My wife found this at either an estate sale or an auction, either way she is super rad. I don't think I can overstate how important Licensed to Ill was/is to me. It came out a month after I turned 10, right after I got my first Walkman (yellow sport version). I still had a gift certificate to Sam Goody left over from said birthday, and I somehow (incessant whining I am sure) talked/tricked my mom into letting me buy Licensed to Ill on tape. I am pretty sure I wore out my Walkman, the tape and about 900 AA's over the next few months. Even into the Spring of the next year by best friend Tim and I would play the album over and over again while playing basketball in my backyard (I got a boombox for X-Mas by then) only stopping to flip the tape over.
Almost 27 years later hearing the first second of "Rhymin & Stealin" takes me right back there. I don't even want to think about how my life would have turned out without the Beastie Boys, I would probably be listening to country music right now... or even worse modern country music and the world would be deprived of this wonderful blog.
Go ahead and try to watch this video without getting the chills of awesomeness down your spine, I dare you.
