West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => Outbound Connection => Topic started by: Marco on July 14, 2024, 01:28:57 PM
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(https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music221/v4/88/86/fa/8886fa8a-dabd-7464-1de3-fe3d23dc5312/23UM1IM07053.rgb.jpg/600x600bb.webp)
1. Spirit of Cyrus (ft. Snoop Dogg)
2. The FORCE
3. Saturday Night Special (ft. Rick Ross, Fat Joe)
4. Black Code Suite
5. Passion
6. Proclivities (ft. Saweetie)
7. Post Modern
8. 30 Decembers
9. Runnit Back
10. Huey In The Chair (ft. Busta Rhymes)
11. Basquiat Energy
12. Praise Him (ft. Nas)
13. Murdergram Deux (ft. Eminem)
14. The Vow (ft. Mad Squablz, J-S.A.N.D., Don Pablito)
Album produced entire by Q-Tip.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=03I2Dse1B3Y (https://youtube.com/watch?v=03I2Dse1B3Y)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=w_XVxj035Qk (https://youtube.com/watch?v=w_XVxj035Qk)
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waitin fo this!
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Love the first three tracks they’ve dropped (I don’t count the one with Em since it doesn’t have a Tip best under it as of yet).
LL is HUNGRY and Tip always brings some true hip hop but on the experimental tip
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Like the album title, not so much the cover...bring back a black panther with a gold roped chain!
Look's like a straight up rap album, Cool J wants to show and prove again...no ballads for the ladies this time.
Why all the legends gotta have a verse from fat cop boss Ross on thier songs :grumpy:
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Like the album title, not so much the cover...bring back a black panther with a gold roped chain!
Look's like a straight up rap album, Cool J wants to show and prove again...no ballads for the ladies this time.
Why all the legends gotta have a verse from fat cop boss Ross on thier songs :grumpy:
I’m with you about Ross, but I still really like the track he’s on; and I think the song with Saweetie will be a fun one for the ladies (maybe Tribe style?)
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Like the album title, not so much the cover...bring back a black panther with a gold roped chain!
Look's like a straight up rap album, Cool J wants to show and prove again...no ballads for the ladies this time.
Why all the legends gotta have a verse from fat cop boss Ross on thier songs :grumpy:
A little more than once month to release, good expectations about the album. We will see... 8)
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https://www.youtube.com/v/w_XVxj035Qk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_XVxj035Qk)
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Alright he snuck in one for the ladies, we give him that it's in his name.
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https://www.youtube.com/v/w_XVxj035Qk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_XVxj035Qk)
This beat is dope as fuck! Q-Tip did the beat, bass, guitar and keyboards & the guy Blair Wells helped him in the mixing. :o :o 8)
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Sample (01:34)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeucohIa5LQ
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https://www.youtube.com/v/1k8PhpifGSo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8PhpifGSo)
New single out today.
I believe this is the last one until the album is released.
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https://www.youtube.com/v/1k8PhpifGSo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8PhpifGSo)
New single out today.
I believe this is the last one until the album is released.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
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This might be the first guest appearance by Em in a LONG time that I don’t hate (last one being with Fat Joe); but damn, how fucking dope is LL Cool J still?! He’s a monster right now.
Anyone else love the Proclivities track too? Vintage LL sound on that one with great Tip production
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LL ripped that, rappin away on Em's level.
They should of thrown some shots @ Canibus for the fun of it.
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When is the album dropping again?
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This might be the first guest appearance by Em in a LONG time that I don’t hate (last one being with Fat Joe); but damn, how fucking dope is LL Cool J still?! He’s a monster right now.
Anyone else love the Proclivities track too? Vintage LL sound on that one with great Tip production
"Proclivities" is the best single out of the album in my opinion. The vibe of this song is incrediable. The beat is fucking awesome.
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"Proclivities" is the best single out of the album in my opinion. The vibe of this song is incrediable. The beat is fucking awesome.
Glad to know someone else is feeling that shit! Even Saweetie perfectly fits.
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When is the album dropping again?
Sept 6th
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Sept 6th
Corrected. Can’t wait to hear it. 8)
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I was not sure at first, but LL is rapping like he never left which is quite impressive!
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This is easily shaping up to be the album of the year!
How many of y’all heard this snippet? It was the first thing I heard from the album and knew these guys were gonna bring it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RX0G0wQ4J4s&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecoli.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ
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New LL interview -
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/arts/music/ll-cool-j-the-force.html
LL Cool J Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. (And Why Would He?)
At 56, the hip-hop eminence and TV star can slip into Russian, stun arenas and delight executives. With Q-Tip as a producer, he’s returning to his first love: rap.
By Melena Ryzik
Melena Ryzik spent time with LL Cool J in New York and Los Angeles, at video and photos shoots, record events and several restaurants. They talked a lot about pie.
Aug. 31, 2024
At a dusty studio space in an industrial corner of Los Angeles, LL Cool J bounced and vibed in black satin and bulging, size 13 Balenciaga boots.
The actor and rap luminary was filming a video for a sexy track, “Proclivities,” from his new album — but he wasn’t in front of the cameras, or rehearsing. He was just cheerfully shooting the you-know-what, with a late night of production ahead of him. Background players in feathered dresses floated by; his security circled. He did a little dance, demonstrating the inspiration for another song. He walks with a swagger and stands with a spring, too much rhythm in his 6-foot-3 frame to keep still. “Making fantasies happen,” he said, grinning, taking all of it in.
LL Cool J is 56, and has been a hip-hop eminence for 40 years: His whole life is a stretch into realizing the improbable, including a sneakily successful pivot into network television. Even before adulthood, he strode with a preternatural confidence in his abilities, and a willingness to dig into the work. His rap career is not now — and, to hear him tell it, has never been — about the money, the trappings of celebrity or the cultural prestige.
“I do it because I love it,” he said. “I love a fresh beat. A new lyric, a chord, the feeling — and then sharing that. Putting that on the easel of life, so to speak, for people to walk through the sonic gallery and listen to this, these vibes. I love that. I wanted my voice to be heard, and I wanted to share.”
Because he started so young, the first to sign to the then-fledgling label Def Jam, when he was just 16 — and when hip-hop itself was only a decade old — he influenced an entire pantheon of artists who followed, including contemporaries his same age. Hits like the bruising, Grammy-winning “Mama Said Knock You Out,” from 1990, and plaintive grooves from his lovelorn Lothario persona (“I Need Love”; “Around the Way Girl”), cemented his legacy as a crossover pop superstar.
LL Cool J outside a concert in the late 1980s. He was the label Def Jam’s first signing, when he was just 16 years old.Credit...Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Now, with his first album in 11 years, “The Force,” due Sept. 6, he’s an elder statesman returning to the form he helped create, with a heavy assist from Q-Tip, the visionary M.C. from A Tribe Called Quest who produced the record. It’s not just a valedictory lap; it’s a flex, suffused with ’70s Euro prog-rock samples, and full of unexpected references (Jean-Michel Basquiat; Huey P. Newton) and players, like Sona Jobarteh, the Gambian griot and first female kora master.
For LL Cool J, at this stage, breadth is everything. “Hip-hop is such a young genre,” he said. “It just shows you what’s possible.”
Q-Tip, who crossed paths with him early on, when they were both growing up in Queens, called him a hero. “He’s the archetype,” he said.
When LL Cool J leaped into the scene in the ’80s, hip-hop was dominated by groups and crews; a solo M.C. barely existed.
“He was the originator of that,” Q-Tip said, while LL looked on from behind dark shades in a recent joint interview, at a high-rise Manhattan restaurant. “And I think some of the staying power is because of the elocution of the songs, the lyrics and things like that, that he was able to weave. It really is a constant.”
Witness Busta Rhymes’s deep bow to him, when he brought LL Cool J onstage at a Missy Elliott concert earlier this month in Brooklyn, and recounted to the cheering arena how he first rapped over LL’s tracks, as a school kid. “He was my favorite M.C.,” Busta said. Then he turned to face LL, who is four years his senior. “You’re my hero from then, you’re my hero now.”
“The Force,” an acronym for “Frequencies of Real Creative Energy,” has verses from Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Nas and other megastars. Its opening track is perhaps its heaviest, a meditation on brutality told from the point of view of a Black L.A.P.D. officer. “Songwriting,” LL told me, is what’s missing from hip-hop today. “There’s nothing wrong with rapping about money and success, and there’s nothing wrong with rapping about pure sex — I love them both,” he said. But “there has to be more to it than that, to me, in order for a project to be compelling.”
The pulsing “30 Decembers” was inspired by the period, during Covid, when he traveled through New York unencumbered, wearing a mask and taking the subway to his old haunts. He’s reflective about the passage of time and his stature: “These kids don’t even know who I am/You don’t know you in the presence of a real made man.” (Thanks to a renegotiated deal with Def Jam, he owns his masters.)
“I’m very aggressive when it comes to my dreams,” LL said.Credit...Dana Scruggs for The New York Times
Saweetie, who features on “Proclivities,” grew up listening to him — her parents were fans. “It is absolutely mind-blowing to be on set with such an icon,” she said at the video shoot. Their song is straight lust, but it’s “enlightening, too,” the rapper, 27, added. “How many times a day do we hear anyone say ‘proclivities’?”
In the last two decades, LL — who was born James Todd Smith and goes by Todd with his intimates — has mostly been onscreen. He was a lead on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” the CBS procedural, and its spinoff, for 15 years (and he got financial points on the series). He hosted the Grammys five times.
David Stapf, president of CBS Studios, said his star power and charm were evident even in an early, failed pilot. “What was even more impressive about him was his presence on the set — it was like everybody was happy,” Stapf said in a video interview. “He was just a great leader.” Afterward, the network “pretty much begged Todd” to be on “NCIS,” playing a charismatic special agent. “The vibe of the show revolved around him,” Stapf said, and audiences responded “because it was authentic, because that’s who Todd is.”
What does it feel like to glide through life with such overwhelming confidence? (“I thought that I had confidence to a degree,” Q-Tip said. But not of the LL flavor.)
“It feels like you’re either going to win or lose,” LL said. “And if you win, you keep winning. And if you lose, you figure out how to win. That’s what it feels like.”
He added: “I’m very aggressive when it comes to my dreams.”
But he didn’t need to make an album. There was no contractual obligation or beef that prodded him into it. Other artists from his era (and even more recent greats, like Jay-Z) rarely step into the studio. He could’ve coasted on his considerable laurels, hit the road — as he did last year, with the Roots — and remained an outsize influence. But he would’ve been bored, he said. So he made himself vulnerable.
“The reality is, in order to win, you have to risk being criticized,” he said. “I have to risk being trolled in the comments,” and yes, he reads them. “If you want to win a championship, you got to be willing to lose a championship.”
(Maybe 60 percent of what LL says is metaphor, often sports- or food-themed. “Fruit trees don’t retire,” he said, in another beat on this topic. “They don’t say, I’m going to stop producing fruit for, you know, season two. No, that’s our nature.”)
LL Cool J was a lead on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” the CBS procedural, and its spinoff, for 15 years. “The vibe of the show revolved around him,” the president of CBS Studios said.Credit...Cliff Lipson/CBS
And once he’s in, he hustles, doggedly. His grandmother, who helped raise him, taught him a maxim that he still recites eagerly: “If a task is once begun, never leave until it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”
“I heard that damn near every day,” he said — his first exposure to the mind-invading power of rhyme.
ON A RAIN-SOAKED Friday evening, at a listening party in Manhattan — one of five he hosted across the country — LL Cool J introduced his album to invited guests in a minimalist space with heavy branding and free drinks by Coors (for whom he starred in a Super Bowl commercial this year). Usually that kind of promotional affair features the artist saying a few words about the tracks, sitting and nodding along in stylized reverie as they play.
But LL Cool J could not be contained. In conversation with the journalist Elliott Wilson, he was philosophical (“it’s Black from the soul, not from the ego,” he said of one project) and funny; he does impressions of his collaborators, like Snoop’s high pitch and Busta’s gravelly growl. When the music started, he stood, mic in hand, and mouthed along. Eventually he just started rapping, commanding the stage so hard that his T-shirt dripped with sweat. He was like a musical theater kid who couldn’t help but give it his all, even at rehearsal.
Spending time with LL, in New York and Los Angeles, at video and photo shoots, in green rooms and over meals, I was struck by how endearingly deep of a word nerd he still is. There’s nothing that makes his eyes light up like a pun. On “Passion,” a reputational throwback over dreamy Herbie Hancock jazz, he uses the word tutor to evoke both Tudor architecture and the role of a teacher.
LL is a reader — “It’s good for my mind. It’s like sharpening the ax” — with a big wood-paneled bookcase at home. “Everything from Iceberg Slim to the history of the Peloponnesian War,” he said. “Authors are my friends.”
When my Russian heritage came up, he suddenly started speaking in Russian. Then he referenced a crocodile character that was popular in Soviet-era animation (and used to terrify me as a kid). Why did he know about that? “Because I’m crazy,” he said gleefully, and walked away.
Improbably, he seems bigger than he did decades ago; his biceps rest like coiled pythons. (He has written two fitness books with his trainer, a boxing specialist who sometimes had him work out after shows.) But he’s not immune to indulgence. At a 4 p.m. interview at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, he devoured two entrees, plus a slice of apple pie with a double scoop of vanilla ice cream. And on every occasion we were together, no server or staffer passed by without his acknowledgment: “Appreciate you.”
LL HAD A ROUGH childhood. His father abused his mother, the rapper wrote in his 1997 memoir, including during her pregnancy. And when mother and son later fled to the safety of her parents’ home in St. Albans, Queens, his father turned up, LL Cool J wrote, and shot both his mother and his grandfather. The sound of her moaning woke him, and he saw blood all over the kitchen. He was 4.
They all survived, but his mother’s next partner was physically and emotionally abusive to him, he wrote. Working double shifts in hospital pharmacies, his mother wasn’t aware at first. LL took solace in hip-hop, and started writing verses when he was 9. “The music and the rhymes helped me escape all the pain,” he said in the memoir.
LL said his partnership with Q-Tip on his new album was invigorating, and he hopes to collaborate again.Credit...Dana
When he was 11 and saw a Sugar Hill Gang concert in Harlem, he knew his path and began practicing. At 14, in a bit of wishful thinking, he christened himself Ladies Love Cool J (which came true). His family supported him, buying him turntables and a mixer.
But when he dropped out of school in 9th grade to pursue rap, his grandmother gave him an ultimatum — either resume his education, or leave her house — and he split, sleeping at friends’ places and on the subway, toting his belongings in a green garbage bag. He sent demos everywhere. And then Rick Rubin, the producer and a founder of Def Jam, called. (Four decades later, LL can still remember Rubin’s old phone number.) Not long after, he returned to his grandmother’s home — which he now owns — with a $50,000 advance check.
