43. Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys (1989)
Licensed to Ill established them as the whoopee-cushion kings of white-boy rap, and many initially found this dense follow-up too weird. But the Boys were merely perfecting their magpie eye for the perfect whacked-out sample.
We're getting closer to the top of our countdown of the best albums of the past 25 years; see why CDs from Guns N' Roses, Run-DMC, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, and Bob Dylan and others made the grade