10 Best Hip-Hop Albums Of The 1980s - Ranked

Breaking barriers, speakers, and expectations of every hip-hop listener in the 1980s, it is the famous Beastie Boys and their Rick Rubin-produced album License To Ill.

While some prefer Paul's Boutique over this album, one cannot deny the impact that the singles of this album would go on to have on the future of hip-hop. Comprised of Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame rappers Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D, the group made a splash with their youthful, carefree tone of brash lyricism and audacious instrumentals.

The album uses electric guitar riffs and bare-bones percussion with mixing and record scratching that created a blast of energetic music in such songs like "The New Style", "No Sleep Til' Brooklyn", and "Fight For Your Right". They also used imagery of youthful angst towards the mundane struggles of arguing during family quarrels and frustrations with domestication, thus pushing for innate independence.

Then the group would have some of the most bizarre but intriguing uses of instruments on their tracks "Girls" and "Brass Monkey", both being characterized by their use of xylophones and horns, respectively.

They tastefully blended rap and metal and were instrumental to opening the flood gates for many artists that came after the group such as Sublime and Rage Against The Machine. They may have started off as a hardcore punk band, but they ended up as one of the most influential rap groups of all time with this debut.