Alongside his grandmother’s work-ethic couplet, he had his mother, Ondrea Smith, exalting that he could be anything he wanted. “It’s the kind of support that teaches you how to grow a garden,” he said, “not shop for lettuce.” (His grandmother, Ellen Hightower, also inspired “Mama Said.” In the late ’80s, after an unsuccessful album, he was back home, wallowing in her basement. She told him: “You should get out there and knock them out.”)
Though he had wild — very wild — years, he met his wife, Simone Smith, early; the first of their four children was born when LL was 21, and in 1995, they married in their Long Island backyard, a small potluck wedding. They’re now grandparents, living in Los Angeles.
As he rose through fame, LL Cool J evolved musically. His all-out, bare-chested performance was the standout in a 1991 episode of MTV’s “Unplugged” series — the first to feature hip-hop, along with a live backing band. (Tribe, MC Lyte and De La Soul also played.) In the rehearsal, “you could see something click,” said Alex Coletti, the series’ producer. LL had the idea to drop in the Otis Redding “Hard to Handle” riff, as the breakdown in “Mama Said.” “He had a vision,” Coletti recalled. And on his next tour, LL had a live band.
HE FOUND SOME of that same restless, ranging spirit while recording with Q-Tip in his home studio in New Jersey. They were in and out, holed up for over a year, breaking for Q-Tip’s cheffy cooking, and to watch films; Basquiat’s moves in “Downtown 81” led to the funky ode “Basquiat Energy.”
LL had started an album with Dr. Dre, but felt he wasn’t living up to Dre’s production; after Phife Dawg, the Tribe member who died in 2016, came to him in a dream, he called up Q-Tip, who has produced for Nas, the Roots, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey and Esperanza Spalding. “Say less,” Q-Tip responded, when asked to collaborate. He didn’t need convincing.
LL was immediately awed by his musicality. “This is a guy that’s going to sit there and unpack jazz records for me and talk to me about musical theory,” he said. It reminded him of a lesson from a mentor.
“Quincy Jones would always talk to me about soul and science,” he said. “A lot of producers, especially in hip-hop, it’s all soul, it’s all feel. But then there’s a point when you need some science to help bridge the gap and go to the next level.” With Q-Tip, he found the right chemistry. “We didn’t have no eggshells. We didn’t have no weirdness,” LL said. “He got this mild-mannered demeanor,” but Q-Tip wasn’t afraid to push LL lyrically, telling him, “Big bro, that ain’t it.”
“The reality is, in order to win, you have to risk being criticized,” LL said. “I have to risk being trolled in the comments.”Credit...Dana Scruggs for The New York Times
For his part, Q-Tip was enthralled by how intricate and easy LL’s flows were — and how connected he was to, he said, “his younger self.”
“I’ve been doing this for a minute,” said Q-Tip. “And you see people who sometimes, they forget that naïveté, that inquisitiveness. I was surprised that somebody with his acumen would be willing to go into the sandbox like that.”
Sitting on the 101st floor of Hudson Yards, they could not have been more different: Q-Tip, dressed all in black, nibbling olives; LL, in shades of cream, blitzing through a saucy seafood entree. At one point they started singing the “Odd Couple” theme song.
Their partnership was reinvigorating, LL said — Q-Tip even drew the album artwork — and he hopes to collaborate again. “I mean, I’m gonna pay through the teeth,” he said, and they both laughed. “But that’s a whole other conversation.” Any producer could’ve made him beats; Q-Tip dialed him back into the art.
The last song on “The Force,” called “The Vow,” features three unsigned rappers: J-S.A.N.D, 25, whose beat is also on the track, was recruited by Q-Tip; Mad Squablz, 27, a security guard from Philadelphia, got a call from LL on New Year’s Day, 2022, after his manager spammed the star’s DMs; and Don Pablito, 38, a onetime barber and fellow Queens native, whose grandmother knew LL’s.
The three didn’t know each other, but in video interviews, all said that being summoned for the LP was surreal and exhilarating. “It shows me what I have to aspire to be, or what I have to strive for,” J-S.A.N.D said.
After generations in the spotlight, LL exists in a state of “maximum gratitude,” he said. But especially after watching Mick Jagger strut with the Rolling Stones (and Bruce Springsteen on Broadway, and U2 lighting up a stadium), he’s still hungry.
“Super-hungry,” LL said. “It’s so exciting to me to be able to to do something impactful and keep going — there’s something real magical about that.”
It’s rare. “And it’s fun. That’s the most important part. This [expletive] is fun!”
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2 days away,
The O.G. 'Murdergram' for those who dont know -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_TstVMxPYU
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2 days away,
The O.G. 'Murdergram' for those who dont know -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_TstVMxPYU
I haven’t LOVED an LL album since Mr.Smith in 1995…but this is shaping up to be my favourite album of 2024. I’ve had to really try and refrain from overplaying the released songs too much. Can’t wait for this shit
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LL Cool J: ‘Hip-hop isn’t underdog music any more’
The artist and actor answers your questions about dodging animatronic sharks, hanging out with Al Pacino, his love of Abba and the making of his first album in 11 years
Do you think hip-hop still has the cultural impact it once did when you first arrived on the scene during the Def Jam era? Can it still be considered the “Black CNN”, in the words of Chuck D? Bauhaus66
Hip-hop isn’t underdog music any more. On some levels, people even view it as elitist music now. Whether it’s still the Black CNN depends on the artist. It’s become more of a pop genre and doesn’t have the punk rock, Sex Pistols, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, LL early 80s energy, but I think it’s more important than ever for artists to write about more than just the trappings of success. As you evolve, you expect someone to meet you where you’re at and if that’s still at the car dealership there’s going to be a disconnect.
Why do so many rappers adapt so well to acting? alexito
Part of being a rap artist is leaning in to a certain aspect of your character. You’re not portraying a role as such – they’re two individual crafts – but there is commonality in the area of speaking in front of people, making a persona bigger and bringing a story to life. Acting is more of a sweet science. Hip-hop is like mixed martial arts: the technical aspects are more fluid.
Thomas Jane said that while making the movie Deep Blue Sea, the first time an animatronic shark swam towards him, he felt a primal fear and had to get out of the water. Did you have a similar reaction? 99intheshade
I had an even worse experience because one of them almost drowned me. At that time the animatronic sharks weren’t AI; they were controlled by a guy with a joystick. He pushed the button, the shark grabbed my leg, then they called lunch and the shark just parked me underwater. After I managed to pull my leg out and get out of there, there was one dude left on set sitting there with a cigarette and he went: “I guess you made it out, huh?” Making that film was dangerous, with a lot of water flying around, but it was a great experience. I had a fun time working with Sam [L Jackson]. Watching him get eaten was my favourite part.
The hip-hop documentary Big Fun in the Big Town has such a cool cameo from your grandmother. How much of an inspiration and support was she to you in your life and upbringing? keloquence
My grandmother was an amazing woman. She was the oracle in the neighbourhood and that documentary really captures her. She was truly inspiring, such a good woman, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her, because there was plenty of opportunity to do more wrong than right. She kept me on the straight and narrow, but was more than just a disciplinarian. She was a fox, a very clever woman, and she helped me navigate my life all the way to the Hall of Fame. I miss her sorely.
Who is your favourite MC, and who would you most like to do a collab with? BadAlbert
If we’re gonna get down to it, probably Big Daddy Kane. Those first couple of albums were just so crazy and hot in the way he delivered them. The wit, the humour, the banter, the flow, the voice. Songs such as Set It Off or Raw were just flawless to me. In terms of collaboration, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Eminem on Murdergram Deux on the new record. I’ve worked with Nas, Snoop. I don’t have a wishlist but I’m open to working with people.
Was it difficult acting with a parrot in Deep Blue Sea? Calamarain
Yes, they had to replace the parrot! The first one was in love with my earring and in every take kept trying to chew my earlobe. He was digging his claws in and my ear was bleeding. So it was a little tough, yeah.
What was it like to work with James Woods on The Hard Way? louleather
I felt like I was working with Einstein or something, feeling like a little kid saying to myself: “This dude knows everything.” He seemed like the smartest dude I had ever met at that time. He’d talk about the camera angle of a banana, which I found funny. Whether it would still be like that if we had a conversation today I don’t know, but he was really impressive and fun to work with.
How were your experiences during the filming of Any Given Sunday? And does the infamous Al Pacino (as Tony D’Amato) “inch by inch” speech inspire you? Bauhaus66
The speech he gives to the dressing room? I remember thinking: “This guy doesn’t know his lines,” but it turned out he was so good he was coming up with lines as he was saying them, so it really felt as if he was making that speech up as he went along. It was great working with Al Pacino. He took me to eat, we hung out, went to the house he was renting where we were filming in Miami. We watched Riddick Bowe v Evander Holyfield or one of those fights. It was just dope to hang out with him.
What were your experiences like on the set of Halloween H20? Are you a fan of horror? aglassofsherryniles
It was fun. Jamie Lee Curtis was amazing and brought us a barbecue. I like horror but watching too much messes with my spirit. I’ll be laying there in bed, scaring myself, man.
It’s been more than 10 years since your last studio album, Authentic. What prompted you to make a new record, and how did you find the experience after such a long break? VerulamiumParkRanger
I was doing the TV show [crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles], which lasted for 14 or 15 years, and I was really enjoying it. I dabbled with one record, Authentic [2013], but I wasn’t close enough creatively to put my all into it. I didn’t want to try again until I had the energy, but that meant I had time to think about where I wanted to be creatively as an artist. I realised that like when James Cameron or Steven Spielberg do a new film, it’s cutting edge, so a new LL album needed to be impactful.
Intuitively I went with Q-Tip [as producer] and it felt like sonically we were able to go back to the future. I didn’t want to imitate. I wanted to move the needle, so we listened to loads of stuff and there’s African music on there, synth-pop. I wanted to explore the connection between the inner city in America and the home of Africa. I didn’t make this record for my friends on the block. It’s for the world.
What’s the most surprising record you love that would have people scratching their heads? ArthurSternom
Oh man, there’s so many. Wham!’s Careless Whisper is one of my favourites, also Everything She Wants. I like 99 Luftballons by Nena. Probably the biggest surprise might be Abba, Dancing Queen. I went to the Mamma Mia! musical in London and loved it.
Which beefs were confected for record sales and which ones did you really mean? Any you regret (bar Canibus, which you’ve already admitted was your fault)? FlyerBoy
I said it was my fault, not that I regretted it. I don’t regret any of them. They were all fun and it’s like playing for the World Cup – rivalry, but we’re just playin’. Boxers like Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury do this stuff all the time. It’s all good energy. I performed with Canibus at the Barclays Center [in Brooklyn] and brought him out.
Your song The Bristol Hotel and Run-DMC’s Dumb Girl both seemed to say that women were destroying the community. How do you view songs like these from where you are now? LoveTheGuardian
I’m not sure they said women were destroying the community! I mean, Bristol Hotel was on the same album as I Need Love. It was a song about a plus-size lady of leisure and I was a major fan. Art is art and I don’t think you can apply the same morals and standards. You can’t go back and say: “Oh, because the sculpture of [Michelangelo’s] David doesn’t have clothes on, I regret it. I should have made it with trousers.” I wrote the song I was inspired to write and you can interpret it a million ways, which is what art is. A sex worker might find it the most empowering song ever. I respect the question, but I stand by what I write from the heart, and I’m not sure we should change things 30 years down the line. If people are interested in where I’m at in my worldview now artistically, they should listen to the new record.
Looking back, was it a bad decision to play I Need Love live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1987? themarkmcdonald
I Need Love is one of the most important songs I’ve done. It helped usher in a whole new sub-genre of hip-hop with songs that are more skewed to females and the love aspect. I got arrested in Columbus, Georgia for humping a couch to it on stage so I think I can handle booing and coins getting tossed in London. I don’t regret playing it and I’d do it all over again. I mean, I wish I could go back and not get booed or coined. I much prefer it when everyone’s yelling: “We love you!”
The Force is released on Def Jam/Virgin on 6 September
'Deep Blue Sea' was jokes.
I wonder if LL likes the english or non english version -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY&themeRefresh=1&theme=dark
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leaked...
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leaked...
This time there is a CD :o
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leaked...
I’m not listening until it hits streaming tonight. Gonna cop the CD as well
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This time there is a CD :o
Def gonna buy!
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Thus far the production reminds me of the last A Tribe Called Quest album. Not a bad thing
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Thus far the production reminds me of the last A Tribe Called Quest album. Not a bad thing
Thats a good thing!
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LL COOL J ‘had no idea’ he’d invent one of the most-used meme phrases of all time
(https://i.pinimg.com/474x/03/20/2a/03202a2768a5ba1aaa678f5ef3257856.jpg)
It’s very rare you’ll ever catch LL COOL J not smiling — and there’s a good reason for that. The legendary New York rapper, who began his career 40 years ago at the tender age of 16, lives a blessed life courtesy of his pioneering contributions to hip hop as the culture’s first solo superstar.
Not only has he carved out one hell of a career in music, film and TV, for which he’s earned numerous platinum and multi-platinum-selling records, a tonne of awards and accolades, and a string of impressive acting credits, he’s also a business mogul, philanthropist, and a loving husband and proud father of four.
And he’s now got something else to smile about… his first new album in over 11 years.
Deciding it was time to dust off the mic after what has been his longest break between albums — his last full-length release was 2013’s Authentic — LL (real name James Todd Smith) tells us the reason for his return is because he still feels he has a lot to offer today’s music fan and doesn’t ever want to be branded a ‘part-time artist.’
‘You can’t be an artist in your spare time,’ he says, speaking over Zoom from New York, before going on to explain that he never actually stopped making music. “Musically, the pilot light was always on. I’d always be going in the studio and touching things here and there.’
It wasn’t until CBS action crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles — in which LL COOL J stars as Special Agent Sam Hanna — started to wind down ahead of its May 2023 season 14 finale, that he was able to get back in the studio and focus on recording.
‘I had no idea it was gonna become a worldwide phrase and statement,’ he said of coining the term GOAT
‘I just got into a place where the TV show was coming to an end and I was becoming more and more serious about wanting to do new music. Then at a certain point, I realised that there was a new challenge there, and that was: can an artist that’s been out for many, many years make a record that has some serious impact in a new era? That became a fun idea for me.’
This resulted in the creation of new album The FORCE (an acronym for Frequencies of Real Creative Energy). Produced entirely by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, the 14-track project arrives via Def Jam Recordings, the legendary hip hop label where the 56-year-old started his career back in 1984.
