Although they had been making records since 1981, Licensed to Ill is the Beastie Boys’ debut full-length album. Originally a four-member hardcore punk band, music entrepreneur Rick Rubin took interest in the group after their bizarre dance track “Cooky Puss” found success on college radio. He signed them to his label, but without founding member Kate Shellenbach, officially making them an all-male three member rap group. After the trio released two standalone singles – “Rock Hard” and “She’s On It”, they dropped “Hold It, Now Hit It” in the summer of 1986 in advance of their upcoming album (which was originally going to be titled Don’t Be A Faggot – something they would later apologize for). The song reached #55 on the US Hip Hop/R&B chart. Licensed To Ill followed that November as “It’s The New Style” and “Paul Revere” also appeared on the Hip Hop/R&B chart. However, it was the satirical frat-boy anthem “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” that launched the band into international stardom, reaching the top 20 in five countries in early 1987. Within weeks, “She’s On It”, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”, “Girls” and “Brass Monkey” also found scattered international chart success in its wake. Licensed To Ill became the first hip hop record to reach #1 in the US, topping the Billboard 200 for seven weeks and ultimately staying on it for 73 weeks as the group headlined their Licensed To Ill Tour for several months. The album, with its prominent use of guitar (and guitar samples), helped further push rap beyond its disco and soul roots and into the hands of people who listened to rock music, like Run DMC’s King Of Rock and Raising Hell were also doing at the time. The artwork for Eminem’s 2018 album Kamikaze pays homage to the cover art of Licensed To Ill.