Manufacturer: Illegal Art
The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover--that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin'--serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ...
Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
Paid in Full is a debut album that is basically a collection of early singles ("Eric B. Is President", "I Know You Got Soul", the title track), is the motherlode of late-1980s New York rap--assured, serious, and hugely influential. Rakim, a rapper's rapper, is the Chow Yun-Fat of hip-hop: cool as steel, absolutely calm, absolutely deadly. His verbal wit and rhythmic gift go hand-in-hand. He ...
Manufacturer: Sony
Manufacturer: Parlophone
Manufacturer: Bmg France
In the Jewish religion, it's traditional for males to get Bar Mitzvah-ed--to undergo the ceremony of adulthood--at age 13. Judging them by that standard, for one, the Beastie Boys are ahead of the game; between 1986's Licensed to Ill and 1999's hits package The Sounds of Science, the Beasties have matured from attention-starved brats to insightful, funky trend-setting brats with an ...
Manufacturer: Grand Royal
LL handles the mic confidently, almost too confidently, on Phenomenon, his seventh album. Whether he's going on about a messed-up father-figure, working on the ladies ("Nobody Can Freak You," "Phenomenon"), or "making a rhyme with every syllable of your name" ("4,3,2,1"), you can't help but feel like he's just selling you something. LL has built himself up considerably from the skinny punk ...
Manufacturer: Sessions
A compilation based around Scott-Heron's first three albums, recorded for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label in the early 70s. Several classics are included, ranging from the call to arms ("the revolution will be LIVE") that formed the title track, through to Gil's "Lady Day And John Coltrane" tribute and the pleas for compassion that form "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" and "Save The ...
Manufacturer: RCA