Leaving the label after the release of his 12th studio album, 2008’s Exit 13, citing creative differences with the execs who ran Def Jam at the time, LL says his decision to re-sign all these years later is down to a different energy he feels is now present at the label — which today is home to the likes of Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Big Sean, Coco Jones, Jhené Aiko and many others.
‘I wanted [the album] to be great, and so I called up [CEO of Universal Music Group] Lucian [Grainge]. I was like, “Yo man, I want to do a record.” And he was like, “Well, come on. Let’s figure it out.” So we did a deal with Def Jam.
‘The energy around the label felt different to me. I felt like time and care would be taken to make sure that the record was treated properly. And I think I was right. Just the fact that we’re on the phone [doing this interview]. Something as simple as this, these are things that need to happen. It just felt right to me.’
Featured guests on the album include Snoop Dogg, Nas, Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe. But one collaboration that sticks out — and one that LL COOL J fans have been waiting years for — comes on the track Murdergram Deux, where the Mama Said Knock You out hitmaker trades bars with Eminem.
‘Me and Em were in the studio together,’ LL says of the track, the vocals for which were recorded at Dr. Dre’s studio in California. ‘I would write my rhyme, then I’d leave the studio. Then he would write his rhyme, I would record my vocal, then he would write and record his and leave. We went back and forth and then sat in the studio together and did that last piece together.’
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfYoBbLgjptoYrjVyNnd3rZA87lpScdgNhTmjxvVA0nBugxqrwmyS6ZfwBordTNIl-j6-90kBI1-U4WNtiOmSsS1KMmWEcW1O2dlzKUYjOgewh_amAHsPCH2IyhUS_fF_g_sNCIGS-kYxjDpOY_tZR7n8bgdY1Hz_UmoGJcdTcNFNJBWREIOHwMcF_X5Y/s1284/eminem-ll-cool-js-first-collaboration-murdergram-deux.JPEG)
In rap, it’s not uncommon for collaborating MCs to rewrite their bars after hearing what their counterpart has laid down. Kanye West famously rewrote his verse on Drake’s 2009 blockbuster anthem Forever after hearing Eminem’s verse, admitting: ‘I went back and rewrote my s**t for two days. I cancelled appointments to rewrite [that]. I f****n ’care!”
Given Eminem’s reputation as one of hip hop’s best lyricists, did LL have to rewrite any of his bars on the rapid-fire cut?
‘Nah, I didn’t have to rewrite nothing,’ he says, composing himself after laughing hysterically for almost 30 seconds straight, making it very clear just how comical the suggestion he would ever rewrite his lyrics is.
‘Artists that are not really used to rapping with great rappers, they get into a lot of hang ups about rhyming with guys that can rhyme,’ he explains. ‘But if you notice, I have Nas on the album. I have Em on the album. I’m getting the best guys. So for me, that’s just par for the course. I’m rhyming with a guy who can really rap good. Okay, great. That was the whole point of when I got into hip hop. The whole point was when you put a group together, find the guys that can rap the best.’
When it comes to rap G.O.A.T.s, there’s no question that Eminem and LL COOL J are cemented names on the list. As far as the ‘Greatest of All Time’ acronym itself, which is regularly used to describe transcendent athletes, entertainers and other talented entities, you might be surprised to learn that it was actually LL who coined the term. ‘There’s no question I came up with that!’
Explaining that the inspiration for the G.O.A.T. term and acronym came from ‘smashing together’ Muhammad Ali’s famous ‘I am the greatest’ quote and the nickname given to street basketball legend Earl ‘the Goat’ Manigault, LL used the moniker for the title of his eighth studio album, G.O.A.T. featuring James T. Smith: The Greatest of All Time — which coincidentally or not is his only album to top the US Billboard 200 album chart.
‘It’s pretty wild that it turned out how it did,’ he says, reflecting on how the inescapable term became a cultural phenomenon and is now a permanent fixture in the global vocabulary. ‘I had no idea it was gonna become a worldwide phrase and statement.’
While he wishes he had trademarked the phrase, instead of dwelling on a missed opportunity, LL wants to be more positive and optimistic about his creation, using it as inspiration for his potential future endeavours.
‘To be able to touch the world through my art like that is pretty dope. What it says to me is that I can do more creatively. It says to me, if I’m capable of creating terminology for the entire globe, I can do some big things.’
When it comes to his acting resumé, the list of film and TV projects LL COOL J has been involved in is solid. With over 35 acting credits to his name, his most memorable roles are probably those in the aforementioned NCIS: Los Angeles, and then movies such as Any Given Sunday, S.W.A.T., Charlie’s Angels, In Too Deep, Mindhunters and Deep Blue Sea.
The latter, now a cult classic among shark and horror fans, celebrated its 25th anniversary last month. Remembering the impact it had on his career — and how it broke the problematic movie trope that Black characters always die first in horror films, or just never make it to the end — LL takes a moment to give the Renny Harlin-directed film its flowers.
‘I loved doing Deep Blue Sea. I have a lot of important movies that were cool for my life, and that was definitely one of them. Even the fact that I survived in the movie, I think that’s hysterical — first Black dude to survive.’
Despite his love for film and TV, though, LL admits that making music is where his real passion is. ‘I just love the music,’ he explains. ‘I don’t limit myself. I do enjoy doing these films and television shows, but I just love music more.’
Having flirted with retirement a few times throughout his career, does this candid and seemingly unconditional love for music mean there will be more to come after The FORCE — or will this be his final album?
‘I definitely would like to record more,’ he says with a smirk, before adding one caveat. ‘As long as I’m inspired, I will always want to record and release more music.’
LL COOL J’s The FORCE is out now via Def Jam Recordings.
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Fantastic album, LL is sharp, Production is A1 and its a sound we've not heard LL on too much.
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Wow q tip destroyed this. One producer one mc feel to album production. Song structures there. Far exceeded my expectations
No surprise ll ditched Dre for Tip
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Good to hear LL flowing like this after 40 years in the game. 8)
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Amazing album LL is back! Some of the production is a little busy sometimes but when I listen on headphones it's much better (Did Q-Tip make these beats on headphones? lol)
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Amazing album LL is back! Some of the production is a little busy sometimes but when I listen on headphones it's much better (Did Q-Tip make these beats on headphones? lol)
+1 first and only listen here was on headphones. hope it goes in the ride, too
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I was listening to the album and imagining Nas rappig over the Q-Tip beats on it, it would be incredible. But LL Cool J came true too. Album is fire. 8)
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A charged up LL rappin over beats that sound like they were intended for a new 'ATCQ' album by Q-Tip.
1st reviews...
Album Review: LL Cool J, The Force
Soul In Stereo
Edward Bowser
The Force (released September 6, 2024)
LL Cool J owes us nothing.
Without a doubt, James Todd Smith is one of hip-hop’s greatest architects. As a teenager, he was one of hip-hop’s most recognizable voices (his debut, in my opinion, is one of rap’s first five-star projects). He became the master of the so call “girl tracks,” able to shift from hardened lyricist to smooth loverboy with the flip of the switch, becoming the blueprint for scores of hardcore rappers who temporarily softened their edges for radio play. He survived a half-dozen battles and beefs that would have destroyed most rappers’ careers while seamlessly transitioning to both the small and big screen, taking hip-hop to Hollywood. I mean, this is the guy who is credited with bringing the GOAT term from the sports world to rap lexicon.
LL = living legend. A lot of y’all wouldn’t be reading this post right now if not for the foundation that LL laid.
But when I heard way back in the late 2010s that LL was planning a new album – his first after bowing out of the game after 2013’s Authentic, my first question was … why?
In my eyes, his legacy was already secured. Trying to return to a game to appeal to a younger fanbase that only knows him as an award show host with a lip-licking addiction seemed like a losing battle. The years of false starts and promises of an album that never materialized didn’t give me a lot of confidence.
But as news of The Force, LL’s 14 LP, began to solidify, I saw the vision. He enlisted fellow hip-hop architect Q-Tip to handle production. He taught his peers how to properly promote an upcoming project by being ever-present on blogs and interviews. And the singles he released? LL clearly wasn’t pandering to modern audiences – no autotune, no afrobeats, no trendy features from out-of-place artists.
This was unfiltered hip-hop.
That’s when I got it. He’s not here to win us over again – he spent four decades doing that. He’s back for the love of the game.
The Force isn’t a comeback album, it’s more of an affirmation album. Just like when we were infected by the magic of Nas’ king’s disease these past few years, LL seems more content exercising his lyrical muscles than harping about his legacy. Nas was having fun, and you can tell LL is doing the same.
And he’s doing it at the highest level.
“The Spirit of Cyrus” is the most jarring album opener of the year – in a good way. Right out of the gate, LL, with the help of Snoop Dogg, portrays a Black vigilante, whose guns are pointed directly at the corrupt cops that target Black communities. LL is brazen and ferocious: “blinded by my Black skin, now your head is see-through.” It’s a long way from “Accidental Racist.” That take-no-prisoners approach is felt throughout the project.
The album’s title track showcases an aggression I haven’t heard from Uncle L since 2000’s “Ill Bomb.” Tracks like “Passion” and “Runnit Back” are outright bar fests, especially the latter, where he coyly runs through some past accomplishments before resuming his mission to decimate the competition. Speaking of past glory, “Post Modern,” one of the best offerings, sees LL recapturing the bombastic energy of his “I’m Bad” heyday as he bellows over Q-Tip’s off-kilter production. It shouldn’t work, but it does wonderfully.
The Force isn’t just a 45-minute sprint. LL takes time to slow down for more poignant moments. “Black Code Suite” is a sweet celebration of Blackness: “mama when she’s dancing, uncle when he’s trippin/the spirit of Stevie Wonder when ‘Superstition’ was written.” Also, it wouldn’t be an LL album without an oversexed track on the setlist. Saweetie is the latest in a long line of female co-stars LL does it well with on “Proclivities.” Sure, we’ve heard LL share his sex fantasies for decades, but this type of track is a rarity in today’s landscape. Countless artists talk about sex, very few use this level of storytelling to get their point across. The two wind up sharing surprising chemistry.
On that note, one of the few complaints I have with The Force is that come of the collaborations don’t work as well as they should. “Saturday Night Special” seemed like magic in the making – Tip’s production is great and LL approached the track with a great concept. But Fat Joe and Rick Ross just do their usual Fat Joe and Rick Ross thing. Rawse abandons the track’s “advice from the OGs” theme entirely to ramble about yachts and Maybachs or whatever (props to L for trying to tie things back together immediately after). Also, I was extremely excited to hear that Nas would appear on “Praise Him,” highlighting two legends experiencing career renaissances together. But Esco’s contribution felt rushed and ends up forgettable.
Never fear, because Busta Rhymes more than made up for those missteps with “Huey in the Chair,” which plays out like a pair of rap titans oozing with blaxploitation energy. And while almost every Eminem verse is met with divisive banter these days, “Murdergram Deux” is a must-hear. I enjoyed Em’s contribution but LL’s breathless delivery will leave you speechless. I’ve been listening to this guy for almost 40 years, I can’t think of another time where his delivery was so fast and so intense.
(https://eminem.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/LL-Cool-J-Eminem-MD.jpg)
LL has had his critics over the years – including me, and I consider myself a huge fan. He’s a huge part of my early rap fandom But The Force leaves no room for doubt. It may sound cliche but at 56 years old, LL is rapping better than ever. On “Basquiat Energy,” when he effortlessly spit: “you know we litty in the city, back on fire like we hit ’em with the stimmy, we be getting to the bag, hear me?” I had to pull the lil’ scroll button back at least three times to catch every syllable.
The breath control. The delivery. The intensity. He’s better than he’s ever been. You’d be crazy to doubt him.
Don’t call it a comeback, call it confirmation. The GOATs are immortal.
Best tracks: “Post Modern,” “Huey in the Chair,” “The Force”
4 stars out of 5
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LL Cool J Proves Traditional Hip-Hop Can Be a Pretty Good Thing on ‘FORCE’
With Q-Tip modernizing his sound, the grandpa and NCIS: Los Angeles star isn't looking baxkwards as he delivers boastful brags, lover-man vibes, and old-school rap storytelling
September 6, 2024
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/ll-cool-j-force-review-1235096890/
Chris Parsons*
Scant months after Q-Tip publicly debated the dubiousness of an “adult-contemporary hip-hop” category on social media comes a completely Tip-produced new album by his Queens neighbor LL Cool J—the 56-year-old rapper-actor’s 14th since his 1984 debut as a teenager. In a year when both Rakim and Masta Ace released new projects, when Common teamed with producer Pete Rock for a stellar throwback album of Nineties-spirited hip-hop, LL’s new effort joins a trend. “Call it traditional hip-hop,” Q-Tip tweeted.
The FORCE doesn’t nod to modern drill or trap, nor are there vintage boom-bap beats to be heard. Still lyrically competitive after 39 years of rhyming, Q-Tip modernizes LL’s sound for those who’d actually want to stream a new LL Cool J album and gives them what they came for: boastful brags (“Murdergram Deux” with Eminem), lover-man vibes (“Proclivities”) and some old-school rap storytelling (“Spirit of Cyrus”).
Pairing the still musclebound MC responsible for sexy classics like “Doin’ It” with the producer of A Tribe Called Quest come-ons like “Electric Relaxation” seems almost too on the nose. And yes, in 2024, LL is a long-married grandpa. But we hardly even need to suspend our disbelief as he twists seductive rhymes around a synth line recalling Gary Numan on “Proclivities,” flirting with Saweetie about tonsil hockey and making panties drop. The FORCE is hardly LL’s grown-up 4:44 album. He’s the same Farmers Boulevard superhero he’s always been and the album is better for it.
But LL does look back in the rearview. His first single launched Def Jam as a hip-hop label in ’84 — he name drops the label’s co-founders Rick Rubin (on “Basquiat Energy”) and Russell Simmons (on “Runnit Back”). Like Captain America revived from suspended animation, LL returns from 1994 to a contemporary world he never made on “30 Decembers” (“this world ain’t like I remember,” he laments). When Nas guests on the spiritualist “Praise Him,” the Queensbridge rapper brings up the golden-age hip-hop fashion of sheepskin coats and Cazal eyeglasses.
The titular “FORCE” stands for “frequencies of real creative energy” and the NCIS: Los Angeles star arguably gets his most creative on “Black Code Suite.” He embodies a litany of African-American bona fides (“I’m the sound of Miles Davis, it’s impossible to bury me/The slow pimp walk, it’s impossible to hurry me”), including the spice in hot sauce and tastebuds savoring sunflower seeds, ending with the repetitive declaration “I’m Black.” Title references to Huey P. Newton, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cyrus of The Warriors fit the program. If LL has done nothing but craft his blackest album possible within the confines of pop-leaning hip-hop for oldsters, his mission is well accomplished.
