While Common mentioned it back in '97 on 'Real Nigga Quotes', you could probably blame LL Cool J for popularising the acronym that everyone is tired of hearing in 2022! I wouldn't rank him as highly as the G.O.A.T., but given what he was doing around the genesis of hip hop breaking into the mainstream, he deserves to have a special place in the history books. Anyway, after the poor previous pop rap album, 'Phenomenon', I remembered enjoying this a lot more. Hopefully, I still do as I revisit it many years later. The intro is a good sign with LL just spitting for two minutes about his legacy and why he deserves respect in the game. 'Imagine That' should be considered pop rap, but it toes the line nicely and is entertaining enough with its unique production that definitely sounds like a Rockwilder beat with the signature electronic sounds. On the next, 'Back Where I Belong', LL takes shots at Canibus and does his thing on the verses. The beat is decent at best though and I don't like Ja on the hook at all. It has an exciting, building first 40 seconds, but then it's an anti-climax. With a good chorus this would probably be one of my favourites from the album based on LL's verses. Like 'Imagine That', 'LL Cool J' and 'Take It Off' are pop rap but not to the bubblegum-pop degree as many of the songs on 'Phenomenon' making them better crossover tracks. I think Naughty by Nature were the kings at this. They made catchy, chorus focused tunes, but the songs still fitted in with a hip hop audience. 'Phenomenon' didn't do that, they were too pop. This album gets the balance closer to where it needs to be. On 'LL Cool J' the 'I Put a Spell on You' by Screamin' Jay Hawkins sample works well with Kandice Love's sultry vocals. The best song so far. 'Fuhgidabowdit' is a big letdown based on the features. The verses are okay, but the hook is just "fogetaboutit" repeated in a possibly offensive Italian accent. It's a lazy hook. The production is far from award winning either. 'Can't Think', produced by Ty Fyffe, with its short catchy keys, has fairly basic production, but LL's performance is fire. This is one of, if not the best songs here. It's just hard from the first 10 seconds. I wish there was more of this on the album. It seems like "hell" is censored here... With all of the vulgarity on the album, let's not offend the religious folk by saying hell? Amazin'! 'Can't Think' and others have moments of consciousness, but 'Homicide' sees LL getting conscious for a whole song for pretty much the only time on the album. "I don't mean this in a disrespectful way / But Columbine happens in the ghetto every day / When the shit goes down y'all ain't got nothing to say." The acted police communication in the song make it seem like they care more about rescuing a cat from a tree than black murder. 'U Can't Fuck with Me' is pretty dope. While nothing is groundbreaking, DJ Scratch handles a lot of tracks here and offers lots of variety. From this banger to the poppy 'You and Me'. The Prodigy assisted, 'Queens Is', has some menacing high keys, and the next two, 'The G.O.A.T.' and 'Ill Bomb', first on Funkmaster Flex and Big Kap's album, 'The Tunnel', are decent hip hop songs before the album finishes with more pop rap. Case brings a catchy hook to 'M.I.S.S. I'. This is the hook that will get stuck in your head. Some versions also have 'Shut 'Em Down' from the 'Any Given Sunday Soundtrack'. LL spits like he is trying to beat Twista's world record and the beat has a darker feel to it than anything on the album. This is one of the better songs on here. I tell ya, there are many artists who have hidden gems on soundtracks. I'm still discovering them. Other versions also have bonus tracks: 'Fo Sho' - Decent east coast hip hop song. 'Mirror Mirror' - Pretty weak beat here. 'Queens Is (Remix feat. DABO) - Adds Japanese lyrics from the featured artist from the Japanese release of this album. Circling back to my introduction, I don't enjoy this as much as I remembered and as I've been revisiting LL's discography this has taken the most thought about what to rate it. 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, but the high points aren't here, and the straight up hip hop songs aren't great enough. I'm leaving this at my original rating of 3.5/5 because I can find something to enjoy in every track, but it's a light 3.5. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★☆ Best Tracks: LL Cool J, Can't Think, You and Me, U Can't Fuck with Me, Shut 'Em Down

