(THIS) POLL REVERE(S) — ILM Artist Poll #19 — Beastie Boys VOTING THREAD

'Song For The Man' apart from the vocals sounds like a Blur b side to me. I don't mean that in a bad way, I love Blur b sides.

The plinky plonk piano reminds me of Madness as well actually.

Yeah Licensed To Ill sounded pretty corny and outdated when I first heard it - I grew to like it but I'd still rank it below the four that followed.

who's doing the "it's the joint" vocal?

sample from Funky 4+1's That's The Joint

who's doing the "it's the joint" vocal?

dude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzuskHUux6U

33% God is def 100% Dust Brothers but it was released under the Beasties aegis so whatever

I think if you weren't around/culturally aware when License to Ill broke it doesn't have nearly the impact. As far as my actual cultural experience of the Beasties its all about my delinquent cousin being into Check Your Head, the "Sabotage" video, the massive ubiquity of Hello Nasty (the album everyone could love) and getting high and really really into Paul's Boutique in college (like ~10+ years after the original release). For a huge swath of younger Beasties fans, LTI is a footnote.novelty record. One song (might) make my ballot.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:15 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is the same for me. LTI is a relic, but not an enjoyable album for me. The production's too sparse and the rapping's too shrill.

Licensed to Ill may be their only Gen X album, with all the rest squarely hitting Gen Y.

I guess I'm in the minority about finding Hello Nasty pretty boring. I'd go back and listen to it but I sold my copy a year or so ago. They're rapping had really devolved by that point - very sub-Run DMC/"everybody say the last word of every line in unison" yawnsville. and I was never interested in them writing indie rock songs either.

love LTI tho.

Yeah, I'm gonna be 33 next week, so I was about 7 when LTI came out, and novelty record sums up my feelings about it. Fight For Your Right is on my ballot, but only that.

I think if you weren't around/culturally aware when License to Ill broke it doesn't have nearly the impact

Yeah this is true, and I was only about ten and never paid them much attention for nearly another decade - find the album as a whole a little lame but I put those singles on back-to-back this morning and the rush was incredible.

man you think the rapping on "Putting Shame in Your Game" and "Intergalactic" and "Just a Test" shows erosion?

Yeah, my only grievance with a large chunk of Hello Nasty is the cadence of their rhyme style (which carried over even worse on 5 Boroughs). It's so leaden. Hot Sauce was a (very welcome) move away from that, and it's too bad there'll never be more tunes now.

For me the key thing about Hello Nasty isn't the rapping at all (which I agree is nowhere near as head-spinning as PB or gang-cool as CYH); so much so that I don't even think about the rapping on it, or even really think of it as a rap album. It's the musical breadth, the sound palette; it's enormous, and incredibly... happy? There's a lot of grime and fug on CYH and especially IC (which is WAY cool) and it's all dispersed on Hello Nasty. It's incredibly open-minded and communicative.

I was 13 when Licensed to Ill came out so it doesn't necessarily seem like a novelty to me, though lyrically it's the most ridiculous. And guess it's sparse too, but but it's of its time: it is a 1986 rap album. I hadn't thought about it in forever (don't own the cassette anymore, and now only have the 89-98 albums/singles) but seeing them do The New Style on Chappelle's show that was floating around earlier in the week reminded me that I was obsessed with it at 13 for good reason.

they did rely on that "der-der-der-der-der-der-DER!" type of rapping a lot though - especially by the TT5B stage.

PB and CYH are my favorite albums, but LTI is *right* there with them. I was like 9 when it came out, I missed the whole cultural touchstone thing...but seeing their videos and knowing No Sleep and Fight for Your Right for years meant that when I finally did get my hands on the album I was so ready, lol.

I fuckin love it. Every song is great and ridiculous and fun. I don't get any of the lameness or whatever.

LET IT GO
LET YOURSELF GO
SLOW AND LOW
THAT IS THE TEMPO
(BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR)

Putting Shame In Your Game is some great wordplay and delivery, yes.

I could do without the track "Girls," which 13 year old me loved but 38 year old me is all "really?". Other than that, I think Licensed to Ill is pretty tight the whole way through.

Thing is, one of the first albums I ever owned was Run DMC's Tougher Than Leather, which is a similar idea to LTI and I always loved it!

I was 12 or 13 when LTI came out and it was the sole tape that I took on our summer holiday to Butlins. So for 2 weeks I heard it roughly 10 times a day (basically whenever I wasn't playing football). Forever classic.

I could do without the track "Girls," which 13 year old me loved but 38 year old me is all "really?". Other than that, I think Licensed to Ill is pretty tight the whole way through.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:30 (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haha, Girls was trolling on a major level. I still hear it as cartoonish ridiculousness anyway - not to be taken too seriously, although I guess some people might have.

aw man, I still like 'Girls'

esp the 'with newwave hairdos'

I was 14 when LTI came out and it completely dominated my friends and my listening for a year. Absolutely mind blowing.

