No:491 - LL COOL J - RADIO (1985)The first of two LL Cool J albums in my treasured countdown. This album marked a kind of resurgence for Hip Hop/Rap in my opinion. After the magical emergence just a few years before with Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugar Hill Gang etc, the genre needed some fresh faces, some new vitality. Cue a 17 year old kid, who ditched school to record the album, a new record label (Def Jam), and an exciting new producer (Rick Rubin). and create the most cock-sure, ferocious recording of the time. Rubin's production is explosive, the rhythms literally jump through the speakers, and LL rips through the rhymes with an authority that can only come from someone who just
knows he's going to be a star, ("LL Cool J is hard as hell, battle anybody I don't care you tell,I excel,they all fail,").I asked my Hip Hop guru Mr Frost
http://mog.com/MrFrost for his take on LL Cool J's influence.
He said
LL's importance to hip hop:LL is a legend because of his consistency and ability to stay relevant in a culture that thrives on "the next thing". In hip hop, nobody ever wants to be old, and nobody ever wants to appear soft, LL has gone against both of those rules and has been mega successful at it. He carved his little niche in making songs for the ladies and is pretty much considered the best at the kind of hip hop he does. Then, just when his career was (seemingly) winding down, he got into that classic hip hop battle with canibus and re-gained ALOT of peoples respect with his vicious battle tracks.There are very very very few hip hop artists who were popular in the 80s and are still relevant today with the new audience, and LL is in that exclusive club.Thanks Mr Frost.
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