Album Of The Week: Beastie Boys', Licensed To Ill

The Beastie Boys crashed into the mainstream in the mid-'80s rapping about "The New Style" and yelling "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)," their brash hedonism striking a chord with hip-hop fans and suburban metalheads alike.

This loud, obnoxious blend of hard rock and rap, showcased on their debut album, Licensed To Ill, wound up having a lasting impact, but the trio of Adam Yauch, Adam Horovitz, and Mike Diamond were young punks and restless artists. Licensed To lll, is one of those debut albums that became extremely hard for the Beastie Boys to musically surpass. Anchored at their ankles, everything produced after would only be compared to Licensed To Ill, and although they were successful following the debut album, it was hard for the band to musically grow and expand different avenues.

All three members of the Beastie Boys came from middle-class Jewish families in New York and had become involved in the city's punk underground when they were teenagers in the early '80s, however, by early 1984, they had abandoned punk and turned their attention to rap.

In 1984, the Beasties joined forces with producer Rick Rubin, a heavy metal and hip-hop fan who had then-recently founded Def Jam Record with fellow New York University student Russell Simmons. Def Jam officially signed the Beastie Boys in 1985, and that year they had a hit single from the soundtrack to Kush Grove with "She's on It," a rap track that sampled AC/DC's "Back in Black" and suggested the approach of the group's forthcoming debut album.

The Beasties received their first significant national exposure later in 1985, when they opened for Madonna on her Virgin Tour. The Beasties taunted the audience with profanity and were generally poorly receieved. One other major tour, as the openers for Run-D.M.C.'s ill-fated Raisen' Hell album, followed before Licensed To Ill was released late in 1986.

A mixture of street beats, metal riffs, b-boy jokes, and satire, Licensed To Ill was interpreted as a mindless, obnoxious party record by many critics and conservative action groups. That didn't stop the album from becoming the fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records' history, however, as it sold over 750,000 copies in its first six weeks.

Licensed To Ill became the biggest-selling rap album of the '80s, which generated much criticism from certain hip-hop fans who believed that the Beasties were merely cultural pirates. On the other side of the coin, the group was being attacked from various factions on both the left and right, who claimed the Beasties' lyrics were violent and sexist.

While much of the Beasties' exaggeratedly obnoxious behavior started out as a joke, it became a self-parody by the end of 1987, so it's not a surprise that the group decided to revamp its sound and image during the the next two years. A bitter lawsuit with Def Jam would ensue during 1988 which led to the Beastie's breaking away.