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LL/Def-Jam interview -
Exclusive Digital Cover: 40 Years Of LL Cool J & Def Jam Records
by George Garner
https://www.musicweek.com/labels/read/exclusive-digital-cover-40-years-of-ll-cool-j-def-jam-records/090395
Welcome to a milestone moment. This month, LL Cool J releases his first album in 11 years. Not only is it produced entirely by A Tribe Called Quest genius Q-Tip, it also boasts appearances from superstars like Eminem, Nas, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg, and marks the living legend’s return to the label where it all began: Def Jam. As both commemorate their shared 40th anniversary, here the iconic MC and Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun guide us through the celebrations…
When it came to making his first album in 11 years, LL Cool J knew exactly what he required. The man born James Todd Smith practically starts choking on his own excitement as he begins hurling descriptors at Music Week. Or perhaps, more accurately, flavours.
“Man, I wanted that hot sauce, pickle juice,” he buzzes as his canary yellow jumper-sporting torso starts rocking in his chair. “Yo! Just the crispy skin chicken!”
Here his sonic recipe comes to an abrupt stop as he catches his breath. His face, framed by a crisp white NYC cap, breaks out into a massive grin.
“I just wanted the most specific, culturally relevant, Black, crazy album…” he carries on, enunciating every word with maximum vigour.
That vision has resulted in The FORCE, a milestone record for the hip-hop icon. It’s his best since 2000’s G.O.A.T. (why, yes, he was the person to coin that term). It’s produced entirely – and immaculately – by A Tribe Called Quest legend Q-Tip. It boasts a star-studded guestlist that sees him trading bars on songs with Eminem, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, Fat Joe and Saweetie among others. But that’s not all. The FORCE also marks the 40th anniversary of the time a teenage LL Cool J provided Def Jam with its very first official release via his 1984 debut single I Need A Beat. A full-circle moment, The FORCE sees the star signed back on Def Jam, having previously parted ways in 2008. Don’t call it a comeback, call it a celebration.
(https://www.musicweek.com/files/LL%20Cool%20J%20digi%20cover.jpg)
Getting to this point wasn’t easy. Having long pursued a successful acting career (“I thought I was going to do the [NCIS] show for two years, it ended up being 14,” he laughs) LL was long overdue a return to the studio. Dr Dre had already armed him with over 30 “lush, amazing beats”. The problem, he says, candidly, was that his own verses were “lame”. He knew it. Dr Dre knew it. And someone else knew it, too.
“So, I have this dream of Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest,” says LL of the late MC who tragically passed away in 2016. “Phife says to me – and I’m getting chills as I say this – ‘That new album you're doing with Dre is going to be dope.’”
The hesitant ‘Yeah?’ with which LL replied was met with an expression that is still burned into his mind.
“The way he looked at me…” says LL, imitating Phife’s stare. “That Cheshire cat look, that doubtful nod he gave me, it resonated. And then he faded away.”
When LL woke up, he knew what he needed to do. With Dre’s blessing – and the knowledge that he could return to those beats when his pen-game was ready – he needed to start over. He had to find a way to rap again in a manner that could – and so often did – take on any and all challengers throughout his career. Lest we forget, this is the same person who once cunningly twisted Canibus’ own line of attack against him to demoralising effect during their epic beef: ‘Ask Canibus, he ain’t understanding this, ’cause 99 per cent of his fans don’t exist.’
A day and a half after Phife visited him, LL picked up the phone and called Q-Tip.
“What’s up, bro?” the A Tribe Called Quest talisman asked, answering on the first ring.
LL explained his dream and said he promptly required Q-Tip’s expert beat-making services to get his album back on track.
“Say less,” Q-Tip replied. “When you gonna be in New York?”
Going into The FORCE, LL Cool J was, he says, an artist in search of his “Santana moment” – to do what the guitarist had done with his multiple Grammy-winning, career-reinvigorating 1999 outing Supernatural. That’s a lot of pressure, but so too is living up to his own musical legacy.
Ever since selling 100,000 copies of his debut single I Need A Beat as a teenager, LL become the first rapper to rack up 10 consecutive platinum-plus albums and to earn a Kennedy Centre Honour, all while also being inducted into the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, winning Grammys and more. Card-carrying LL super-fan Eminem summed it up best in an episode of VH1’s Behind The Music: “He was the first rock star of rap.”
That said rock star was determined to make The FORCE a statement isn’t a surprise. LL’s last album, 2013’s Authentic, didn’t go how he wanted it to. “I did this experimental record, it was okay,” he shrugs today. “It didn’t feel great. I did it on a small little label, and it just felt out of character.”
Overriding any worries of falling short of his past was LL’s frustration of hearing great rappers talk about being overlooked by new generations. He didn’t want his achievements to reside solely in yesteryear.
(https://www.musicweek.com/files/LL%20Cool%20J%20exclusive%201.jpg)
“I really wanted to show the world the artistry of LL Cool J,” he explains. “It’s been a long time since I had a real heavy impact on music, and I wanted to do it in a way that was like, ‘Wow, it’s really possible for guys in hip-hop to keep going!’ It’s different to just being beloved, super-famous or having an amazing catalogue and then putting out C-plus new material. All of that is pretty much par for the course. But to creatively have something as impactful as some of your best work? That’s a different challenge. That, to me, is the fun: going for the 10th championship or that fourth gold medal.”
Sitting in his LA office, with a classic boom box behind him, current Def Jam chairman and CEO Tunji Balogun is unequivocal on how LL fared in this endeavour.
“He’s rapping his ass off on this album,” he beams. “It’s actually quite uncanny. LL has the same passion, hunger and energy that he had when he got signed at 15 and became that first iconic hip-hop star. That he’s been able to sustain a 40-year career and still be sharp, innovative and imaginative? It’s very, very, very rare.”
It’s not necessarily a prerequisite for a CEO to be enamoured with a label’s glorious past in order to succeed at driving it into the future. But in Balogun – who took over the reins in January 2022 – Def Jam have a leader who, in his own words, “grew up on the label”. Ask him to cite the records that personally define its illustrious 40-year history for him, and what starts with references to Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man & Redman, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Foxy Brown and Kanye West soon spirals into a fascinating, encyclopaedic trip down memory lane. Such is his passion, you half expect him to start reciting album catalogue numbers.
“The LL record we all listened to when I was in high school was [1995’s] Mr. Smith, and those are still some of my favourite songs,” he says. “It’s crazy because now I talk to this guy on the phone every couple of days. It’s very surreal!”
(https://www.musicweek.com/files/Tunji%20Balogun%20CR%20Ro%20Lexx.jpg)
Right now, Balogun's focus is firmly on bringing his sharp A&R instincts to bear on the label.
“We’re really doing the work to break a new generation of artists that can carry Def Jam’s legacy,” he explains, citing how proud he is of the organic growth of signings such as Muni Long, Coco Jones and Friday.
So where, you might reasonably ask, does the return of a veteran like LL fit into that masterplan? Balogun’s answer speaks volumes. When you go into Columbia you’re going to see a Bob Dylan picture, he says. He wants Def Jam to respect all the pioneers that made the label what it is. To be proud of everything from “the magic of Rick Rubin” to legendary executives like Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles. “The execs have felt larger than life and a part of the story as well,” he salutes. “But I won’t claim that I’m one of those [laughs].”
LL being back on Def Jam carries real cultural weight.
“The saying around here is that LL is the ‘D’ in Def Jam,” Balogun says. “He sparked the success. He’s the reason why other iconic original artists like the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy felt comfortable signing. He was the example, not just for Def Jam, but the whole genre. Not to disrespect anyone who came before him, but he was the first one who became a fully-fledged superstar. LL being back on Def Jam reconnects the dots. It’s important to have a really wide spectrum of music and show that hip-hop artists can age gracefully and put out albums in their 40s, 50s and or 60s that are compelling, intelligent and pushing things forward. The FORCE defies age and time – he sounds as fresh as he did in the ’80s and ’90s.”
LL Cool J himself has been working hard at this endeavour on behalf of others with his Rock The Bells enterprise. Its goal? To ensure that the legends that paved the way for hip-hop are granted the same reverence, respect and opportunities that rock affords to, say, the Rolling Stones. In 2023, RTB and Live Nation Urban put that into practice with a huge arena tour, including Slick Rick, Rakim, Run-DMC, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Redman, Salt-N-Pepa and more.
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This feat of survival and legacy maintenance applies to Def Jam, too. It inspired countless hip-hop labels and outlived them – even ones that at, different times, crept ahead of them in the market shares during the West Coast’s ascension in the ’90s.
“There’s a number of reasons for that,” Balogun offers. “Number one, there’s just so many iconic albums, songs and moments from the ’80s until now. Second, and this is really important, it built a universe beyond music with Def Poetry Jam, Def Comedy Jam and video games like Def Jam Vendetta. When I talk to people under the age of 25 and they hear ‘Def Jam’, they immediately think about the video game. It became more than a label, it became a lifestyle brand – especially if you include the clothing collabs. There are places that you can go with this brand that I don’t think any other major label can. It’s always been at the cutting edge of where Black music is, and then you see it progress even further to international pop stars like Justin Bieber, Alessia Cara and Rihanna. If you think about it, three artists who went on to become billionaires came out of this label. There’s a 40-year consistency of artists.”
With that said, and without further ado, we sit down with the living hip-hop legend that kickstarted that remarkable 40-year legacy. Here, LL Cool J reflects further on everything from his early days, to writing with Eminem and the key to surviving the music business…
As The FORCE marks 40 years of LL Cool J and Def Jam, can you paint a picture of who you were in 1984 at the time you were making I Need A Beat?
“Being in the studio, with my Kangol on, a little sweat suit, I was just so excited. The way I viewed that opportunity, it might as well have been like us being present for the Big Bang. It was the opportunity of a lifetime: like winning the World Cup, the Super Bowl, graduating from college, hitting the lotto with a clean bill of health and meeting the girl of your dreams all in the same day. It was amazing.”
Everyone talks about 1987’s I Need Love as the first hip-hop ballad, and how its influence can be traced all the way through to artists like Drake in the present day. But more than just an R&B crossover song, has your decisive role in helping hip-hop centre an emotional inner life and shed some of its machismo on that track been overlooked?
“I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. That sensitivity and that vulnerability is something that people have noticed, but I don’t know that they’ve coined it the way you honed in on. That vulnerability was definitely something that was confusing to the audience back then. But that requires the most courage, right? You have to be willing to do stuff that no-one has done, and to understand that there are consequences associated with that creatively. That has been par for the course for me. Even something as simple as making a song that sounds almost like I can’t really rap just because that’s what’s best for the song. That’s why Headsprung, with me saying all of those silly lines, ended up lasting. That was the point: it was dumb, but that made it fun. I loved it. So, going back to your point, that vulnerability just felt natural to me. I didn’t care about who thought what. I looked at it like, ‘This is my music, I can do anything.’”
You don’t get to the stage you’re at in your career without going through some tough moments – you once said the divisive reaction to your 1989 Walking With A Panther album “kept you honest” ever since. How have you learned to deal with setbacks?
“What you learn is that it’s like sports: just because you don’t win the World Cup, Super Bowl or World Series every year, that doesn’t mean you’re not a champion. Maybe the stars just didn’t line up, maybe you had a bad day, maybe you rested on your laurels a bit creatively. It’s okay. It happens. Whatever the case may be, you realise that you still have it in you; you know the level you can go to. In other words, LeBron James, Steph Curry and KD don’t have to win the championship every year for us to know they’re great ball players. And I don’t have to have the biggest album or biggest tour every year for me to know that LL Cool J is a force to be reckoned with. I’m a world-class hip-hop artist, whether I get the Grammy that year or not.”
In terms of your legacy, there are still a lot of people who don’t know that the term GOAT can be traced back to your 2000 album. Given how that term has transcended music, do you see that as a major part of your legacy now?
“You know what it reminds me of? It’s A Wonderful Life. I say this selfishly, but it’s true. Sometimes for me it doesn’t matter if people totally give me credit [at the time], because I know that if I subtracted myself from hip-hop, I know how that would change things.”
Ah, the difference one life can make…
“Dude. People don’t even realise. Something as simple as the song My Adidas by Run-DMC, that doesn’t happen if I don’t make My Radio. I could take you through unbelievable amounts of things that would change. So to me, it’s like, ‘Wow, so maybe people don’t always point a finger [of recognition], you’re still happy.’ I feel fulfilled, recognised, appreciated, respected and loved.”
When it came to A&Ring The FORCE and corralling superstars like Eminem, Nas, Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes, is that just a case of you picking up the phone and saying, ‘LL needs you’?
“It is exactly that. It’s amazing because they all got on it, but the flipside is that you also want to do right by the guests. I want them to be a part of something great. They were called because what they do as a musician really worked with what we were doing, they weren’t called purely because of their fame. Yes, they’re some of the biggest hip-hop stars ever, but sonically, it made sense. I didn’t call Eminem to do Proclivities, I called him for Murdergram because, sonically, it sounded right.”
Murdergram Deux is a sequel to a classic from Momma Said Knock You Out, but was it you or Eminem who decided it was time for a follow-up?
“That was me, but we were in Dr Dre’s studio together. Em is the best, man. He’s so dope, so cool – such a good guy. He came through for me big time. We made a dope song together that’s worth all of the social equity that he’s put out about [our friendship in interviews over the years].”
A lot of his collaborators no doubt have Nas’ classic line ‘Eminem murdered you on your own shit’ echoing in their minds. Was that a concern going into the recording?
“No. It’s like playing on an Olympic basketball team: you just bring your A-Game, and get to work. It really is that simple. The question just becomes, how are you playing that day? And are you ready [laughs]?”
You’ve said your fans can be divided into two camps: the ‘Don’t call it a comeback!’ hardcore crowd, and the ‘Oh, he raps!?’ audience who only know you from acting. How do you make sure the latter crowd discovers your musical legacy?
“At the end of the day, if they press play and like it, they’ll Google for more. I’m not gonna push away from a younger audience, but I’m also not consciously trying to chase them and be the oldest dude in the club [laughs]. With the Proclivities video, I didn’t go in trying to pretend I was 20 with my clothing. If a 22-year-old is into it? Cool! If they’re not? Oh well! I’m not looking to be that guy. But I love working with young artists, with Saweetie we did a song together and it makes sense.”
As your acting career grew, was there ever a point where you thought you might be done with music?
“No, not at all. I believe there’s always something new to talk about. The first award I ever got for acting was a Blockbuster Future Star award when I was deep into my hip-hop career. I remember being sad when I got it because I felt like it was gonna somehow stop me from doing music. People are born to do certain things; I was born to do hip-hop. You can’t start Def Jam and 40 years later still be doing it at this level and not be born for it. It just doesn’t work like that. I can't fool people for 40 years.”
