Sold Date:
January 22, 2014
Start Date:
January 12, 2014
Final Price:
$46.00
(USD)
Seller Feedback:
1060
Buyer Feedback:
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Beastie Boys ~ Licensed to Ill
Made in the U.S.A.
Def Jam / CBS Records - FC40238
1986 1st and Original pressing. Gatefold cover is VG++ to Mint- with minor corner-bends and wear, some faint and minor indentations on the cover and openright-side.
Vinyl is VG++; plays Mint- except intro to A-1 before the music is VG++ to Mint-. Vinyl has some very faint and minor, inaudible "hairline" marks from the paper inner-sleeve or similar.
Labels are nice with some faint spindle-marks on side 2. Custom inner-sleeve is VG+, minor bends and creases and tear with tape on one seam.
Out of Print, Original album.
"Perhaps
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 short shrift to ; producer ,
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 and
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 , a metalhead who formed Def Jam Records with and had previously flirted with this sound on 's , not to mention a few singles and one-offs with prior to this record. He made rap rock, but to give him lone credit for
(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 ,
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 ),
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 ,
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 ,
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, reigns tall among the greatest records of its time"
-allmusic.com
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