Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.8/10.0 |
| Q | |
| Rhapsody | favorable |
| Robert Christgau | A+ |
| Rolling Stone | favorable |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| RapReviews | |
| The Source | |
In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.
It is still the only album by a white hip-hop act to receive the coveted 5 mics from The Source.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 217 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Vibe – Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.
Q – 4 stars – "Licensed to Ill remains the world's only punk rock rap album, arguably superior to Never Mind the Bollocks…knowing that apathy and slovenliness were just around the corner."
Melody Maker – Bloody Essential – "There's lots of self-reverential bragging, more tenuous rhymes than are usually permitted by law and, most importantly of all, an unshakably glorious celebration of being alive.… A surprisingly enduring classic."
In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at #16 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".
In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #12 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" saying "Rife with layer upon layer of sampling, start-stop transitions, and aggressive beats, it helped transform the genre from a direct dialogue between MC and DJ into a piercing, multi-threaded narrative" and "helped set an exciting template for the future".
Eminem said the album was one of his favorites of all time and said it changed hip hop.
Read more about this topic: Licensed To Ill
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)