Thirty nine years on from its release in November 1986, it still feels a bit surreal that three Jewish kids from New York managed to drop one of the most important albums in hip hop history. Licensed to Ill wasn’t just a commercial juggernaut, it was a cultural flashpoint that forced everyone to reconsider what hip hop could be and, more importantly, who could make it.
The timing was everything. Hip hop was barely a decade old, still very much a Black and Latino art form born in the Bronx, when MCA, Mike D and Ad-Rock turned up with their frat boy personas and punk rock attitude. The backlash was immediate and predictable. Here…
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