As with 'BAD', this begins with fire. 'Droppin' Em' will definitely get your head bangin'. Again though, as with BAD, from the opener, the production drops off, feeling more like something from closer to the mid '80s for the next couple of songs. 'Nitro' get back to the feeling of the feeling of the first track, with a harder, high tempo beat and spitting. 'You're My Heart' seems to be going for that 'I Need Love' feel, and is a quick skip from me. 'I'm That Type of Guy' is fantastic. The dark beat and way its rapped makes it unique plus the additional production changes make it stand out. However, it would be even better without the “O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!” vocals during the chorus. The following 'Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?' is dope. 8 songs in, this is already his best album from his first three. 'One Shot At Love' is another love song and doesn't too well either. Why do all of L's early love songs sound like lullabies? The socially-conscious call to arms rap-rock closer 'Change Your Ways' is a disappointing way to end the album. 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. LL is a fantastic rapper and demonstrates it on numerous occasions. There are some missteps, 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. I've increased my rating of it after revisiting it many years after my first listen. 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. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Droppin' Em, Nitro, I'm That Type of Guy, Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?, It Gets No Rougher, Jingling Baby, Def Jam in the Motherland

This is his first album that hasn't started with something venturing on hardcore hip hop. He was criticised for trying to be too west coast or gangster on his previous album, so perhaps that's why. The first three songs are all soft that feature very familiar samples. You don't get a hard beat until 'Life As...' at track 6. You could argue 'Doin' It' has one, but I think it's too close to pop rap to say that. In saying that, I think there is a heavier gangsta persona at times here than on '14 Shots to the Dome'... On 'Make It Hot', he isn't rapping in a way that is entertaining. His performance on the following hip hop homage is better. The well known, 'Hey Lover', like the opener, doesn't do enough to be above a decent to good song. 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. I believe 'Doin It' was the first, or one of the first, LL songs I heard after buying a hip hop compilation CD back in the day. The trading of bars that LL does with LeShaun doesn't happen enough in hip hop. That, the lo-fi unique production, and the hook, make the song. As mentioned earlier, it takes five songs and an intro to get to something closer to hardcore hip hop with Easy Mo Bee giving us some boom bap on 'Life As...'. Then we have 'I Shot Ya' that circles back to what I said before about the gangsta persona. Both of these songs are good, but not great. Oddly, 'No Airplay' is clean, despite there being vulgarity on other tracks. It ruins the song! What could possibly be the reason for putting a clean song on an explicit album? Surely there has to be one? The following 'Loungin' is probably the best thing here. The production is more bouncy and the hook is catchy. Like he did with cereal on 'Milky Cereal' on the album 'Mama Said Knock You Out', on 'Hollis to Hollywood', he uses metaphors and references to movies making it feel like a similar type of track. He begins by saying, "How everybody like is usin' metaphors and all that / It seems like everybody's like a...like some kind of metaphor freak." 'God Bless' and 'Get Da Drop on 'Em'' are both ones I won't be rushing back to and then the album finishes with a remix of 'I Shot Ya' and on some versions the bonus track 'Papa Luv It' from The Show soundtrack. Fat Joe is the standout for me on the remix where he adds more energy. It doesn't add a lot to the original though. 'Papa Luv It' is a worthy pop rap tune. This album is consistently good, but the highlights of his previous three albums aren't here. Lots of songs just lack something extra. Whether it be in the production, something missing to a third verse for more variety, LL 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... After finding every album from 'Radio' to be an improvement, I think this is where it ends. 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. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Hip Hop, Doin It, Loungin, Hollis to Hollywood Deluxe Edition: This is 23 tracks long and includes some remixes, b-sides and songs from film soundtracks. I strongly recommended checking out the 'Doin It (Unarmed Mix)'. From the first listen I thought it was better than the original. It's great! The only thing I don't like about it is that it loses the, "I represent Queens, she was raised out in Brooklyn" lyrics from the hook. The production is dope though! It sounds like a remastered version. As LL says at the beginning of the song, 'Doin' It (Main Remix)' "smooths it out" and is good but aside from 'Doin It (Unarmed Mix)' none of the remixes improve on the originals. 'Ain't Nobody', wasted on the film, 'Beavis and Butt-Head Do America', would have felt right at home at the start of this album with the heavy interpolation. The beat thumps harder though and the production changes up when it needs to before the third verse and there is a bridge. I only heard 'Ain't Nobody' after I wrote the previous paragraph and this song is a good example of what those songs are missing. I think it's better than many of the similar songs on the standard version. Finally, we have 'Candyman' and 'Summer Luv'. 'Candyman' is from the leaked project '“Double L” Cools Down' and the 'Jason’s Lyric' soundtrack - catchy hook and entertaining spitting. 'Summer Luv' was a b-side for 'Loungin'. It's a little funkier and sounds more like past LL than what we got on Mr. Smith.