In your film career, you once killed a mako shark using an exploding oven in Deep Blue Sea, but what’s the biggest obstacle you’ve personally had to overcome in your music career?
“If you want me to be totally, brutally honest with you, bro, the toughest thing has been feeling like my music, while obviously very successful, wasn’t always given the shot that it could have been. That’s been tough sometimes. How was it recognised by the media? By the world? I’ve done extremely well and I’m very thankful, don’t get it wrong. But sometimes there were points in my career where it felt like I was doing it in spite of [things], as opposed to having a free lane. You would want the channel or station to automatically play your song, or invite you. But sometimes it was kind of like, ‘Oh, yeah, [LL] is in this category.’ I just feel like I could have been considered for broader categories.”
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When you started Rock The Bells you said, ‘The way rock treats Bono, I want people to treat Run-DMC.’ Why did you feel you needed to take supporting legendary acts into your own hands?
“I’m out of my fucking mind, bro. I just believe in the higher power, love and good of lifting up hip-hop culture and seeing artists get treated the right way. They’ve got to have an advocate; somebody has to step up. It’s foolish to a certain extent, because I would probably do a little better just focusing on me only, but I want to see other artists get treated the right way, bro. I want to see Run-DMC, Big Daddy Kane and Rakim treated right. To see these artists elevated and go on worldwide tours. Not just two guys, not three guys, not whoever’s popular on the internet this month, but everybody. I just want to see the culture thrive because I love hip-hop that much. As a fan, I want to see my heroes continue to be my heroes. Imagine it as a Marvel comic and you love the Avengers, but then you’re seeing all of them lose their powers. You’d be miserable. I want all of them to be doing well. And is it the easiest path? No. Is it even the most fun path? Not always. But does it make me feel good as a human being, in my spirit, in the deepest, deepest part of my core? Yes, it does.”
So what help can the industry give you in order to achieve that goal of celebrating artists who paved the way for hip-hop music?
“If people embrace Rock The Bells and lift it up, the rest will take care of itself. We’ll be able to raise the money, do the deals, and all of that will fall into place. But it’s really about people showing up. I loved seeing a giant crowd for Travis Scott on the internet, but I also want to see that for these classic artists because I know those fans exist. The same way Tina Turner, may she rest in peace, was able to command huge crowds as she matured, the same way Bono does, I want to see hip-hop artists play at that level. I want to come to London and play whatever the biggest venue is with my friends. It’s obvious that I know how to update my sound and make sure my thinking is contemporary. But come on, man. What’s the point of me improving what’s possible for LL if I’m not going to bring my friends along and let them benefit?”
Finally, then, in 1988 you famously told the world that, ‘LL Cool J is hard as hell.’ What does LL Cool J have to say about himself in 2024 as you release The FORCE?
“Wow. Well… Now? He’s cool as hell!”
LL Cool J’s The FORCE is out now via Def Jam
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LL Cool J: ‘I was hanging out with some of the most dangerous characters in New York’
The hip-hop star’s acting career led to a 11-year musical hiatus, but despite one major false start, he’s back with a new album. He talks to Stevie Chick about vulnerability, longevity and the call he got telling him to stay off the streets
4 hours ago
The walls of LL Cool J’s office in his New York home groan under the weight of framed gold and platinum discs. But these trophies aren’t mere self-celebratory décor – they serve a serious, inspirational purpose for the rapper, actor and entrepreneur. “When I look at these discs,” he murmurs, humble as rap’s finest braggart can be, “they remind me that everything is still possible, that I can do more. They’re symbols of ideas and dreams I had that came true. And they remind me I can do it again – I can make a huge, impactful record again.”
It’s a dream the man born James Todd Smith has been working towards for over a decade, one that finally reaches fruition with The Force – his 14th album, and first in 11 years. The reason for the long lay-off? His role as special agent Sam Hanna, the clown-fearing hero of TV crime procedural NCIS: Los Angeles. “I signed on to the show and, quite frankly, thought it’d be over in a couple of years and I’d be back doing my thing. But it took off.”
Indeed it did. But as LL enjoyed 15 lucrative years apprehending onscreen baddies, off screen he pined for his true love, hip-hop. He’d tried juggling the two, recording 2013’s “experimental” Authentic while NCIS was filming but, sodden with unlikely guest stars, the album was a rare critical and commercial dud. “You can’t be a part-time artist,” he says now. “I was on set, making creative decisions over the album by phone. It didn’t work.” He stored his rap ambitions in the closet, strapped on his fake firearm and walked back in front of the cameras (with one eye out for the clowns). But as NCIS: Los Angeles finally began to wind down, the erstwhile rapper “got that itch again”.
LL first caught the bug during hip-hop’s infancy. His childhood in Long Island, New York was marred by violence – in one altercation, his father shot LL’s mother and grandfather (they survived, just), while later his mother’s boyfriend regularly beat the boy. But rap offered an escape: when he listened to early stars like the Treacherous Three, the Crash Crew and The Fearless Four, he says, “I felt peace. Hip-hop gave me bliss, and I wanted to follow my bliss. I went all in: I put pen to paper, and I kept writing and rewriting until what I was writing gave me that same feeling.”
LL cut a batch of primitive demos, which fell into the hands of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, then founding Def Jam Recordings. LL’s first single, 1984’s “I Need a Beat”, became the label’s third 12-inch release. His second, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”, hit No 15 on Billboard’s R&B chart, followed by Def Jam’s first album, LL’s 1985 full-length debut Radio. While the industry still considered hip-hop a novelty, LL’s success – shifting 500,000 units in months, eventually going platinum – changed all that. And he quickly decided he wouldn’t fall into the trap of becoming a one-hit-wonder, like so many of rap’s early stars had.
“Run-DMC was talking about making their fourth album, their fifth album – and, one day, their ninth album,” he remembers. “And it clicked in my head: I could keep going, too. Nothing lasts forever – but it can definitely last a lifetime.” He drops into the braggadocio mode that characterised his early records. “I have the courage of a thousand lions: if I believe I can do something, you won’t be able to convince me otherwise.”
His work grew more sophisticated, adulterating the fierce swagger with role-play, storytelling and, on “I Need Love” from second album Bigger and Deffer (1987), hip-hop balladry. He didn’t fear the mockery of his peers for momentarily ditching the machismo and displaying his softer side. “Only weak people are scared of appearing vulnerable. I was hanging out with some of the most dangerous characters in New York, the guys they made [hard-edged 2002 drug-running thriller] Paid in Full about – hustlers, gangsters. I could make a vulnerable song like ‘I Need Love’ because I was supremely confident in who I was and what I was doing.”
Bigger And Deffer went double platinum, and LL’s pockets swam with cash, much of which he spent on cars and thick gold chains. He squandered a fortune, but quickly earned it back, grounded enough to avoid the career-ending mistakes of many of his peers. “My mother told me, ‘Todd, you’re a handsome boy – anything you put your mind to, you can do it,’” he grins. “But my grandmother said, ‘if a task is once begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be thy labour great or small, do it well or not at all.’ She’d holler at me, ‘You’re not little Lord Fauntleroy!’” He dissolves into laughter. “She taught me humility. Cockiness, confidence, even arrogance – it all had its place: on the record. But you leave that behind you once you walk off the pitch – you got to keep things in perspective and not take yourself too seriously.”
As his contemporaries crashed and burned, LL Cool J nurtured a long, diverse career. There was the occasional speed bump; 1989’s Walking With a Panther was coolly received by critics and “only” went platinum. Again, LL’s grandmother stepped up, advising him to “knock out” the naysayers; he returned the following year with perhaps his greatest album, the pugilistic Mama Said Knock You Out. Its title track opened with the command, “Don’t call it a comeback”, but the double-platinum album was just that. “I was in the mud a little bit then,” he nods now. “There was definitely pressure to silence the critics. I just wanted to show what I was capable of.”
Further hit albums followed, including 1995’s Mr Smith, which played his lover-man persona to the fore, and 2000’s GOAT featuring James T Smith: The Greatest of All Time, which, despite its woefully unwieldy title, became his first chart-topping full-length recording. Simultaneously, the rapper was diversifying. He’d made his onscreen debut in 1985’s Krush Groove, loosely based on Def Jam’s early days, but by the Nineties was starring in his own sitcom, In the House and scoring lead roles in crime thriller In Too Deep, shark movie Deep Blue Sea and Oliver Stone football drama Any Given Sunday, in which he starred opposite Jamie Foxx.
This latter pairing exploded into fisticuffs, as LL allegedly walloped Foxx in the chops after director Oliver Stone amped up tensions between the two, to get the onscreen relationship he wanted. “[He] revved it up,” Foxx told Howard Stern in 2017. “I was a huge fan of LL, and Stone kept saying, ‘That’s gonna hurt you and my f***ing film if you still think this guy’s your hero.’ It got kinda crazy. We were clocking each other. LL’s a big motherf***er. But at the end of it, I said to him, ‘No matter what, you’re still my hero, man.’”
“Jamie and I was just having fun,” LL says now, not wanting to revisit the scene. “We had a ball.” But as his new career took off, LL felt conflicted. “The more successful I became in acting, the less I wanted to do it, as it was taking me further away from music. I later realised I could find the right balance, that I could do all these things I wanted. But it took time.”
Things will work out. Democracy will have its place and America will survive, at least until we go out like the dinosaurs in a mass-extinction event
The road to The Force was long, and not without false starts, including an aborted dry-run with Dr Dre. “My songwriting wasn’t up to standard – my Bernie Taupin wasn’t living up to Dre’s Elton,” he says. Then Phife Dawg, the late rapper from New York legends A Tribe Called Quest, came to him in a dream. “Phife’s like, ‘Yo, that new record with Dre is gonna be dope’,” LL remembers. “But he gave me a look – like the Cheshire Cat swallowed a canary – that made me feel like he was bulls***ting me, that what I was working on was s***.” Spooked by the dream, LL called ATCQ’s erstwhile leader, rapper/producer Q-Tip. “I told him, ‘I want us to work together on an album. I want pickle juice, hot sauce, crispy skin on the chicken. I want pimentos in the potato salad – spice flavours.’”
That’s exactly what Tip delivers on The Force; LL describes his productions as “a sonic landscape I could sink my teeth into”. The music inspired him to be more adventurous in his lyrics: “to talk about new things, not just girls or romance on every track”. The album’s uncompromising opening track, “Spirit of Cyrus” – a collaboration with Snoop Dogg – certainly redraws LL’s paradigm, a chilling chronicle of a “black vigilante” settling scores with his AR-15 and M-16 rifles. It’s a dark fantasy, inspired by real-life events that hit a little too close to home.
“This cop, Christopher Dorner, went on a rampage killing people because of racism he felt he’d experienced within the LAPD,” LL explains. Dorner’s rampage lasted for nine days in February 2013, and saw him murder four people – three policemen and the daughter of a retired captain he believed had wronged him – before he took his own life. As the police manhunt heated up, LL received a call from a friend “in law enforcement, who told me, ‘They’re after this killer cop, and he looks just like you. They’re not looking to take him alive, so you best stay indoors, or you could get caught up in something.’”
“After Dorner died, I read up on his ‘manifesto’,” LL continues. “I really went down the rabbit hole. A lot of what he was saying was like a metaphor for stuff that was happening at the time, a deep, interesting story people could relate to. I was inspired to take the gloves off and write the track.” It is, by some distance, the hardest, edgiest work of LL’s career, a snapshot of an America fragmenting into bigotry and violence, LL muttering, “they pushed me to my limit/ Racism’s a disease, it’s only right that I kill it”.
LL won’t be drawn into commenting on this year’s vote. “I’ve decided not to have my activist hat on,” he says. “I really want to focus on my art.” It’s clear he’s drawing a line under making any further political pronouncements for the present, although he believes “things will work out. Democracy will have its place and America will survive, at least until we go out like the dinosaurs in a mass-extinction event.”
Elsewhere, The Force finds LL rapping of hustlers and killers (“Saturday Night Special”), musing on identity (“Black Code Suite”), reflecting on his remarkable career (“Runnit Back”, “30 Decembers”) and indulging in the occasional sex rap (the X-rated “Proclivities”). It’s a dark, satisfying, sophisticated record, and he’s rightly proud of it. “I wanted to show you could continue to make dope stuff and mature as an artist in hip-hop,” he says. “Because – to speak really candid – we’re used to artists coming out with mediocre offerings that aren’t as impactful or innovative as their first few records.”
“I wanna show you can be creative in your 40th year of hip-hop, just like a film director can be creative 40 years in,” he continues. “There’s no reason why an artist in hip-hop can’t continue to be innovative, so long as they stay curious and keep caring and coming up with new ideas.” LL says he feels like he did just before Mama Said Knock You Out dropped: “I love the low expectations, playing from behind. It inspires me.”
He sees himself almost as an underdog now, an odd position for so successful and beloved an entertainer – one firmly embraced by the mainstream, the first hip-hop artist honoured by the Kennedy Center, an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recipient of four NAACP Image awards – to assume. He says that his mainstream status doesn’t compromise his edge as an artist – a statement The Force’s forthright content bears out. “You just gotta be true to who you are,” he says.
When he wrote The Force, he took inspiration from Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, “artists that wrote about the things that are important to them. I’m not gonna be a prisoner to some mainstream image of myself – what ages well is making what you mean to create. So I said, ‘you know what? I’m just gonna write me some cool s***.’” He looks up to his wall of shiny discs and grins wide. “Imma come from the heart, and let the chips fall where they may.”
‘The Force (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy)’ is out on 6 September via Def Jam Recordings/Virgin
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I’m still digesting the album…letting the tracks grown on me. But if the tracks I hadn’t heard yet, 30 Decembers is the ONE. Amazing to hear of his experience during Covid going back to his childhood neighborhood he hadn’t been to in 30 years. And the production on this is maybe my favourite on the album.
And lyrically? This is his best work ever…check his wordplay on Passion.
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As I was telling my homie PLANT, this album is what Beastie Boys would sound like if they were still a group. It's not your typical LL album for sure. But it's a grower
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LL Cool J on the Best and Most Misunderstood Music of His Career
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By Christopher R. Weingarten
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
“I just completely screwed that one up and didn’t mean to. Honestly, it was like losing the playoffs.”
