10 Rap Albums That Every Rock Fan Should Listen To

If you had told the people jamming to Licensed to Ill that the Beastie Boys would be some of the greatest musicians of all time, you'd have a lot of people scratching their head. Compared to the other hip hop that came afterward, this was the kind of frat bro party rap that we were supposed to enjoy for one summer and then forget about by the end of the year. In the wake of Paul's Boutique though, the Beasties managed to get a lot more aggro.

While Paul's Boutique is known as one of the greatest sample records in hip hop, Check Your Head felt like the culmination of everything the Beasties had learned before, taking the seedy sounds of punk rock from back in the day and blending it with electronics and rap. If you were to put this entire album on shuffle, it doesn't even sound like the same band on every track, from So What'cha Want to the slick talk happening on the tail end of Pass the Mic.

Now that samples were coming under fire, this was also when the Beasties felt more like a band, opting to play their own instruments and crossing over to the skateboarding punk crowd at the same time. At a time when the Beasties could have counted their money from the days of No Sleep Till Brooklyn, this is the kind DIY approach that any punk rocker could get behind.