not to like?

An album that starts with John Bonham’s legendary drumming from When the Levee Breaks can’t go wrong, right? I don’t like rap music, and that’s an understatement, but the Beastie Boys are the exception because they show how rap can be done right: by quoting tons of quality rock music! [It’s a pity copyright laws prevent others from following down the Beastie Boys' path.] That said, the latter parts of the album features tracks that overstay their welcome, featuring mostly screaming band members and less brilliance.

nice

I can dig this! This album is greatly crafted. How these guys bounce off lines off eachother is just insane! Had a few good laughs with the lyrics in front of me. And then there's the music! Very dope beats and some great sampling! 8 out of 10

Man, this is extremely sexist, but I can't help but enjoy it? Perhaps it's because I know by the next album the Beastie Boys were apologizing for the lyrical content of this album, but even after listening to stuff like the Chronic and the Marshal Mathers LP, this one feels even more apparent than those, even though it definitely comes off as more delinquent-y in this album than those. Just something to note before I praise the rest of the album. The absolute joy the (albeit cheesy) lyrics, the flow between the three, and the samples/beats really bringing it all together makes it super clear why this album is so important to rap, especially for the era. I could totally see comparing this to anything modern and laughing (as I said, it's almost childlike in it's attitude), but it really adds to the whole mood. Not to mention how many lyrics here I reference without even thinking about it constantly, just because they stick in your head so easily. My only fault here as mentioned before is the lyrical content, but it's such a stellar groundwork for more Beastie Boys albums to come that it certainly won't keep me up at night. It's also extremely good at blending genres, bringing in a lot of hard rock influences that I can only assume helped the album really take off, being the first rap album to be on the billboard top 200. I don't think this is my favorite rap album (I don't think it's even my favorite Beastie Boys album), but it certainly is very good. Very, very high 4 star. Would get a 5 if not for lyrics and perhaps not changing quite enough near the end (they kind of use all of there metal influences in one fell swoop in the middle). Both of these I think will be addressed in the other albums by them on this list.

Oh I know that I love this album. Yeah upon listening to it while on a stationary bike for 30 min, I still love this album.

IT'S THE BEA-STIE BOYS!!

hip hop é engraçado. eu não consigo levar a serio "IF I PLAYED GUITAR ID BE JIMMY PAGE THE GIRLIES I LIKE ARE UNDERAGE!" ironicamente tem umas coisas bem led zeppelin nesse album, por exemplo, rhymin and stealin tem uma bateria completamente bozo e she's crafty tem um lick que eu tenho quase certeza que é igual a o de uma musica do led zeppelin, so n lembro qual. enfim, hip hop n é meu negocio, então só ouvi o lado A, mas eu achei legal o uso de rock em cima das batidas e rima.

3.5, giving them the 4 out of respect. Brass Monkey was great, but a lot of it was not good, doesn't hold up from that long ago.

Классика, но с морально устаревшим звуком. Скретчей пиздец, аж заебывает. Гитарные рок рифы звучат круто, прикольно засемплированны. Ударки отстой.

Doesn't hold up to the test of time, mostly due to the casual misogyny that the band would later apologize for. Probably the most consistent Beasies record though - all tracks are listenable and close to "singles" vs. some of the later output that had a lot (a LOT) of filler. So I have to rate this in balance...

I heard this album a decade before I'd ever heard a Led Zeppelin song so it was surprising to discover the original cuts when I get around to Led Zep's catalog. I really like hip hop and The Beasties but this one is just OK. While it was a landmark release at the time, the beats and rhymes don't hold up.

7/10 REPETITIVE AT TIMES

These guys like White Castle and Beer. Just started listening to the podcast on No Dogs in Space about these guys.

unlistenable

Best Song: No Sleep Till Brooklyn. The Beastie Boys' boisterous attitude actually channeled towards something that feels worthy of that dumb energy. Worst Song: Girls. In an album full of obnoxious songs, this song out obnoxiouses them all. Overall: The Beastie Boys are the chihuahuas of music. All impotent energy and rage. The vocals are garbage, blown out frat boy shouting that sounds like it's coming through a fast food drive-thru speaker, and then the beats, which are the main thing on offer here, aren't that great either. Even when the beats are good, it's probably just a barely altered version of some other song. This music does nothing well.

Este me gusta incluso más que Paul’s Boutique, pero es claro que ambos pertenecen al listado

ожидала большего. может опять же нужно сильно больше времени, так всё сливается и выглядит вариацией одной и той же песни

classic

All time classic, beastie boys at their best

Enjoyed this album. Definitely in their own genre. Rebellion and partying is their motif.