Forty years into being America’s Poet Laureate of Braggadocio, LL Cool J’s legacy remains unparalleled. As a teenage firebrand claiming to outwrite Edgar Allan Poe and offering to make Madonna scream, he released his tectonically hard debut Radio in 1985 — the first release on Def Jam records — before becoming a full-fledged superstar with 1990’s Mama Said Knock You Out. Though countless rappers have since vied for his title as the “Greatest of All Time,” nothing could stop the always-magnetic LL from delivering, whether R&B crossover (1995’s “Hey Lover”), hardcore battle rhymes (1997’s “4, 3, 2, 1”), Southern-fried bounce (2004’s “Headsprung”), or vintage rap-rock (2013’s “Whaddup”). Somewhere in between, he found time to become a seasoned film actor, a five-time Grammy host, and a television icon across 14 seasons of NCIS: Los Angeles.
Still on Def Jam, LL Cool J is now making us face an unlikely but totally believable reality: One of 2024’s best rap records is by someone who was stealing scenes in Krush Groove before Kendrick Lamar and Drake were alive. Due this Friday, LL’s The FORCE — masterfully produced by Q-Tip at a midpoint between contemporary NYC minimalism and the frayed edges of vintage Dilla — features the once and future Ripper in full blackout mode, off limits to challengers and putting suckers in fear. In essence, R.I.P. meatballs.
In a lengthy Zoom call, he broke down the biggest, deffest, and most misunderstood parts of his storied career. However, the undisputed king of scorched-earth wax battles couldn’t pick one of his many lyrical TKOs. “They don’t really occupy a lot of space in my head,” he says. “The one thing about me with the rap shit is that I’m an MC first, and I don’t take it personally.”
Greatest Song
I would say “Doin’ It.” I think the beat, the lyric, the flow, the collaboration, the moment, the visual — it’s perfect. It was a different time, so the explicit version isn’t even really explicit in this day and age. But at that time it was risquéLL’s wife Simone saw the steamy video for “Doin’ It” after coming home from the couple’s honeymoon in 1995. She told Oprah she didn’t talk to her husband for two weeks. . I mean, it’s sexy, but it’s pretty mild compared to what’s going on now. You know, they talking about brown booty holes now.
Baddest Bar
It would have to be “Don’t call it a comeback.” It’s not just about hip-hop and LL. It transcends all that. People go through things and switch their lives up and use “Don’t call it a comeback.” It just says so much. Tiger Woods had that moment — he came back and said, “Don’t call it a comeback.”It was technically Tiger’s friend who texted the LL lyric during the golfer’s 2011 run, but the point stands.
At the time, people had essentially written me off. Me wearing the diamond chains and the fancy cars and the fur coats and having the girls on the cover — all the things that would become synonymous with hip-hop, I was introducing those elements to the game, and I was paying for it. That was a song that was written out of frustration. I was clawing my way back. I was snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat. It was like a buzzer beater, you know? I remember I was in a room full of guys and they had the Olde English out and the SP-1200, and the beat was playing. It came to me. A lot of my lyrics just come to me. When you get out of the way, they just pop in your head.
Most Misunderstood Song
I mean, I damn near don’t even want to bring it up, but if I have to it would be “Accidental Racist.” Yo, I completely blew that one. Like, in terms of my intention versus how it came off to people. Oh my God. Like, I missed the mark crazy. And it always bothered me because my intention was absolutely not how it came off. I feel like it was like having a hot date with a vegan and setting everything up wonderful and the first thing the chef brings out is a big, juicy steak. But you think it’s vegan still, you know what I mean? I completely screwed that one up and didn’t mean to. It was the worst kind of miss because it’s one thing to fail; it’s another thing to fail when you’re looking to do the right thing and you’re looking to say the right thing.
And then it goes Gold, which is really fucking bizarre. I don’t even have a copy of the plaque. I never even asked for one. Like, I made songs that just weren’t great songs. Okay. I can live with that. But to have a song that garners that much attention and actually negatively impacts the way people perceive my intention was the worst. That shit was the worst. I think it was just the idea that, somehow, I was looking to appease racists. Yo, bro, that is not what I meant. To put it in simple terms, I was trying to say, “First of all, just leave me the fuck alone because of what I look like. Let’s start there. And then we could see what else can happen from there.” But instead, I said the iron chains and the durag … It just was a bad metaphor. It was just all wrong.
Best Music Video
“Going Back to Cali” aged really well. It’s a very cool video, bro. The bikini small, heels tall, the ocean, the fish bowl. I learned how to drive a stick on that video. I felt like I was in a foreign country, man. I felt like I was on another planet. I was fresh out of Queens and I’m running around on Venice Beach. That may not seem like a big deal now, but when you in the hood your whole life, and you go out to Venice and you driving Corvettes, this porn star’s rubbing my chest … It was wild.
That was a time when MTV didn’t really play many rap videos. I thought Martha QuinnA former MTV VJ. was cool. We were like, “Yo, let’s get her in the video to give it some energy and to make it a little bit cooler and maybe they’ll take a look at this song.” I had the “I’m Bad” video. That one was really good too, but it didn’t get the same play. At that time, being a young Black rap artist — and I’m not saying this in any bitter way, but I gotta call it what it is — I wasn’t getting the same treatment as the Beastie Boys. I wasn’t getting those same looks, so it was a little bit tougher for me. Like, can you imagine if Ad-Rock and them made “I’m Bad,” and they were spinning around like that and doing all that shit, what that would’ve been?
Toughest Battle Opponent
Canibus. Him and Moe Dee both came at me really hard. A lot of them guys were more interested in coming after me than I was interested in going after them, to be honest. Canibus came at me the hardest. He just couldn’t tackle me. Moe Dee did as well with “Death Blow.” You know, with the “L lower lack, living in limbo, laborious …” [Laughs.] I remember being a little kid listening to this shit, like, The fuck is he talking about? Just turn that shit off. And then Canibus getting Mike Tyson on “Second Round K.O.” was strong. That was slick. Me and Mike were cool. But they gassed Mike up and he didn’t even know what he was doing, you know what I’m saying? He didn’t know what song he was getting on. At least that’s what I’d like to think. It was just Team USA in South Sudan, that’s all. [Laughs.] I still got the point. I still walked away with the trophy.
Best Squashing of Beef
Bringing Canibus onstage at Barclays. I got a sold-out show with Run-D.M.C., and I bring him onstage to do “4, 3, 2, 1.” For me, that was big. I just reached out and was like, “Yo, I’d love for you to be a part of it. Come out.” And, you know, he agreed to do it, and we took a picture and everything, and I thought we was good. Another time was when I shouted him and Moe Dee out at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But then I seen the guy making comments and he was unhappy with me shouting him out. I thought it was patched up. But I guess people take things the way they take things — I don’t know. For me it was just my way of trying to show respect to competitors and just give love and keep it moving.
The one thing about me with all of those battles is it was never a personal thing. It was more like Steph and LeBron playing against each other. It wasn’t me not liking them personally and hating them or having any real ill will toward them. It was just like, we did what we did, we said what we said, cool. We could shake hands after the game. It wasn’t that deep. But, you know, for some of these guys, I guess they lay awake at night staring at the ceiling sharpening they toothbrush and shit. [Laughs.]
Song That Should Have Knocked Them Out
It’s on a little indie album I didAuthentic, released in 2013, was the only rap record on 429 Records, a label that also put out post-majors albums by Robbie Robertson, Los Lobos, Joan Armatrading, Camper Van Beethoven and Meat Loaf. . It’s the only album I did that wasn’t on Def Jam. “Not Leaving You Tonight.” Yo, that song right there is amazing, with Fitz and the Tantrums and with Eddie Van Halen playing that guitar solo. That should have been bigger. It should have played on every station in the country. That is the only song out of all of the songs in my career that I look at and say, That song is supposed to be Diamond.
I had my toe kind of halfway in the water as a musician ’cause I was doing a TV show. And I just was in a bubble. I made that experimental album and I didn’t focus. So I’m not blaming anyone. I can’t really point the finger. This is kind of a little corny and presumptuous, but it should have went on its own. It’s just that good to me. “These lines on my face are a sign of the times.” Like, come on, bro — talking about growing older and maturing, and the sound of that. I remember playing that song for Rick Rubin and he was like, “Wow, that’s really special.” That’s a song that I’m really, really proud of even though it didn’t have the commercial firepower that some of my other songs had. One day, somebody will be smart enough to remake that song and it will go through the roof.
Most Fun He Had in a Film Role
In Too Deep. Playing the villain. Just being able to let loose and put guns in people’s mouths and put ’em on pool tables and torture ’em and all that. Like, that was right up my alley. I loved everything about it, man. It was loose, it was street, it was ghetto. It was enjoyable playing a completely different person. And working with Robin Williams on Toys was super-fun. Matter of fact, I’ll give you three: Halloween H20. Jamie Lee Curtis was great. She was so fun to work with.
Cringiest Role
Probably Rollerball. At the end of the day it’s like, The fuck was I doing on that motorcycle in that racetrack, man? Like, Where are you going, bro? What are you doing? Why are you and Chris Klein in a fucking van? That shit was ridiculous, man. But you know, I didn’t know no better. I look back on it like, “Not your best work. Todd.” [Laughs.] I watched that shit at the premiere and walked outta that motherfucker like, “Welp, that happened.” Me and Chris Klein should apologize to each other for that bullshit. [Laughs.]
Wildest Place “G.O.A.T.” Has Entered the Lexicon
Throat goat. That’s real wild. [Laughs.] Yo, G.O.A.T., that went everywhere, B. The fact that it made it all the way there, that’s kind of bananas.
Moment on The FORCE That Does It to These Meatballs
“Murdergram Deux,” for sure. Q-Tip played the beat. I actually watched him create a lot of it. It was absolutely amazing to me. Because of the choppiness in the tempo, I felt like Eminem would be perfect for it. We ended up going to L.A. to Dr. Dre’s studio. We recorded together. I would go in and write my verse and record mine in the booth. He would go in and write his verse, record in the booth. We would never watch each other record, except for the very ending when we kind of went back and forth a little.
It just came out crazy to me. I think it’s the perfect example of what I was saying when I made that comment. And I remember how many people were like, “Oh, we don’t need this.” But that’s Twitter. That’s the nature of the beast. It is what it is. But I think that it definitely delivers. I think that song is that moment when you see there is a difference between people really into the craft of MCing and people who are rapping because they can. Like when, in the original “Murdergram” in 1990, I said, “the big showdown, the display of skill,” right? I think this took that idea of the display of skill to another level. The way Em is tripling up at the end and the way we go back and forth, and … it just feels right to me. We sound like a rap group.
Hardest Song to Write
I’ve never had a hard song to write. Yeah. [Laughs.] I never had one of those.
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Listened to this Album yesterday finished off track 14 this morning excellent album.
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The highs on this album are fucking incredible! This album gives me hope that more of the older dudes can drop some real heat. I liked the Common and PR album, but LL is on another level than common was. I’ve been listening to hip hop seriously since 92, and LL hasn’t rapped this good for an entire album since (although I loved Mr.Smith).
And Q-tip just amazes me…how shit doesn’t sound like anyone else. He’s a genius
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https://www.youtube.com/v/50Tl8E0Vvms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Tl8E0Vvms)
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Album is dope!!! LL sounds so good on this. Q Tip did his thing on production too.
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Very good album, it sounds cohesive.
Spirit of Cyrus
Black Code Suite
Proclivities
30 Decembers
Murdergram 2
Some early favourites!
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Good article on the creation of it. Gets into the scrapped Dre album. Worth a read
https://variety.com/2024/music/news/ll-cool-j-force-dr-dre-michael-jackson-1236143242/
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meh, it's just aight for me, a few good songs, a couple weak ones.
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Album is good, but it does't have replay value to me.
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Album is good, but it does't have replay value to me.
The opposite for me…so many intricacies and thoughtful touches on this album. I’m still playing The Force and Spirit of Cyrus and 30 Decembers HEAVY. The first 8 tracks are impeccable to me; But I will say the album isn’t strong in the last few tracks.
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How is this aging thus far?
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How is this aging thus far?
I still can’t believe the run of the first 8 songs on this album; that alone makes it the rap album of the year for me easily. LL is SHARP on this in a way I haven’t heard him in real time (I didn’t start listening heavily to rap until 93). Tips production on here is somehow modern yet traditional.
30 Decembers is the song of the year to me. Storytelling/introspective and such an obscure but beautiful sample that fits the theme of the track. Incredible.
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30 Decembers is the song of the year to me. Storytelling/introspective and such an obscure but beautiful sample that fits the theme of the track. Incredible.
"30 Decembers" is a BANGER, no doubt, Praise Him" w/ Nas is dope, and I like the last track too (beat is dope as fuck).
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Personal classic for me; exactly what I wanna see from that OGs of the game. I wish it woulda moved some more units only so LL and Tip would be encouraged to do more work (really Waitin on this Tip album).
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Ranking LL Cool J’s Albums
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Ranking LL Cool J’s albums presents a unique challenge. On one hand, he’s an artist who redefined Hip Hop from its early stages, establishing an aggressive but accessible style, that helped to open the genre to mainstream success. LL has an undeniable place in Hip Hop history, having broken ground with albums that reflect the raw, unfiltered energy of the genre’s origins, as well as its evolution through the 80s and 90s. Each of his first several albums offered a mix of innovation and catchy appeal, leaving a lasting impact on rap music. On the other hand, his work since the early 2000s has been received more ambivalently by fans and critics, making it tricky to evaluate the entire body without focusing too heavily on any one era.
The trickiest part of ranking his albums lies in finding a balance between celebrating his early, influential work and acknowledging his later, more pop-oriented releases, which mostly missed the mark for first-hour fans. LL’s first few albums, particularly Radio, Bigger and Deffer, and Mama Said Knock You Out, are universally recognized as classics that elevated Hip Hop’s cultural presence. These albums, filled with hard-hitting beats and LL’s signature assertive style, resonate with an enduring power. Tracks like “Rock the Bells,” “I’m Bad,” and “Mama Said Knock You Out,” shaped rap’s early mainstream reach and brought streetwise energy to a wider audience. Even as he was finding new ground with softer, more romantic hits like “I Need Love,” LL was introducing layers to the genre that made Hip Hop feel more versatile and open to a variety of voices.
Once LL Cool J reached the 2000s, however, his albums took a different turn. His later releases—such as 10, Todd Smith, and Authentic—reflect an artist seeking fresh directions, leaning into genres like R&B and even light rock elements. These explorations fell far short of the grit and intensity that defined his earlier work. While all of these records have some memorable moments, they are pretty uneven, and the strong commercial appeal he was known for sometimes overpowered the fierce lyrical edge that had once defined him.
At the same time, while some of his post-millennium albums may lack the same level of acclaim, it would be dismissive to overlook the fact that LL continued putting his all into his craft well beyond the heights of his initial fame. LL Cool J, after all, remains one of the genre’s most visible icons, a figure who shaped and embodied Hip Hop’s mainstream rise in a way few others did.
