LL Cool J

New album, The FORCE, is surprisingly good. REALLY good.

It's sounding like he made the right call shelving everything he recorded with Dr. Dre and starting from scratch. For my money, Q-Tip is SO much better in every possible way and it shows - that, plus LL being hungry again and putting a lot more thought and time into this to get it right made all the difference in the world.

I still listen to his old stuff - all the singles and especially Radio and Mama Said Knock You Out - but I honestly wasn’t sure if he’d ever make a satisfying album again, much less an album this good. I think the talent was still there, and he could still cut a good single, maybe even a deep cut, but I don't think he's released an album that approached Mama Said Knock You Out until now. An extremely welcome surprise.

(Also despite the all-star roster of guests, they don't overwhelm the album at all - this is very much LL's album. The only time any of them really grabs the spotlight is by design when Eminem and LL Cool J trade bars on "Murdergram Deux," and the contrast highlights each of their verbal strengths.)

He recorded an album with Dre? Was he signed to Aftermath? (Is anyone these days?)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2024 04:19PM by steevee.

No, he was just working on his own album. Per LL:

“So, the real story is that I did about 30 to 40 songs with Dr. Dre, and in doing those songs I felt like — the music was amazing what Dre was bringing to the table was super dope — but I felt like the writing, what I was bringing to these songs didn’t feel strong enough to me. I didn’t feel like I was expressing, I was getting out of me, what I was feeling. In my mind, I didn’t feel like it was written properly.

“So, I took a pause. Me and Dre just kinda paused for a minute. And I ended up having a dream, and in this dream Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest came to me...When he came in my dream he was like ‘Yo, that album you gonna do with Dre is gonna be dope.’ And I’m looking at him and he’s smirking a little bit.

“He had a funny look on his face. And then when I woke up, I just felt like Q-Tip was on my spirit. So I just called him. He picked up and I told him that I wanted to do an album. We went and did the record and the rest is history.”

Never thought we’d hear much from LL, as he seems to be focused on acting. Like fellow thespians as Ice T and The Fresh Prince (as I still call him), figured we wouldn’t hear much from him beyond the occasional movie theme or one-off single. (Ice T’s remake of Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” was a hoot.)

But hey, I was pleasantly surprised by Ice Cube’s “I Am The West” album from some years back. As I wrote here: “Not bothering to pretend to be a gangsta anymore, he lovingly dedicates a song to his wife, sends one out to the kids, and generally cuts-up like he's auditioning for MCA's now-vacant spot in the Beastie Boys, throwing out ridiculous rhymes and obscure references.” So i’m happy to hear that Ladies Love Cool James is still knocking them out.

I saw a review describe it as "adult contemporary hip-hop." Is a/c hip-hop even a thing?

They probably just mean that he and his guests are middle-aged.

I think it's a terrible idea and a pretty asinine thing to debate, but 9th Wonder apparently keeps proposing the idea that "adult contemporary hip-hop" needs to be a category and Q-Tip responded that creating that category "is divisive...if there is a need to do so, call it traditional hip-hop as ‘adult’ will make [an] ageist prejudge." (see Ebony link)

FWIW the Common and Pete Rock collaboration is good too. Less of a surprise because Common's regularly put out good records and hasn't had a long gap between releases like LL. (His performance of "Glory" with John Legend at the Oscars may be the most moving one I've ever seen from that awards show.)

[www.ebony.com]