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There are some artists whose favourite album from me is around the time this was released-93-94, such as Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane, when they do have more acclaimed albums, as I just love mid-'90s production. And that's what you get here. A great rapper over beats that are more my thing. A lot of of this project is just that. It's LL spiting hard rhymes, over mostly hard beats. Some of the production, particularly on 'Buckin' Em Down', reminds me of early Naughty by Nature, who are another favourite, lead by the inventive and ahead of his time, DJ KayGee. While I'm mentioning KayGee, 'Funkadelic Relic' is a dope jazz rap influenced song and LL's flow on it reminds me of Treach from Naughty by Nature. Come to think of it, LL would have sounded great over Naughty production. It's a shame they never collaborated, but I digress. The bookends are highlights with L's energy being unlike we have often heard him.
While the opener, 'The Boomin' System', is great, I can't believe this album doesn't start off with his greatest song, the title track. Lots of the hooks are catchy and elevate the songs, as choruses should, just like on 'Eat Em Up L Chill', the rapping is entertaining and the high points are fantastic. My lack of love for early hip hop production is the only thing stopping this from being number 1 on the list.
I don't have a lot of '80s hip hop albums rated very highly, as the production often leaves me uninspired, but enough of this is great. L is a fantastic rapper and demonstrates it on numerous occasions. There are some missed steps, largely with the soft love songs, and one or two songs like 'Jealous' that don't do enough musically, but this album deserves to have a better reputation. It's ridiculous that I read that this received a poor reception from fans when it dropped because of a couple of soft songs when there are over 10 dope boom bap/hardcore hip hop songs. 'Jingling Baby', 'Droppin' Em' and 'I'm That Type of Guy,' are a few of the many songs that are worth going back to.
While Common mentioned it back in '97 on 'Real Nigga Quotes', you could probably blame L for popularising the acronym that everyone is tired of hearing these days. I don't think there is a top 20 LL song here. Kind of like with Mr. Smith, the production is good a lot of the time, but it just doesn't excel. The pop rap songs are his best for a while though. Songs like 'You and Me', 'LL Cool J', 'Hello', 'Take It Off', 'This Is Us' (that Carl Thomas kills) are all well put together. A consistently good album, I can find something to enjoy in every track, but the high points aren't high enough to be higher on the list. Other songs worth mentioning are the bangin' 'Can't Think', 'U Can't Fuck with Me' and the dark 'Shut 'Em Down' that is featured on some releases of the album.
This was his first album that didn't start with something venturing on hardcore hip hop. He was criticised for trying to be too west coast or gangster on his previous album, 14 Shots to the Dome, so perhaps that's why. This album is consistently good, but the highlights of his previous three albums aren't here. Lots of songs just lack something extra for me. Whether it be in the production, something missing to a third verse for more variety, L talking more through his bars, better hooks needed... Something is missing. His previous albums are perhaps a little grittier, more funky, maybe higher tempo and less polished than the production here... Chronologically, after finding every album from 'Radio' to be an improvement, I think this is where it ended. If you love pop rap and the more polished sounds that were creeping into hip hop in '95-'96 you may get more from this album. As was happening more and more from '95 and '96, there is more lazy sampling where interpolations or samples of songs were the hook and melody that happens mostly at the start of the album. On the deluxe edition, I love the Unarmed Remix of 'Doin It', that is better than the original. Other highlights are 'Hip Hop', the original 'Doin It', 'Loungin' and 'Hollis to Hollywood', where L uses metaphors and references to movies making it feel like a similar type of track to 'Milky Cereal' from 'Mama Said Knock You Out'.
As I revisited The DEFintion I found it better than I remembered. It's a consistent collection of 11 songs. The album is mostly pop rap, but the balance is better between the poppy production and it still maintains a hip hop feel to the production on most songs. This has better hooks than some of his previous albums too. The banga 'Headsprung' is a highlight and 'Hush' is a catchy R&B/pop rap song.
Overall, this is definitely a step up from his debut. There is much more variety, from the hard first track, the soft 'I Need Love', the do wop, 'The Do Wop', making it a much better listen. Subjectively, it still suffers from my lack of love for '80s hip hop production, but most of this is palatable to good. LL's rapping and word play catches my attention more too than Radio. Highlights are 'I'm Bad', '.357' 'Break It on Down', 'I Need Love' and 'The Do Wop'.
The production at times on Todd Smith is a highlight. 'Control Myself', 'Preserve the Sexy', that has bounce and the difference between the chorus and verses make it stand out, 'What You Want', with Freeway and L trading bars make is the best non-pop rap song here, 'I've Changed' and the 'So Sick Remix' are worth repeats. 'Freeze' is too slow for me. I was surprised to see that it was chosen as a single. The opener falls flat, and Scott Storch, one of the legends of the '00s, provides the production for 'Ooh Wee' but that is one of the weaker moments.
On L's last album to this day, the pop rap is prominent. I remember hearing about this dropping and I was thinking that the title was a sign he'd be going back to his Radio roots, but that didn't eventuate. The pop rap has some success with songs like 'New Love' being great, helped by an amazing chorus by Charlie Wilson. There are some nice funk touches within the pop rap and there isn't much I dislike making it more consistent than the previous albums on this list. Of the harder songs, 'Bath Salt' isn't bad, but the others leave something to be desired, with 'We Came to Party' being the worst of these featuring 2003-esque Fatman Scoop shouts. His beat selection isn't as crisp on the harder songs.
There are many songs on Exit 13 with different sounds, making it probably his most diverse album. There is some hardcore hip hop, ol' school hip hop sounding songs, very '08 pop rap with 'Baby', Ryan Leslie production, who always had his own sound, songs like 'American Girl' with marching band themes, and so on. I've always loved the songs closer to hardcore hip hop like the opener and title track, but it's a very inconsistent long project making it a slug to get through.
The title track, '4,3,2,1', 'Wanna Get Paid', and to a lesser degree 'Father', help this be anything of note, but the other songs are some of L's worst featuring unlikable overly poppy production. There also isn't enough spitting from L. Thankfully this is a short album.
Firstly, this isn't really his 10th album as such, with a compilation included in the 10, but anyway. The pop rap here isn't among L's best and the songs closer to hardcore hip hop aren't great either. When I was revisiting all of his albums to make this list, my repeated listens of this felt the most forced. The Neptunes produce some songs including the highlights 'Luv U Better', which could have a better singer on the chorus, and the best song and pretty much the only non-pop rap song that works is 'Clockin G's'. It's chorus reminds me of the Outkast song 'Myintrotoletuknow'. So much so, that I don't think it could be coincidental. The high moments aren't on this album and L isn't as entertaining either.
Placing Radio last may be hip hop blasphemy, but I just can like these mid '80s beats enough. There isn't a lot of '80s hip hop I adore, particularly the earlier you go, as I find the production primitive. LL comes with energy, but many songs feel like something I could produce. 'I Can Give You More' and 'Rock the Bells' are the best this has.
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