Released forty years ago this week on November 15, 1986, Beastie Boys’ landmark debut album, Licensed to Ill, introduced a global audience to Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D’s brash, rock-and punk-influenced take on hip-hop. Driven by hard-hitting beats, rock guitars, and irreverent humor, the album made an immense and immediate impact, becoming the first rap album to top the Billboard 200. Produced by Rick Rubin and Beastie Boys, the album, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2015 for sales of more than 10 million units, has since been ranked by critics among the greatest hip-hop albums and debut albums of all time. Licensed to Ill features seven singles, including “Brass Monkey,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” “Paul Revere” and “Fight for Your Right.”
In celebration of its 40th anniversary Def Jam Recordings/UMe will mark four decades of Licensed To Ill with a limited Vinylphyle edition featuring mastering from original sources on March 18, 2027. Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl LPs with lacquers cut from a high resolution digital transfer from the original 1986 1/4” album master by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound, this newly remastered Vinylphyle edition is housed in a gatefold tip-on wrapped jacket with a satin-matte finish and printed on clay-coated board and includes a four-panel insert with scans of the original tape boxes, a classic band-logo etching on the vinyl, and all-new liner notes by Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D. Pre-order the limited Vinylphyle edition of Licensed to Ill, HERE.
Nino-Hernes received the physical master tapes for this album, but in the interest of tape preservation and mastering flexibility, he elected to introduce a digital step into his cutting process. “For this project I felt that making a high-resolution digital transfer, using the same machine and electronics that I use for cutting, would yield the best results and come closest to actually cutting from the first-generation master tape itself” explains Nino-Hernes, “It also allowed me to minimize handling of the tapes that have become fragile with time. In this case,” Nino-Hernes continues, “I felt that fidelity was better preserved by working from my digital transfer of the original master, than by making and working from a second-generation analog copy.”
The limited Vinylphyle edition of Licensed to Ill is a masterclass in analog editing, meticulously produced to the highest standards, with extensive quality controls at every step—from mastering and plating to pressing and printing.
TRACKLISTING
Side A
- Rhymin & Stealin
- The New Style
- She’s Crafty
- Posse In Effect
Side B
- Slow Ride
- Girls
- Fight For Your Right
- No Sleep Till Brooklyn
- Paul Revere
Side C
- Hold It Now, Hit It
- Brass Monkey
- Slow And Low
- Time To Get Ill
Side D
Etching (No Audio)