To achieve Diamond certification (according to the RIAA, which is kind of America’s ARIA), you have to tell ten million copies of an album. That is A LOT of fucking albums.
The Beastie Boys have just done exactly that. 29 years after release, the brilliant Licensed To Ill has officially gone Diamond. With legendary classics like No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Brass Monkey and (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party), it’s only surprising that it took so long.
The album was released back in 1986 by Def Jam. Produced by Rick Rubin, it went platinum in 1987 and is considered to be the first ever rap record to top the Billboard charts.
Only eight other hip hop albums have ever achieved diamond status, alongside Tupac, Biggie, Eminem and Outkast.
In fact, not many albums have reached diamond at all. The classics, of course – Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Prince, Fleetwood Mac etc., alongside ‘Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey. You can check the full list here, it’s pretty interesting.
Zero points to whoever bought ten million copies of Creed‘s Human Clay.
Anyway, let’s revisit these tracks because they’re not only amazing, but I’d completely forgotten how goddamn hilarious these video clips are: