Now Here’s a Little Story I Got to Tell about Three Bad Brothers You Know so Well

In honor of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Beastie Boys commemorated the event with Fight for Your Right Revisited to answer all the unanswered questions like did your mother kick them out of the house for not cutting their hair. My initial thought when this came out was, “wait, Fight for Your Right is a quarter century old?” Nothing makes you feel older that hearing about the twenty-fifth anniversary of an event that happened when you were in grade school.

But Licensed to Ill, this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, was the perfect album for a pre-teen with a number of great sing-a-long primed for boys on the playground. Sure we didn’t know much about them at the time (and arguably still do not), but Girls got sung over and over again back in greade school (and middle school, and high school, and college, and reunions). But (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) was an anthem for a generation even if we did not know how to fight or party just yet.

Most rap album would be happy with two songs of that quality, but Licensed to Ill is wall to wall jams: No Sleep to Brooklyn is a road trip staple that is required listening at high speeds with the windows rolled down; Paul Revere is the ultimate posse track with Scenario that only song that comes close to matching it in that category; Brass Monkey remains an instant sing-a-long; all of which I could spit verbatim to this day.

And the production from Licensed to Hill was off the hook and is now the definition of old school. The production is so crisp it is a shame that Rick Rubin does not produce more rap record that he does these days (listening to 99 Problems clearly shows he still got it). Rhyming and Stealing sets the table perfectly with samples from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Clash especially with Kerry King of Slayer shredding a couple of tracks. While Paul Revere remains one of the most classic beats in the history of rap and a prerequisite beat for any freestyle rapper to spit on. And let’s not forget the “mmmmmmmmm… Drop” from The New Style which is one of the most iconic moments in rap history. With the release of a new Beastie Boy album finally being released this week, do not forget to go back and listen to how the group got to this point.