Review Summary: An amazing, lively, groundbreaking, gonzo album that still remains potent after two decades, making an excellent case that the solutions to all the world's problems are beer and self-indulgence.
When the Beastie Boys first began rapping around 1984 they had one distinct problem - image. Hip-hop was only warming up for its later domination of music, and three white boys from New York who had switched to rap from hardcore punk weren't bound to be taken seriously.
Then,
Licensed to Ill arrived like a hurricane. Thanks to the Beasties' then rather groundbreaking fusion of rap and heavy metal/hard rock and MTV's rotation of the video for "Fight for Your Right",
Licensed became a huge success, ending up as both a critical success and the first rap album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts..
The album overall
Contrasted with the other works in their oeuvre, "Licensed to Ill" is (one hell of) a party album: loud, mindless, brash, childish, catchy and insanely fun. The group abandoned this path very quickly and instead focused for the rest of their career on hip-hop and funk/jazz instrumentals, with their youthful side surfacing on the occasional hardcore track, e.g. "Sabotage", "Time for Livin'", "Heart Attack Man".
Props must be given to the now-famous Rick Rubin for his production work on the album. Yes, he might sample various riffs and breaks from recognizable places (
Led Zeppelin,
The Clash,
Black Sabbath, and all of those are just on the opening track), but as a whole they still provide a visceral thrill upon listening. The teamwork between Mike D, Adrock and MCA also can't be discounted, thanks to their wild, insane delivery and unabashedly infectious, side-splitting rhymes.
The songs
Rhymin' and Stealin is a monumental introduction to the Beastie Boys. Over the recognizable pummeling drum break from "When The Levee Breaks" and a crunching riff (from "Sweet Leaf"), they introduce themselves as really bad
ass, unstoppable pirates who "drink and rob and rhyme and pillage" and have a lot of "maidens and wenches". Perhaps an ironic reference to their newfound love of rap? Who cares, I'm too busy headbanging and laughing. A highlight of the album and a perfect encapsulation of the Boys' early style: yank one classic rock riff, paste it over a hard beat and write humorous lyrics about various subjects (generally their mad skillz, girls, beer, and partying).
The New Style is a more skeletal composition: most of it is just a drum machine with the occasional guitar stab, while the chorus is just a drum machine and an occasional synth stab. OK, Rick was fresh off working on "Radio" a year prior. The Boys once again make humorous, overblown boasts about their domination, and even with the violent lyrical content ("Stepped into the party, the place was over packed/Saw the kid that dissed my homey and shot him in the back"; "I've got money and juice, twin sisters in my bed/Their father had envy so I shot him in the head") they never sound nihilistic like
NWA. This track contains also one line that could be their motto: "A lot of beer, a lot of girls, and a lot of cursing".
She's Crafty could be an attempt to bridge the polar opposite styles of the previous two songs. We have our token memorable classic rock riff (this time it's Led Zep's "The Ocean"), a simple but breakdance-friendly drum beat, and a recounting of the latest trouble they've got into - some girl who stole their belongings ("The next think she said, 'My place or yours? Let's kick some bass behind closed doors!'"; "When I woke up late in the afternoon/She had taken all the things from inside his room/I found myself sleeping in the middle of the floor"). Unsurprisingly, it works.
Posse in Effect is a drop quality-wise, being less memorable or interesting than the previous outings. Again we're treated to "Radio"-outtake production with just a TR-808 and a repeated sampled break, which quickly gets old. Not even the rhymes can rescue it. A rather undistinguished, boring song.
Slow Ride reuses the main hook from
War's "Low Rider", only slightly sped up. It mashes very well with the percussion-heavy minimal production. Again, the group make a valiant effort to raise some excitement, contributing some particular laugh-out-loud moments ("Because being bad news is what we're all about/We went to White Castle and we got thrown out"; "My teacher had beef so I gave her a smack/She chased me out of class 0 she was strapped with a ruler"; "I'm a gangster, I'm a prankster, I'm the king of the Ave."). And it's more successful this time, thanks to the short running time.
Girls is a jocular recounting of an incident where Adrock got snubbed by a girl, only to discover her after two years "Jackin' Mike D. to my dismay". This is all set to the backing of a drum machine and jaunty doo-wop melody (later doubled by vocal harmonies from the others). The song is funny in the first part, but the last refrain is kind of unimaginative, and it comes across as kind of filler.
Fight For Your Right: the motherload. There are few people who aren't familliar with this track, the first classic Beastie Boys song (deservedly so). It all works perfectly - from the simplest, most raucous three-chord riff ever recorded to the priceless, hilarious lyrics. "Man, living at home is such a drag/Now your mom threw away your best porno mag"? Comedy gold. "You gotta fight! For your right! To party!" is the quintessential Beastie chorus - catchy, loud, anthemic and hell-raising. A real highlight on the album, with a memorably comical video to boot.
No Sleep 'till Brooklyn is a heavy metal parody complete with samples from
AC/DC and a guitar solo from
Slayer axeman Kerry King. It has overt similarities to "Fight for Your Right", including the three-chord slash of the chorus interrupted by loud chants of "No! Sleep! 'till Brooklyn!", plus an excellent send-up of stereotypical metal band behavior. Case in point: "We're thrashing hotels like it's going out of style/Getting paid along the way cause it's worth your while/Four on the floor - Adrock's out the door/M.C.A.'s in the back because he's skeezin' with a whore". The other important highlight of "Licensed".
Paul Revere is another "Radio"-style production. A reversed drum track is employed, but the novelty soon wears off. This puts the focus on the lyrics, which are tongue-in-cheek Western spoof storytelling: "I'll ride with you if you can get me to the border/The sheriff's after me for what I did to his daughter/I did it like this - I did it like that/I did it with a whiffleball bat"; "Been had a little horsy named Paul Revere/Just me and my horsy and a quart of beer". More interesting than the undistinguished minimal sidesteps from the first half of the album.
For
Hold It Now, Hit It, Rick Rubin finally decides to dump the useless skeletalism and instead brings on the samples with a vengeance, yanking from Kool & the Gang to Doug E. Fresh, and more. The boys once again rap surreal stream-of-consciousness nonsense that deals mostly with their popularity among the ladies, their rap talent or how they waste time watching TV. At least it's better than Paul Revere.
Brass Monkey is an ode to alcohol and its numerous benefits (including "This girl walked by she gave me the eye/I reached in the locker grabbed the Spanish Fly [...]/It did begin the stuff wore in and now she's on my tip), placed over a funky beat and a spastic saxophone hook. Its zany humour and short running time make it a highlight.
Slow and Low was originally written by Run-DMC, but given to the Beasties. The result is a mixture of boombox-friendly loud drum machine, occasional power chord and self-parodic lyrics about rapping and ingesting hallucionegics... or beer, I can't tell. A very potent track, but lacking enough power to make it a high point on the album.
Time To Get Ill is the glorious album closer, complete with funky-as-hell drum beat and a dizzying array of samples (Led, Barry White, Schooly D, CCR, Steve Miller and even the theme from
Mr. Ed, to humorous effect), all joined together by goofy self-aggrandizing raps and boasts. Recommended listening for sure.
Conclusion: "Licensed to Ill" is an amazing, lively, groundbreaking, gonzo album that still remains potent after two decades, making an excellent case that the solutions to all the world's problems are beer and self-indulgence. The Beastie Boys, purveyors of booze, good times and coolness, stand in stark contrast to today's leading white rapper - the humourless, whiny, self-absorbed
Eminem.
Recommendations: "Rhymin' and Stealin", "Fight For Your Right", "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn", "Brass Monkey", "Time to Get Ill"
