Licensed to Ill

Licensed to Ill
A painting of the rear end of a Boeing 727, in an American Airlines livery. The "Beastie Boys" logo is printed on its tail.
Studio album by
Beastie Boys
ReleasedNovember 15, 1986 (1986-11-15)
Recorded1985–1986
StudioChung King (New York City)[1]
Genre
Length44:32
Label
Producer
Beastie Boys chronology
Polly Wog Stew
(1982) 		Licensed to Ill
(1986) 		Paul's Boutique
(1989)
Singles from Licensed to Ill
  1. "Hold It Now, Hit It"
    Released: April 15, 1986
  2. "Paul Revere"
    Released: August 13, 1986
  3. "The New Style"
    Released: November 6, 1986
  4. "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)"
    Released: December 1986[5]
  5. "Brass Monkey"
    Released: January 5, 1987
  6. "No Sleep till Brooklyn"
    Released: March 1, 1987
  7. "Girls"
    Released: May 6, 1987

Licensed to Ill is the debut studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys. It was released on November 15, 1986, by Def Jam and Columbia Records. The album became the first rap LP to top the Billboard 200 chart, and was the second rap album to be certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is one of Columbia Records' fastest-selling debut records to date and was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2015 for shipping over ten million copies in the United States.[1] The album received critical acclaim for its unique musical style, chemistry between the group members, and their stylized rapping. Since its release, Licensed to Ill has been ranked by critics as one of the greatest hip hop and debut albums of all time.

Despite its popularity and success, this would be the group’s only album to be released from Def Jam due to creative differences with producer Rick Rubin, resulting in the group leaving the label to sign with Capitol Records for their next album, Paul's Boutique (1989).

  1. ^ a b "John King And The Story Of Chung King Studios". Archived from the original on August 28, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
  2. ^ Parales, Jon (May 4, 2012). "Rapper Conquered Music World in '80s With Beastie Boys". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  3. ^ Anderson, Kyle (May 7, 2012). "Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch's musical legacy: Changing all games, all the time". CNN. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference allmusic-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Music: Top 100 Songs (DECEMBER 20, 1986)". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2017. 86 Last Week: -- (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) Beastie Boys