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 a 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. Source: [AMG]
Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn
Track Listing 1. Rhymin & Stealin 2. The New Style 3. She's Crafty 4. Posse in Effect 5. Slow Ride 6. Girls 7. Fight for Your Right 8. No Sleep Till Brooklyn 9. Paul Revere 10. Hold It Now, Hit It 11. Brass Monkey 12. Slow and Low 13. Time to Get Ill
The gimmick here is that on each track a hard rock act has been combined with a rap act: Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill, Living Colour and Run-D.M.C., and so on. The idea, as with Run-D.M.C.'s duet with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way," is to achieve musical synergy and commercial crossover, and at least the second goal was met when this album went gold while the movie it accompanied went into the dumper. But, as on any duet album, from Sinatra to Elton John, the concept has to be translated into appropriate pairings on good songs to really work. Sometimes, it has. Living Colour and Run-D.M.C. meld well on "Me, Myself & My Microphone," and Slayer and Ice-T make an angry thrash of "Disorder." But in both cases, the rappers are familiar with the style -- Ice-T has a metal band of his own in Body Count. Elsewhere, neither the rappers nor the metal kids sound distinctive enough to make a striking impression beyond a faithfulness to a hard, angry approach. Source: [AMG]
Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul - Fallin`
Track Listing 1. Helmet & House Of Pain - Just Another Victim 2. Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul - Fallin' 3. Living Colour & Run DMC - Me, Myself & My Microphone 4. Biohazard & Onyx - Judgment Night 5. Slayer & Ice-T - Disorder 6. Faith No More & Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. - Another Body Murdered 7. Sonic Yout & Cypress Hill - I Love You Mary Jane 8. Mudhoney & Sir Mix-A-Lot - Freak Momma 9. Dinosaur Jr. & Del The Funky Homosapien - Missing Link 10. Therapy & Fatal - Come and Die 11. Pearl Jam & Cypress Hill - Real Thing
