To paraphrase a lyric from “Paul Revere”: it started way back in history with Ad-Rock, MCA, and the Mike D. Seven years after Mike D admitted that nobody could find the master tapes for the Beastie Boys’ debut album, Licensed to Ill is getting a deluxe vinyl reissue built from the original 1986 recording.
The limited-edition Vinylphyle 2-LP set arrives March 18, 2027, via Def Jam Recordings/UMe and is available for preorder now. According to Rolling Stone, the lacquers were cut from a high-resolution digital transfer of the original quarter-inch master tape and pressed onto 180-gram black vinyl.
It’s a notable turnaround. In 2019, Mike D told Q-Tip on his Apple Music radio show Echo Chamber that the tapes had vanished. “Nobody can find it,” he said at the time, as reported by Variety. A rep for the band didn’t immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s question about whether the tapes had resurfaced for the project.
Audio engineer Joe Nino-Hernes, who worked from the physical tapes at Sterling Sound, said the digital step helped protect them. “It also allowed me to minimize handling of the tapes that have become fragile with time,” he said in a statement.
The gatefold package includes new liner notes from Public Enemy’s Chuck D, a four-panel insert with scans of the original tape boxes and a Beastie Boys logo etched into the record’s audio-free fourth side.
Released on Nov. 15, 1986, and produced by Rick Rubin and the band, Licensed to Ill fused hip-hop, punk and hard rock and became the first rap album to top the Billboard 200. Powered by “Fight for Your Right,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” and “Brass Monkey,” it was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2015.
Mike D and Ad-Rock, the group’s surviving members following Adam “MCA” Yauch’s death in 2012, are set to discuss the album on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and the “SmartLess” podcast. The reissue also follows a new Licensed to Ill book pairing a visual history of the album with fresh interviews from the Beasties’ inner circle.
Looking back, Mike D told Rolling Stone he still thinks about the joy he, Horovitz and Yauch shared while making the demos that became some of the album’s tracks. Four decades later, that joy and those once-elusive tapes are getting a second spin.
Fans can preorder the limited-edition vinyl through the Beastie Boys’ official release page ahead of its March 18, 2027 release.
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