will re-issue their debut album ‘Licensed To Ill’ for its 40th birthday.

The album emerged 40 years ago this week – November 15th, 1986 – making immediate stars out of Beastie Boys, while transforming the fortunes of both their label Def Jam, and their producer Rick Rubin.

On March 27th the band will re-issue the album, with at Sterling Sound using lacquers cut from a high resolution digital transfer from the original 1986 1/4” album master.

The remastered Vinylphyle edition is housed in a gatefold tip-on wrapped jacket with a satin-matte finish and printed on clay-coated board and includes 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 . 

Joe Nino-Hernes comments: “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 that 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.”

Pre-order the limited Vinylphyle edition of ‘Licensed To Ill’, HERE.