From checking out the mega 23 track deluxe edition of 'Mr. Smith', I'm pleased that we only have 10 tracks here. After Mr. Smith broke the trend, we have a banger back as the opening track to an LL album. The title track is dope and one of his best songs. The next, 'Candy', gives off a bit of a 'Doin It' vibe with the melody. I don't mind pop rap but this doesn't do much for me. Busta is always a welcome addition to any song, but unfortuantely 'Starsky & Hutch' is a letdown from the song topic, the hook and the production. It sounds like Busta's adlibs are on the next, 'Another Dollar' too. It's another poor song. LeShaun returns from 'Doin It' on 'Nobody Can Freak You', with LL seemingly going for a 'Doin It' part two, with the two trading sexual bars again, but the production is nowhere near as fresh. Five songs in, apart from the title track, this is a very poor album. The Hitmen return to the boards for the first time since track 1, and while 'Hot, Hot, Hot' is a minor improvement on the last few tracks maybe, the run of average songs hasn't stopped. With Erick Sermon's '4, 3, 2, 1' featuring DMX, Canibus, Meth and Red we have the first non pop rap song. This song was the genesis for the LL/Canibus beef and also features Master P on the extended version. It's great to hear these legends together. The beat ain't award winning though. 'Wanna Get Paid' tells cautionary tales about being careful with what you do for money. It keeps up the 'real' hip hop feel and is the first to get my head banging. Dope! With 'Father' LL shares his experience with his mother's abusive partner. The choir-like female vocals and subject matter help the song be of note. Then LL's shortest album finishes with a soft love pop rap song. Tamia offers up a nice chorus and the song is alright... The second half of this album is defintiely better than the first, so if you are a new listener, don't turn it off too early. Forgetting about my distaste for a lot of mid '80s hip hop production, like what LL's debut has, this was comfortably his worst album up until this point. Much of the production is poor, there is too much poor pop rap, not enough spitting from LL and the producers-especially Puffy as the executive producer-dropped the ball here. Beats: ★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★ Best Tracks: Phenomenon, 4,3,2,1, Wanna Get Paid, Father

Marley Marl returns to produce most of this after the success that was LL's previous album, 'Mama Said Knock You Out', but a larger number of other producers lend a hand. DJ Bobcat, who co-produced LL's best song, 'Mama Said Knock You Out', produces four songs and Andrew Zenable, Chris Forte and QD3 also add their creativity, so as was the trend in hip hop, artists were getting more people on their production team. LL was criticised when this dropped for jumping on the gangster rap trend by acting harder, but he had hardcore hip hop on his previous albums, so I think that was unfair. As all of his albums had leading up to this, the first song is a banger, but 'How I'm Comin'' is better than what he's had before. If you're a fan of '80s/really early '90s beats, then you may disagree, but for me, despite LL being a great MC, his earlier albums don't have great enough production to be considered great albums. With this dropping at a time when beats were in many ways the best they have ever been, it gives this album more of a chance to be great. As mentioned, the opener here is fire, as is the following 'Buckin' Em Down'. LL follows on from 'Around the Way Girl' to continue to make good pop rap with 'Stand by Your Man'. Then, while every song isn't amazing, the quality is consistently at a high level and it is before LL started going more and more towards pop rap. I have to give a shout out to the closing track, 'Crossroads' that is quite striking and monumental. There are a couple of slow moments though with 'A Little Somethin'' and 'Straight From Queens' dragging on. A lot of of this project is just LL spiting hard rhymes, over mostly hard beats, and as vocally LL is one of my favs on the mic, this is my pick from his discography. 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. Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: How I'm Comin', Buckin' Em Down, Pink Cookies, Funkadelic Relic, All We Got Left Is the Beat, Crossroads