Similarly to Shakey and Johnny, I find Hello Nasty lacking in the rapping and, to my ears, it is far too long. There is a good 40-45 minute album, but that leaves 30 minutes of filler. I listened to it for the first time in ages this past weekend and it seemed even weaker than I remember.

xp Oh, I'm sure it was trolling, and seemed funny the first 40,000 times I heard it. But now I skip it.

LTI is so so so much more than a novelty record. If it didn't have Fight For Yr Right on it, no-one wld question it being a 1-2 punch w/ Raising Hell. Or Radio for that matter.

I generally listen to Hello Nasty one half at a time.

wow, all the license to ill dismissals are really surprising to me. i'm an old gen exxor, so maybe this is all too predictable, but it still sounds like their catchiest, punkest, and most pop-accessible album by a huge margin. genius beats and hooks for days. the simplicity of the tracks is one of LTI's greatest strengths, imo, puts the hairy-ass guitar and shrill vocals front and center. i'm surprised that the basic sound isn't more embraced by typically minimalist & electro friendly ILM. plus their funniest, dumbest and most memorable rapping. easily one of the best albums of the 80s. like up there with 1999, thriller, the B-52's debut and remain in light.

Voted! 4 LTI; 6 PB; 4 CYH; 2 IC; 1 HN; 2 TT5B; 1 AEEAHWSMAA.

If it didn't have Fight For Yr Right on it, no-one wld question it being a 1-2 punch w/ Raising Hell. Or Radio for that matter.

OTM

LET IT GO
LET YOURSELF GO
SLOW AND LOW
THAT IS THE TEMPO
(BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR)

OH
TEE
EM

It's a shame I can never truly love the blocky early Rubin sound of Licensed to Ill and Raising Hell. I love tracks in isolation, but the explosion in hip hop production and rhyme schemes immediately afterwards means I'm always left a bit undernourished by the albums. All my enjoyment of LTI happens on one level whereas Paul's Boutique is just this endless labyrinth of pleasure.

I love Girls. Whatever.

The correct answer to this poll is the entirety of Paul's Boutique which owns from start to finish in a way that few other albums do.

Also, Cooky Puss. Oh and some stuff off LTI too.

Fight For Your Right to Party didn't make my ballot cuz I'm sick of it, not even close to my favorite thing on the album. And while the production isn't as dense as what came afterwards, there are a lot of novel touches to it - sampling Creedence, War, Black Sabbath, plus the various old school bits (Schooly D, Trouble Funk etc) the proto-Miami bass parts - there's a lot in there.

xp

Girls is eh sorta funny but She's Crafty is funnier

I'm really tempted to set up a Hello Nasty v. LTI Gen Y/Gen X thing but I know its a false dichotomy. Completely different albums made by completely different people. Am curious if any solid Gen Y'er will rep for LTI as a stone-cold classic they still listen to/enjoy.

Yeah I love She's Crafty too.

got into the cab and the cab driver said he recognised my girlie from the back of her head

I have no fucking idea what Gen X/Gen Y means.

Yeah I was going to ask exactly where the divide is because iirc I'm sort of in the middle.

AHH you're a babby and would most def be Y, I think.

As I was born between LTI and PB, I guess I'm neither.

lol ok.

3ft High and Rising and It Takes A Nation Of Millions were my first hip hop records, really, and Rubin-era LTI / Run DMC just sound so weird and old and unsophisticated next to them.

I always identified with gen xers when reading newsweek articles about them.

It's a shame I can never truly love the blocky early Rubin sound of Licensed to Ill and Raising Hell. I love tracks in isolation, but the explosion in hip hop production and rhyme schemes immediately afterwards means I'm always left a bit undernourished by the albums. All my enjoyment of LTI happens on one level whereas Paul's Boutique is just this endless labyrinth of pleasure.

see, that's weird to me. i love early synthpop, electro and rap for, not despite, the astringent minimalism. there's something refreshing and weirdly mineral about those sounds. i don't think in listening to the pleasure principle, non-stop erotic cabaret or pleasure victim that i'd enjoy these songs with more density and layering. i get into the weird, rinky-dink, tinfoil tooth synth landscapes. same goes for rubin's production on license to ill and raising hell (which is relatively dense and colorful). shit sounds badass. and the simple rhyme schemes are like 50s rock riffs. super-basic, but they get the job done.

Roughly IMO:

Gen X = Born Late 1960s - 1980
Gen Y = Born Early 1980s - ~1990

Not rigorously defined.

3ft High and Rising and It Takes A Nation Of Millions were my first hip hop records, really, and Rubin-era LTI / Run DMC just sound so weird and old and unsophisticated next to them.

i can imagine a late beatles fan saying something similar about chuck berry

"weird and old and unsophisticated" vs "classic"

ha, yeah!

Gen X - "the term generally includes people born from the early 1960s through the early 1980s"
Gen Y - "there are no precise dates for when Generation Y starts and ends, and commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere from the mid-1970s[6] or early 1980s to the late 1980s"

So, yeah, I'm right where the overlap occurs. They're pretty useless categories imo though so it doesn't really matter.