Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

By 1994 the Beastie Boys had settled into their cultural role as the grand arbiters of cool, and Ill Communication is pretty much a catalog of coolness. A mix of live funk, a bit of hardcore, ingenious samples of obscure records, with keyboards by analogue master Money Mark, and guest shots by Q-Tip and Biz Markie and the inevitable cascade of witty old-school rhymes.

It's also a surprisingly mature record from a band that has been at it for 12 years already. The original jazz-funk instrumentals hold their own with the group's favorite sample sources. The album gave the band one of it's biggest singles of their career with "Sabotage".

Heavyweight double vinyl produced by Capitol Records. Gatefold sleeve.