For the Freestylers

Freestylers

The Freestylers are a British electronic music group, generally fitting into the breakbeat genre. Recently their style has incorporated more of a drumstep sound, more in line with The Prodigy and other such artists.-Career:...

 song see We Rock Hard

We Rock Hard

We Rock Hard was the first major-label album by the band Freestylers and their most commercially successful release to date. Allmusic describes the album as a run through of the band members' back catalogue but it still showcases the classic big beat and break beat electronica that would remain...

.

Rock Hard is an EP by the Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1985. The song, and the accompanying songs on the 12", feature the band's debut rap

Rap

Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...

 effort.

The track contains samples from the AC/DC

AC/DC

AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...

 song "Back in Black

Back in Black (song)

"Back in Black" is a song by AC/DC, appearing as the first track on side two of their 1980 album, Back in Black. Known for its opening guitar riff, the song was AC/DC's tribute to their former singer Bon Scott...

", which was used without obtaining legal permission - thereby causing the record to be promptly withdrawn. Later, when the group planned to include the out-of-print song on their 1999 compilation, Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science, AC/DC refused to allow the sample to be used. Mike D spoke to AC/DC's Malcolm Young

Malcolm Young

Malcolm Young is a Scottish-born Australian guitarist, best known as a founding member, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter for the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. Young was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, along with the other members of AC/DC...

 personally on the phone when their lawyers refused to clear the sample, and later said that "AC/DC could not get with the sample concept. They were just like, 'Nothing against you guys, but we just don't endorse sampling.'" Ad-Rock then added "So we told them that we don't endorse people playing guitars."

The cover design is also famous for now being the official Def Jam records logo for vinyl releases; to this day, vinyl singles released by Def Jam have this design.

Long removed from print, it was considered a rare collector's item until Def Jam reissued the single in Europe in 2007.

Track listing

External links

• Illegal Art Exhibition Compilation CD: Stay Free!
  Stay Free!
  Stay Free! is a non-profit magazine about the politics of culture based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by Carrie McLaren in 1992 while working at Matador Records, it tends to focus on "the perversions of media and consumer culture." Each issue has a theme, such as pranks, copyright, or marketing...
  
  magazine sponsored a project/exhibit entitled Illegal Art
  Illegal Art
  Illegal Art is a sampling label that was started by a person using the name Philo T. Farnsworth in 1998. The label was instantly launched to infamy with the legal threats surrounding Deconstructing Beck, a compilation made exclusively from sampling Beck's music. This was followed by two other...
  
  . As a part of the project, an album was compiled of songs which sampled audio without permission, including "Rock Hard."