Licensed to Ill (40th Anniversary) 2LP Vinylphyle

Beastie Boys’ iconic debut album gets the deluxe Vinylphyle treatment. Originally released on November 15, 1986, Licensed to Ill celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It became the first rap LP to top the Billboard 200 and was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2015. Produced by Rick Rubin and Beastie Boys, it has since been ranked by critics among the greatest hip-hop albums and debut albums of all time. Licensed to Ill features seven singles, including “Brass Monkey,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” “Paul Revere” and the party anthem “Fight for Your Right.”

Pressed on two 180-gram black vinyl LPs and cut from the original analog tapes by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound, this newly remastered, limited Vinylphyle edition features a gatefold tip-on jacket, a four-panel insert with scans of the original tape boxes, a classic band-logo etching on the vinyl, and all-new liner notes by Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D.

Each Vinylphyle release features all-analog mastering from original sources by an elite group of today’s top vinyl-cutting engineers, when a sequenced analog master exists. The LPs are pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at RTI, a world-class audiophile pressing plant. The production and packaging are designed to honor the stature of these recordings, with tip-on wrapped gatefold jackets in a satin-matte finish, printed on clay-coated board, archival poly sleeves, and a four-panel insert featuring new liner notes. Backed by RTI’s craftsmanship, these releases are produced to the highest standards, with extensive quality controls at every step—from mastering and plating to pressing and printing—to ensure a superb final product.

Source: ADA. Joe was sent the original 1986 1/4” album master to work from, and he elected to cut the lacquer from a digital transfer he made. Read his explanation below:

“For this project, I felt that making a high-resolution digital transfer, using the same machine and electronics that I use for cutting, would yield the best results and come closest to actually cutting from the first-generation master tape itself. It also allowed me to minimize handling of the tapes, which have become fragile with time. In this case, I felt that fidelity was better preserved by working from my digital transfer of the original master, than by making and working from a second-generation analog copy.

The Licensed to Ill tape is a masterclass in analog editing, with many edits throughout the album. Over time, the splicing tape adhesive holding those edits together can begin to migrate onto adjacent layers of tape. This is not an uncommon issue, and I was able to clean up most of the splices to achieve smooth playback. However, some could still have been problematic going through the preview loop needed for lacquer cutting.

Leader had also been inserted between the songs and would have needed to be removed in order to match the mostly gapless spacing of the original CD and LP. Removing splices and leader typically isn’t a problem when a tape is in good condition, but this tape has become delicate and already exhibited some mild oxide and back-coating loss in places. Removing the leader would have presented a considerable risk.

By assembling digitally, all these potential problems were eliminated. And because Licensed to Ill is mostly gapless, assembling digitally also allowed for greater precision in mastering, with track-to-track adjustments that could be made perfectly.”