It's fine. Not really my musical style. Very old school. Not really a fan of the rap rock though.

Hype! This is what should be played at all parties. Even for people who are unfamiliar with most songs (like myself), you can't not like at least a few songs from this record. Rock & hip hop blend so well together to create something that's just fun. It's not what you can call a mindblowing record with masterpieces or anything, but it's an absolute joy to listen to - and sometimes that's all an album needs to be. Standout tracks are Slow Ride, No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Fight for your Right (duh), and Brass Monkey.

Felt like being a cool kid in a 90s American highschool movie

Rather immature, lyrically and musically

What a shame. Another potentially great album ruined by relentless misogyny without any attempt to hide it with irony or as storytelling. On this album Mike D proudly announces that "I like my girlies underage". To add to this, the working title of this album was "Don't be a f***ot" and this juvinile bigotry is threaded through the entire album. Thank god they changed their ways later in their career.

80’er hiphop, alternativ rap, punk-inspireret, indflydelsesrigt, NYC

I feel like this album peaked with the first song and was pretty flat for the rest of the runtime, with the exception of the couple moments I enjoyed, I was bored everywhere else and found myself rolling my eyes to the cringey lyrics and annoying vocal delivery very often. Almost all of the humor did not land for me and came off childish and obnoxious. The production however, while dated, still sounded listenable and was by far the star of the show. 2 Stars

Still remembered all the lyrics. They were Soo young. Party album

Great album, surprised it has such clean lyrics for a groundbreaking rap album. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Stand-outs: "Fight for Your Right," "Slow Ride," "Slow and Low"

Great debut, full of classic tracks

Meh

Wow! What an album. 5 off the rip. Beastie and Rubin, GTFOH! T3B 1. No Sleep Till Brooklyn 2. Girls 3. Brass Monkey

I have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy this, still better than Paul's boutique

Punk combines with the newish genre of hip hop to introduce a fresh and exciting fusion of sound to the world, particularly important for pulling in white audiences into hip hop. It's loud and exciting with hard guitar sounds and hollow beats. The quality of the album is certainly carried by the group's fun and hilarious attitude, with select hits that really work. However, the beats are hollow and the riffs aren't impressive. It's the samples and production techniques that are interesting in some areas... but repetitive and underwhelming most elsewhere. The tracks do evolve, so there is variety, but it often feels gimmicky and tiresome upon repeated listens. The reason for my high score is because some tracks do work incredibly well. It's a mixed bag at the start, carried by the novelty, but it picks up with "Girls". "Fight for your Right" and "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" are the best songs, with interesting riffs and an exhilarating performance. It's my least favorite of their first 5 albums, but still enjoyable all throughout. Favorites: She's Crafty, Girls, Fight for Your Right, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Brass Monkey, Time to Get Ill

Dope album

Nah not for me.

Je voulais vous prouver qu'Eminem s'était inspiré de cette pochette pour faire peur à Moby grâce à des éléments de preuve irréfutables mais deux espions de Robert sont actuellement à mes trousses. Je vous tiendrai informés dès que je les aurai semés.

J'ai beaucoup apprécié cet album des Beastie Boys, qui a fait s'échapper de moi les idées naziabondes précédemment inculquées dans mon cerveau par les totalitaristes de Laibach. La langue française sera donc de nouveau mise à l'honneur sur ma page 1001albumsgenerator, n'hésitez pas à me suivre pour ne louper aucune critique.

Eh not really my cup of tea.

:))) ну скажите мне кто не слушал классику как всегда прекрасно даже если настроения нет

possibly the worst wannabe rap band in the world. Misappropriation. Hate these shouty loud mouth pricks. That’s my review. No stars. They can all die.

Fun and consistent, I can see why this group is so influential.

They’re fun party songs, but the beastie boys may be the most overrated group out there.

I subconciously recognised most of this album without realising

Sorry, this kinda gave me a headache listening to the whole thing at once. I'll take just the singles on this one I think.

Its a fun album, its high tempo, energetic and makes you smile and bob your head.

Solid

3.25

It's amazing how the Beastie Boys managed to encapsulate what being a horny young man is all about into a single album.

loved it, drive at the beginning of a verified storm its soo fun to listen like a hypeman for the oncoming shit storm

Solid beastie, but not their best work

I've tried a few times and just can't get into beastie boys

This album exudes tons of late adolescent male bravado, causing one's inner middle-aged schoolmarm to grimace disapprovingly from time to time. But I suppose that's its clear intention and charm. I sometimes amused myself imagining that it was Lenny and the Squigtones performing at the Pizza Bowl. It definitely seems very tongue-in-cheek sometimes. How could it not with callouts to Abe Vigoda and Phyllis Diller? (But I do kind of wish that "She's Crafty" were more about scrapbooking and macramé.) There is a near-perfect meld in here of hip hop and hard rock that others have tried without such catchy success. Not all the songs have a metal sound, but there is a metal attitude throughout that takes hip hop to a new place. This was a fun journey for the day.