A ranking that celebrates LL’s greatest contributions while recognizing his later experiments requires careful balance—it’s not easy, as his early albums are genuinely game-changing while the later ones are, in some ways, hard to judge alongside them. This doesn’t take away from his stature or his influence; if anything, it reveals a willingness to keep working, keep performing, and keep testing his limits long after most artists might have moved on. This blend of lasting influence, early brilliance, and later experimentation makes LL Cool J a one-of-a-kind artist, worthy of both admiration and scrutiny in a way that very few Hip Hop figures are.
Ranking LL Cool J’s albums presents a unique challenge. On one hand, he’s an artist who redefined Hip Hop from its early stages, establishing an aggressive but accessible style, that helped to open the genre to mainstream success. LL has an undeniable place in Hip Hop history, having broken ground with albums that reflect the raw, unfiltered energy of the genre’s origins, as well as its evolution through the 80s and 90s. Each of his first several albums offered a mix of innovation and catchy appeal, leaving a lasting impact on rap music. On the other hand, his work since the early 2000s has been received more ambivalently by fans and critics, making it tricky to evaluate the entire body without focusing too heavily on any one era.
The trickiest part of ranking his albums lies in finding a balance between celebrating his early, influential work and acknowledging his later, more pop-oriented releases, which mostly missed the mark for first-hour fans. LL’s first few albums, particularly Radio, Bigger and Deffer, and Mama Said Knock You Out, are universally recognized as classics that elevated Hip Hop’s cultural presence. These albums, filled with hard-hitting beats and LL’s signature assertive style, resonate with an enduring power. Tracks like “Rock the Bells,” “I’m Bad,” and “Mama Said Knock You Out,” shaped rap’s early mainstream reach and brought streetwise energy to a wider audience. Even as he was finding new ground with softer, more romantic hits like “I Need Love,” LL was introducing layers to the genre that made Hip Hop feel more versatile and open to a variety of voices.
Once LL Cool J reached the 2000s, however, his albums took a different turn. His later releases—such as 10, Todd Smith, and Authentic—reflect an artist seeking fresh directions, leaning into genres like R&B and even light rock elements. These explorations fell far short of the grit and intensity that defined his earlier work. While all of these records have some memorable moments, they are pretty uneven, and the strong commercial appeal he was known for sometimes overpowered the fierce lyrical edge that had once defined him.
At the same time, while some of his post-millennium albums may lack the same level of acclaim, it would be dismissive to overlook the fact that LL continued putting his all into his craft well beyond the heights of his initial fame. LL Cool J, after all, remains one of the genre’s most visible icons, a figure who shaped and embodied Hip Hop’s mainstream rise in a way few others did.
A ranking that celebrates LL’s greatest contributions while recognizing his later experiments requires careful balance—it’s not easy, as his early albums are genuinely game-changing while the later ones are, in some ways, hard to judge alongside them. This doesn’t take away from his stature or his influence; if anything, it reveals a willingness to keep working, keep performing, and keep testing his limits long after most artists might have moved on. This blend of lasting influence, early brilliance, and later experimentation makes LL Cool J a one-of-a-kind artist, worthy of both admiration and scrutiny in a way that very few Hip Hop figures are.
Ranking LL Cool J's Albums
14. Authentic (2013)
After three decades of defining moments in Hip Hop, LL Cool J’s 2013 album Authentic hit like a lukewarm breeze where there should be a hurricane. The man who gave us the raw electricity of Radio (1985) and the undisputed knockout of Mama Said Knock You Out (1990) delivered an album that felt oddly disconnected from his legacy as well as from contemporary Hip Hop trends.
The production floats in a strange middle ground – neither nostalgic nor forward-looking. The beats come across like preset templates, lacking the punch and personality that make his earlier hits stick in your head for decades. Even with talent like Jaylien and Trackmasters behind the boards, the instrumentals feel processed and clinical, missing that essential grit that made LL’s earlier work so magnetic.
The collaborations read like a bizarre game of musical mad libs. Eddie Van Halen appears on “We’re the Greatest,” his guitar work feels forced and out of place. The Brad Paisley team-up on “Live For You” plays like a focus-grouped attempt at genre fusion, resulting in a country-rap hybrid that neither country nor rap fans asked for. Monica’s appearance on “Closer” feels mechanical, her vocals floating disconnected from the track’s core.
There are moments where the old LL spark flickers – “We Came to Party” and “Whaddup” carry some of his signature swagger. But these brief flashes only highlight what’s missing from the rest of the album. The confidence is still there in his delivery, but the lyrics lack the wit and wordplay that made him a legend. Instead of sharp observations and clever punchlines, we get generic declarations and worn-out metaphors.
Authentic isn’t a terrible album – it’s just an unnecessary one. It’s like watching a boxing champion throw pulled punches in an exhibition match. The technique is there, but the fire is missing. For new listeners curious about LL Cool J’s impact on Hip Hop, this album offers little insight into his greatness. It’s a footnote in a career full of exclamation points.
The few bright spots can’t lift Authentic above its fundamental identity crisis. It’s neither a bold evolution nor a return to roots – it exists in an awkward middle space, trying to please everyone while leaving no lasting impression. Long-time fans might find enough familiar elements to warrant a listen, but they’ll likely return to his classic material afterward.
In the context of LL’s discography, Authentic lands with a soft thud rather than the boom we’ve come to expect from one of Hip Hop’s first superstars. While his place in rap’s pantheon is forever secure, this album reads like a postscript rather than a new chapter. | 4.5/10
13. Todd Smith (2006)
Todd Smith sees LL Cool J diving fully into the pop-rap landscape, leaning on slick production and big-name collaborations. The album is filled with polished, radio-friendly tracks, with contributions from major producers like Pharrell, Timbaland, and Scott Storch, along with features from Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Jamie Foxx, and others. This brings a glossy, upbeat feel to the project, though it often comes off as commercial and light on depth.
“Control Myself,” featuring Jennifer Lopez, kicks off the album with an infectious beat and pop appeal, setting the tone for a record that’s more about catchy hooks and smooth production than raw lyricism. Tracks like “It’s LL and Santana,” where LL teams up with Juelz Santana, bring some energy, offering one of the few moments where he steps back into harder rap territory. “What You Want,” featuring Freeway, also stands out as a grittier entry, but these songs are few and far between amidst the otherwise heavily polished lineup.
Despite some catchy highlights, Todd Smith can feel repetitive and formulaic, with weak tracks like “Freeze” blending into one another without much punch. LL’s charisma and smooth delivery are present, but the overall vibe leans too heavily on pop structures and guest appearances, leaving limited room for the edgier side he once brought to the genre. While the album delivers on commercial appeal, it’s light on the memorable grit of his earlier work. | 4.5/10
12. 10 (2002)
10 also finds LL Cool J leaning heavily into his pop-rap style, which makes it a very mixed listen, especially following his grittier work on G.O.A.T. (2000). The album’s opener, “Born to Love You,” starts things off on a mellow, almost lackluster note, which is followed by the more engaging “Luv U Better.” Produced by The Neptunes, “Luv U Better” stands out for its smooth, polished vibe, though it feels like it could have gone even bigger with a stronger feature on the hook.
The tracklist oscillates between pop-centric and harder Hip Hop, which makes the album’s structure feel disjointed. “Clockin’ G’s” and “10 Million Stars” bring the album’s best harder-edged moments, with beats that draw more from classic Hip Hop rhythms and show LL’s knack for bolder, more direct rhymes. These tracks add balance but are too few compared to the pop-focused tracks.
Tracks like “Niggy Nuts” bring in LL’s playful, brash energy, but feel repetitive and lack the punch he delivered on earlier work. Some of the pop tracks like “Paradise,” with its laid-back, tropical sound, manage to hold attention, but others, such as “Lollipop” and “Amazin’,” feel like filler.
On the softer end, “Big Mama (Unconditional Love)” adds a personal touch, as LL reflects on family and love with warmth, underscored by a sample of The Spinners’ “Sadie.” Overall, 10 is ambitious but uneven, with a couple of highlights that are spaced between songs that feel less developed. This album sees LL exploring a radio-friendly direction, but it lacks the sharper, consistent impact of his stronger releases. | 5/10
11. Exit 13 (2008)
Exit 13 is a polarizing album, often receiving criticism that isn’t entirely deserved. While it has its share of low points, such as “Like A Radio,” “Mr. President,” and “American Girl,” it also features several strong tracks that highlight LL’s enduring charisma and lyrical prowess. The album opens with “It’s Time for War,” where LL’s aggressive delivery and commanding presence set a tone of defiance and resilience.
“Dear Hip Hop” is a heartfelt ode to the genre and LL’s own role in Hip Hop, with a reflective LL’s over a soulful backdrop. This introspective moment contrasts sharply with the playful and energetic “Ringtone Murder,” which captures LL’s battle rap side. The Marley Marl-produced “You Better Watch Me” brings a nostalgic vibe, with classic Hip Hop elements that remind listeners of LL’s roots.
Despite these highlights, Exit 13 does suffer from some drawbacks. The album is overlong, with a production that at times feels bland and forgettable. Tracks like “Baby Rock Remix” fail to leave a lasting impression, and the album’s length can make it feel like a slog. Additionally, while LL’s lyricism has always been a strong point, there are moments on this album where his lyrics lack the sharpness and wit of his earlier work. However, LL’s natural charisma and ability to make even simple lyrics sound compelling help salvage many tracks. Songs like “Come and Party with Me” show his ability to craft club-ready hits, balancing the harder tracks with more commercial appeal.
Exit 13 is far from LL Cool J’s best work, but it is not as bad as some critics suggest. The album exhibits his versatility and enduring appeal, even if it is marred by uneven production and an overlong runtime. For fans of LL Cool J, there are enough strong tracks to make it a worthwhile listen. | 5.5/10
10. The DEFinition (2004)
The DEFinition brings an interesting mix of party anthems and smooth tracks, with notable production by Timbaland. The album opens with “Headsprung,” a high-energy track with crunk beats and a catchy, slowed-down chorus that sets an upbeat, club-ready mood. Timbaland’s influence is evident throughout, giving the album a modern, energetic vibe that propels LL’s rhymes.
The standout track, “Hush,” produced by 7 Aurelius, combines catchy hooks and smooth production, creating a radio-friendly and memorable song. LL’s delivery on this track is confident, adding a romantic edge that balances the album’s party atmosphere. Another highlight is “Feel the Beat,” which features mystic synth elements and a buzzing melody, displaying LL’s ability to ride Timbaland’s unique beats with finesse.
However, the album isn’t without its missteps. Tracks like “Every Sip” and “I’m About to Get Her,” featuring R. Kelly, don’t quite hit the mark, feeling more like filler compared to the stronger songs. The over-produced “Apple Cobbler,” another Timbaland-produced track, has a Southern flair but doesn’t stand out as much as “Headsprung” or “Feel the Beat.”
Despite a few weaker tracks, The DEFinition succeeds in delivering a mix of club bangers and smoother tunes, proving that LL Cool J still had the charisma and talent to stay relevant in the changing landscape of Hip Hop. The album’s blend of energetic production and LL’s seasoned flow makes it a solid entry in his extensive catalog, even if it doesn’t reach the heights of his earlier classics. Best Tracks: “Headsprung,” “Rub My Back,” “Move Somethin’,” “Hush,” ” 1 in the Morning.”| 6/10
9. Phenomenon (1997)
Phenomenon follows LL Cool J’s successful Mr. Smith, aiming to build on that album’s blend of smooth R&B and Hip Hop grit. But where Mr. Smith felt energized and balanced, Phenomenon feels like LL easing into a more relaxed approach. The album opens with the title track “Phenomenon,” an upbeat jam that sets a lively tone, though the lyrics and themes feel lighter and less impactful. “Candy” follows with a similar vibe, leaning into R&B with its glossy production and guest features, giving the album a commercially polished feel.
As Phenomenon progresses, it revisits familiar themes of romance and braggadocio. Tracks like “Hot, Hot, Hot” mirror earlier, flirtier work but come across with less intensity, delivering catchy hooks and straightforward beats that lack the lyrical complexity fans might expect. In comparison to Mr. Smith, where LL balanced smooth tracks with gritty joints, Phenomenon doesn’t push much beyond radio-ready hooks.
One track, however, stands apart: “4,3,2,1,” featuring Method Man, Redman, DMX, and Canibus. This posse cut injects raw energy and classic LL wordplay that many listeners crave, briefly pulling Phenomenon out of its laid-back comfort zone. While the smooth, laid-back vibe is consistent, the album lacks variety and depth, with its softer focus leaving it more of a background listen than an engaging one. Phenomenon may have the beats and features to appeal to fans of R&B-infused Hip Hop, but for those looking for classic LL Cool J punch and intensity, it feels like a quick detour off the main path. | 6/10
8. 14 Shots To The Dome (1993)
Released in 1993, LL Cool J’s 14 Shots to the Dome captures a moment where the artist seems to be grappling with his identity in the ever-evolving landscape of Hip Hop. The album kicks off with “How I’m Comin’,” a track driven by a forceful beat that screams early ’90s rap. With its booming production and energetic delivery, it tries to set a fierce tone, but LL’s overly aggressive approach feels more like overcompensation than genuine confidence.
Throughout the album, there’s a noticeable shift in LL’s lyrical themes. Tracks like “Buckin’ Em Down” and “How I’m Comin’” focus heavily on violent bravado, a stark contrast to his earlier, more balanced work. This new direction seems almost reactionary, possibly in response to the rising popularity of West Coast gangsta rap. The result is a mixture of exaggerated toughness that often feels forced and out of character.
However, not all tracks suffer from this identity crisis. “Stand By Your Man” offers a glimpse of LL’s softer side, though it doesn’t quite hit the mark compared to his previous hits like “Around the Way Girl.” The smooth New Jack Swing beat provides a pleasant backdrop, but the lyrical content lacks the charm that LL once effortlessly exuded.
The album’s midpoint gives us “Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag Getting Crushed by Buildings,” a track memorable more for its bizarre title than its content. Despite its confusing metaphor, the song’s laid-back delivery is a relief from the otherwise relentless intensity of the album. Unfortunately, the attempt to blend streetwise posturing with playful lyricism comes across as disjointed.
“Funkadelic Relic” is a musical and lyrical highlight. Here, LL reminisces about his early days with a genuine sense of nostalgia, backed by a funky beat that perfectly complements his reflective mood. It’s a track that hints at what the album could have been—a balanced mix of introspection and bravado without overreaching.
As 14 Shots to the Dome progresses, it becomes clear that LL is trying to navigate his place in a rapidly changing Hip Hop scene. Tracks like “All We Got Left Is the Beat” and “Soul Survivor” amplify the album’s recurring themes of survival and toughness, yet the execution often feels heavy-handed. The intensity is there but lacks the finesse of LL’s earlier work.
14 Shots to the Dome is a tumultuous ride through LL Cool J’s psyche during a pivotal time in Hip Hop. The album’s sound and mood swing between forced aggression and fleeting moments of introspection. While it contains flashes of the artist’s past brilliance, it ultimately struggles to find a cohesive voice. This album marks a curious chapter in LL Cool J’s discography, one where the quest for relevance leads to a somewhat chaotic but intriguing collection of tracks. | 6.5/10
7. Mr. Smith (1995)
In Mr. Smith (1995), LL Cool J opts for a smooth, confident delivery that leans into themes of romance and swagger, putting his signature charisma front and center. This album leaves behind the ill-fitting aggressive sounds of his previous 14 Shots to the Dome, trading in the grit for polished, relaxed grooves. With production led by the Trackmasters, the sound here feels lush and layered, blending R&B and Hip Hop elements that create a laid-back but captivating atmosphere.
Tracks like “Hey Lover,” featuring Boyz II Men, set the tone with a sultry, almost cinematic feel that captures LL’s softer side without losing his edge. On the flip side, “I Shot Ya” brings back some of the grit with its hard-hitting beat and tough energy, balancing the romantic vibe with street appeal. The back-and-forth exchange on “Doin’ It,” a playful duet with LeShaun, brings flirtation to the forefront, highlighting LL’s mastery of both charm and intensity.
Structurally, Mr. Smith flows with a careful mix of slower, seductive tracks and high-energy moments that feel timelessly engaging. Even as LL Cool J indulges in themes of love and attraction, he injects enough lyrical dexterity to keep his veteran Hip Hop fans interested. Each track plays to his strengths, ultimately making Mr. Smith an album that’s as much about LL’s evolution as an artist as it is about his undeniable skill in making a connection with his audience. | 7/10
6. THE FORCE (2024)
LL Cool J’s The FORCE represented a strong and unexpected return to form, easily his best album in almost 25 years, showing LL with renewed energy and lyrical sharpness. His long-awaited collaboration with Q-Tip brings together LL’s veteran swagger with Tip’s dynamic production. Although at times the beats don’t mesh perfectly with LL’s rhymes, the album delivers a consistently engaging experience, peaking with highlights like the posse cut “The Vow” and the ferocious “Murdergram Deux,” where LL and Eminem engage in an exhilarating bar-for-bar exchange.
The album’s strength lies in its confident, unapologetic approach. LL doesn’t try to chase current trends, but he also avoids being too nostalgic, making The FORCE sound timeless. Tracks like “Runnit Back” are full of the kind of affirmations that speak to all generations, and the inclusion of newer voices on “The Vow” feels refreshing, a rare feat for a project driven by an artist from Hip Hop’s golden era. LL’s signature braggadocio, displayed on tracks like “Post Modern” and “Black Code Suite,” is balanced with introspective moments like “30 Decembers,” where he reflects on aging and the passing of time in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The album is not without its flaws, as some tracks feel underdeveloped or a bit overstuffed. Still, LL’s charisma and lyrical prowess make up for the few stumbles, and his features—particularly Nas and Eminem—only elevate the project further. Q-Tip’s beats bring a rich variety, from boom-bap to funk, with the chemistry between producer and rapper rarely faltering.
On The FORCE, LL taps into that same hunger that made him a household name. At 56, he proved he could still hang with the best, delivering intricate flows and clever bars that remind listeners why he’s one of the genre’s longest-standing legends. | 7.5/10
5. G.O.A.T. (2000)
G.O.A.T. (2000) is perhaps the most underappreciated album in LL Cool J’s catalog. Released at a time when his career was already legendary, this album is LL’s attempt to reassert himself, with mixed but interesting results. Starting off with “Imagine That,” he lets listeners know he’s still got his swagger. The Rockwilder beat hits, even if it feels somewhat familiar, and LL delivers the kind of slick talk his fans know well.
One of the album’s main themes is reclaiming a reputation in the streets and asserting Hip Hop dominance, as shown in tracks like “Back Where I Belong.” Here, LL directly addresses his longstanding beef with Canibus, with lines that sting but feel somewhat indirect, hinting at a bit of fatigue in this ongoing feud. He shifts gears again on “Fuhgidabowdit,” with Method Man and Redman stealing the spotlight, keeping the energy high with LL riffing alongside them.
Two standout tracks, “U Can’t F With Me” and “Queens Is,” reveal LL in his gritty zone. The beats are sharper, and the verses feel less constrained, showing LL spitting raw and bringing some serious energy.
There’s a back-and-forth mood across G.O.A.T.—from boasting to intense storytelling—which may be why it’s often overlooked. But those who give it a closer listen will find LL Cool J pushing himself with unfiltered confidence, making G.O.A.T. a memorable chapter in his career. | 7.5/10
4. Walking With A Panther (1989)
When LL Cool J released Walking with a Panther in 1989, it sparked divided opinions among critics and fans, even as it found commercial success, eventually going platinum. At this point in his career, LL had already made a major impact on Hip Hop with Radio (1985) and the chart-topping Bigger and Deffer (1987), establishing himself as one of the genre’s first major stars. However, Walking with a Panther took his sound in a new direction that left some listeners uncertain, particularly due to its inclusion of a couple of so-so romantic tracks alongside harder-hitting Hip Hop anthems.
LL’s ambition to push the limits of his artistry shines through on Walking with a Panther. Handling most of the production himself, he experimented with an array of sounds, joined by The Bomb Squad on joints like “Nitro” and “It Gets No Rougher” and with Rick Rubin’s influence on “Going Back to Cali.” These collaborations added depth and variety, shaping an album that jumped between upbeat battle rhymes and slow-burning grooves, creating a listening experience that blended high energy with slick storytelling.
Hit singles like “Jingling Baby” and “I’m That Type of Guy” display LL’s classic charisma and braggadocio, offering catchy hooks and witty lyrics with broad appeal. A track like “Big Ole Butt” reveals his humor, weaving a playful narrative over a funky beat. “Going Back to Cali” brought a cool, laid-back West Coast vibe that contrasted with the East Coast sounds dominating much of the other songs on this LP.
For listeners drawn to LL’s grittier side, cuts like “Nitro” and “It Gets No Rougher” deliver pure, high-energy bars with raw, aggressive beats. “Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?” and “Droppin’ Em” keep that intensity high, with LL flexing his skills over hard-hitting rhythms that echo the feel of New York’s streets. The punchy “Fast Peg” stands out for its streetwise storytelling, while “You’re My Heart,” a rare ballad that is not bad at all, shows LL’s willingness to explore a softer side.
Walking with a Panther is a complex and multifaceted album that, over time, has gained more respect within LL Cool J’s discography. Although it initially received criticism, today it can be appreciated as an album where LL experimented with style, blending different themes and sounds in a way that few others could.
It’s an album that takes risks, blending hardcore Hip Hop with pop sensibilities. While not every experiment pays off, the album’s high points are undeniably strong. Looking back, it’s an ambitious piece of work that is way better than often assumed, deserving of a fresh look from fans and critics alike. | 8/10
3. Bigger And Deffer (1987)
LL Cool J’s Bigger and Deffer hits like a thunderbolt, crackling with the energy of a young artist at the peak of his powers. This sophomore album pulses with confidence, swagger, and raw talent, establishing LL as one of Hip Hop’s first superstars.
The album’s sound is a potent mix of hard-hitting beats and LL’s razor-sharp rhymes. The production, handled by the L.A. Posse, creates a sonic backdrop that’s muscular and versatile. From the aggressive, in-your-face rhythm of “I’m Bad” to the smooth, R&B-tinged “I Need Love,” the album covers a wide range of moods and styles.
LL’s delivery is the star of the show. His flow is nimble and precise, effortlessly shifting gears from rapid-fire boasts to slower, more reflective moments. On tracks like “The Breakthrough,” he spits venom at his rivals with an almost palpable ferocity. But he also shows a softer side on “I Need Love,” a track that helped pave the way for rap ballads and expanded Hip Hop’s emotional range.
The album’s structure feels like a carefully curated journey through LL’s world. It kicks off with the explosive battle rap “I’m Bad,” a declaration of dominance that sets the tone for what’s to come. From there, it weaves through various themes and styles, from the catchy “Kanday” to the DJ tribute “Go Cut Creator Go”.
Tracks like “The Bristol Hotel” and “My Rhyme Ain’t Done” inject humor and creativity into the album. “The Bristol Hotel” unfolds a vivid story set in a shady hotel, while “My Rhyme Ain’t Done” takes listeners on a lighthearted journey through LL’s imagination. These songs bring variety, providing a mix of storytelling and punchy beats, making the album feel full and dynamic.
“The Breakthrough” and “.357 – Break It On Down” bring back the intensity, with LL delivering powerful verses over pounding beats. These tracks emphasize his lyrical prowess and determination to stay at the top of his game. Closing with “Ahh, Let’s Get Ill” and “The Do Wop,” LL rounds off the album with tracks that blend streetwise charm and nostalgic vibes, “The Do Wop” with a marathon verse that paints a vivid picture of a day in LL’s life, blending mundane details with explosive braggadocio.
Bigger and Deffer‘s mood is one of youthful exuberance and unstoppable confidence. LL raps like he’s invincible, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Even when he’s at his most aggressive, there’s a sense of joy in his wordplay and delivery that makes the album a thrilling listen. This album is a crucial, too often underappreciated, piece of Hip Hop history. It’s the sound of an artist coming into his own, making a statement—loud and clear—that he was here to stay. Decades later, the album still feels bold and original, echoing a moment in Hip Hop that was gritty, inventive, and bursting with possibility. | 8.5/10
2. Radio (1985)
Released in 1985, LL Cool J’s Radio is an album that hits with an intense rawness and simplicity rarely seen in later Hip Hop. Produced by Rick Rubin, it pairs LL’s sharp, energetic voice with nothing more than bold, pared-down beats. This stripped-back approach draws listeners straight into LL’s unmistakable tone and punchy lyrics, leaving no room for unnecessary extras. From the start, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” sets the tone with heavy bass and LL’s undeniable confidence, as he unapologetically celebrates his sound, reflecting the gritty vibe of mid-80s New York.
The album’s sparseness is not a flaw; it’s a powerful, intentional choice. LL’s lyrics carry a raw edge, standing out against the minimalist backdrop. Tracks like “Rock the Bells” and “I Need a Beat” are filled with fast, commanding verses that radiate attitude and unfiltered ambition. Here, LL delivers a tight, intense, and effortless performance, drawing listeners into his world. His ability to make the simplest of lines feel like a call to action speaks to the strength of his presence, even without layers of complex production.
Songs like “You’ll Rock” and “Dangerous” flaunt LL’s bravado, as he delivers clever and unyielding lines, never letting the beats overpower his voice. The music sometimes feels almost skeletal, with a straightforward drum beat, sharp bass, and sparse effects that drive home the album’s no-nonsense feel. Radio doesn’t lean on melody or harmonies but relies on LL’s confidence to keep listeners hooked.
In “Dear Yvette,” LL takes a humorous jab, revealing a playful side that contrasts with the harder tracks. The album closes on “I Want You,” a smoother, more flirtatious tune that hints at his future, softer material without losing the album’s edge. This debut remains a defining and hugely influential work in Hip Hop for its clarity and boldness. Radio isn’t just about beats and rhymes—it’s LL Cool J staking his claim in Hip Hop, and this album undoubtedly is one of his finest. | 8.5/10
1. Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)
Mama Said Knock You Out opens with “The Boomin’ System,” a track that sets the stage with its strong, pulsating bass and sharp percussion. LL Cool J immediately lets listeners know he’s back with a bang. His delivery is confident, and the track’s production—thanks to Marley Marl—feels fresh and vibrant, offering intensity and groove. LL’s cadence is smooth but commanding, showing that he can flex his muscles without losing the groove that makes him so magnetic.
The mood shifts on “Around the Way Girl,” a lighter and more playful track. Here, LL is at his most charming, expressing admiration for the girl-next-door type. The production is smooth and catchy, carried by soulful elements that balance LL’s easygoing delivery. The result is a song that blends romance with swagger, giving fans a look at LL’s more personable side.
As the album progresses, it delivers more dynamic moments. The title track, “Mama Said Knock You Out,” makes an explosive statement. LL’s performance is full of fire and aggression, with each line delivered with precision. The beats on this track are heavy and commanding, mirroring LL’s vocal energy. He firmly reclaims his position at the top of the rap game after detracters said he fell off with Walking With A Panther. Marley Marl’s production complements LL’s forceful delivery, and it will forever be one of his most iconic tracks.
In “To Da Break of Dawn,” LL goes on the offensive with sharp diss bars aimed at his rivals. The track has a smooth, swinging beat that contrasts with LL’s hard-hitting lyrics. It’s a display of both his lyrical prowess and his ability to play with rhythm, navigating between aggressive bars and fluid delivery with ease. It’s also one of the tracks where LL’s battle rap skills shine through, aiming for MC Hammer, Kool Moe Dee, and Ice-T.
“Eat Em Up L Chill” takes things to a more straightforward, raw place. With its stripped-down production—just a heavy kick drum and bass—LL’s voice cuts through the track, delivering a no-nonsense attitude. It’s simple, but the intensity is palpable. The track is a reminder that LL can still bring the basics of Hip Hop with powerful results, relying on the fundamentals without the need for over-the-top flourishes.
Another dope track is “Murdergram (Live at Rapmania),” which has a darker, more ominous vibe. The live effects and intense bassline create a sense of urgency and aggression, matching LL’s pointed lyrics. On this track, LL addresses his critics and makes it clear that he’s not backing down. It’s an aggressive moment that shows his unwavering confidence in the face of those who doubted him.
There’s also room for more conscious tracks, such as “Illegal Search,” which takes on a serious tone. The song’s swingbeat production feels light, but the subject matter—racial profiling and the unjust treatment of Black men—adds weight to the track. LL uses this moment to offer his commentary, not shying away from the issues that affect his community.
The closing track, “The Power of God,” presents a somber shift in mood. LL takes a more reflective approach, contemplating spiritual matters and offering a deeper, more meditative side of himself. It’s a thoughtful conclusion to an hour-long album that covers a wide range of emotions and themes.
From the powerful opening to the reflective closing, Mama Said Knock You Out is a carefully constructed album highlighting LL Cool J’s versatility. Marley Marl’s production ensures that the beats never lose their punch, while LL’s flow and lyricism remain engaging from start to finish. The album delivers everything a fan could want: energy, insight, swagger, and moments of tenderness. It is undoubtedly LL’s most complete work and his very best album. | 9/10
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Bought the cd, very dope album!