I have enjoyed the musical stylings of Beastie Boys for a long time, but I was not very familiar with this album. As far as the sampling and production, I totally dig it. Many of the raps strike on the side of immature boys, but I reckon that is kind of who they were at the time of this release. I had lots of fun listening today!

If you want to make me feel good about your record, there are worse ways to start it than by sampling Led Zeppelin's When the Levee Breaks. The lyrics are silly and often sophomoric. I definitely don't feel like I'm the intended audience. And that's a bit of a shame because there were lots more fun samples and catchy delivery. Another band that's better when I can't really hear the words.

I kind of expected to enjoy this. Instead I was mostly bored. Like watching talented kids I don’t know putting on a play. The album is littered with some amusing rhymes and references (pagoda/Abe Vagoda, Mr. Ed). When I would hear one then replay it I was disappointed to find a throwaway bit of rhyming rather than much cleverness behind it. “Fight for Your Right” is still a fun diversion. “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn” is ok. The rest was a slog.

Het is wel geinig. Vooral de nummers "Girls" en "Fight For Your Right" natuurlijk. De rest is eigenlijk toch maar schreeuwerig gedoe. Niet zo mijn ding. **

I didn't really like the vocals cause they're pretty much the same all the time. Cool beats tho!

Classic, half the album has hits that are still played today. How often does that happen.

Encore un album inconnu !!! Je suis peu intéressé généralement par les groupes américains... Dont la musique est loin de la culture européenne et, trop souvent, obsédé par la réussite (rock fm, ...)... Mais je vais jeter une oreille sur spotify pour voter en connaissance de cause... Bye

Ok it's kinda outdated.

Awful.

I remember this album being a huge phenomenon in my teens. The Beastie Boys somehow managed to come out legit, somehow earnest and fully committed to hip hop and while failing to take themselves or hip hop culture seriously in the best way. I haven’t listened to this album end to end probably for decades and it holds up, though I don’t think it’s their best.

Beastie boys blir mye av det samme, spesielt nå som vi har hørt to albumer blant de 21 første. Siste halvdel av albumet har noen av de store, Girls, You gotta fight for your right to party, og disse er helt råe, men resten av albumet er ganske fattig.

Love this album 1 of my all time favorite party albums

This album is really bad. Painful to listen to. Very, very juvenile. I feel like many of the positive reviews are blinded by nostalgia, because listening to this album in 2022 actually sucks. This record embodies everything I hate - annoying, frat rap. Not to mention it is extremely dated. Even 14 year old me would’ve hated this.

Did not âge well

No sleep til Brooklyn

Love it

The first rap album to top the Billboard charts, Licensed to Ill is a supremely goofy tongue twister of a time. Though the Beastie Boys later apologized for the casual misogyny in some of the lyrics, it barely impedes the flow, and the selection and arrangement of samples is masterful,

Early beastie boys is almost weird al Yankovic level parody of run dmc.

some very fat 808 sounds. that was the best bit really other than the iconic record sleeve.

I fucked my first sex robot to this record. She malfunctioned and scorched the tip of my penis so badly that my cum was like molten lava for 3 weeks. I pumped my load up her so many more times.

Yeah, I know yall are gonna have lazy lobs on for this, but I don't care.

Love Beastie Boys. Hate Licensed To Ill. Thank fuck they grew out of their juvenile boobs and beers phase quickly. The oldest trick in the book, white boys steal black man's music and sell it to the mainstream. It blows my mind that they went from this derivative novelty dirge and within three years got to almost killing their careers with the high water mark of sampling that is Paul's Boutique. The lesson here...listen to Paul's Boutique which will almost certainly not be on this list because it was light on sexism and gimmicks and sold fuck all units. You're welcome. Rest In Power MCA.

A really fun, and clever, album.

Friends would probably be mad, but I just do not like the Beastie Boys

A classic. Sure some of the themes haven't aged well and the Beasties have even apologized for them. But what a gem.

slow ride= sample from Low Rider - War The New Style / She’s Crafty ~ bits on Carousel- Travis Scott?

Maybe for skiing. Not for nighttime, not good for dancing. Girls is good.

Highlights: New style Girls Rhymin and stealin Brass monkey