On the eve of his fourth studio album, he arrives from "Walking With a Panther" and has been in a slow decline for years, his credibility is heavily clouded due to pop rap, while his career is destined to a rapid vertical collapse sinking as one of many failed crossover artists, his latest LP is thought to be his definitive swan song and his latest record in career. Instead, he brings out what is his best album ever: it's a crazy and spectacular comeback album, very hard and pure, he seems to have finally returned after stale years, but he hasn't returned, he hasn't returned, he has always been here, hidden somewhere in between those fucking rap ballads, according to him:
"Don't Call It a Comeback, I've Been Here for Years"
No, he's really back, this is one of the strongest comeback you can ever heard in hip hop, both that phrase both this record have entered popular culture so much so that when someone releases an excellent album halfway through their career, it's called a "comeback album" a priori, even though it was dropped three months after the last one. Here, LL Cool J is lyrically at his best in career, he brings out varied themes going from light-hearted lyrics to racial profiling ("Illegal Search"), from hardcore ("Eat 'Em Up L Chill", "Murdergram") to his beloved songs for women ("Milky Cereal, "Mr. Good Bar", "6 Minutes of Pleasure", and one of the best cut, "Around the Way Girl"), passing by casual ("The Boomin System"), spiritual topics ("The power of God") and a lot of braggadocio, on a production that's simply one of the best ever provided by Marley Marl.
The legendary beatmaker pulls out fantastic, funky rhythms, composed of many excellent samples and with a hard, lean and minimal, fantastic sound, which perfectly supports even the lightest cuts of the veteran rapper, even his rap ballads here sound good and don't seem as sweet as in the past thanks to this pounding and heavy production. It's the LL best work also from a technical point of view, he spits hard, raw and murderous bars with a smoothness, imposing and unstoppable flow The album isn't without defects, but these are easily and completely ignorable due to the profound difference compared to his latest works: it's an effort too strong to be harnessed by the few mistakes, it's solid, tight, hard and pure, which marks his triumphantly aggressive and bold return, with the same youthful and bare attitude of the beginnings. Classic.
"The Boomin' System" is an absolute banger: skit, then minimal and vibrant hard and skinny beat, hardcore delivery of LL that starts smooth and destroys everything. "Around the Way Girl" boasts a splendid female soulful sample for the chorus, fantastic light jazzy rhythm, boom bap dope, dark line stretched perpetually in the background, bloody dope delivery of LL Cool J; perfect hook with male and female soul samples, perfect ballad.
In "Murdergram" also him samples ESG's "UFO", here he does it to create a sick banger: hard and skinny rhythm, simple and minimal boom bap by Marl, furious hardcore delivery of the rapper that kills the beat spitting inflamed bars with powerfully and a flow unstoppable, in one of his best verses, excellent cut. "Jingling Baby" has a beautiful Marley Marl bridge, minimal, simple, funky rhythm from is genial talent, energetic, excellent smooth delivery of LL, dope even in this track, these guys realized another classic song.
"Mama Said Knock You Out" is one of the best cut ever in LL catalog. Hardcore bomb, with his most famous line ever, he destroys all rivals (Ice-T, Kool Moe Dee and MC Hammer, in three different feuds). It's one of the most powerful test for Smith: on this minimal, simple and spatial jazzy-funky production invented by Marley Marl and Bobby "Bobcat" Ervin, with female sample looped tight in the background and simple hook with whistle looped tight, the veteran kills everything it finds with a effective, devastating, hardcore and smoothness delivery, in a gem among the hip hop finest. The rapper is awarded with the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1992.
Critics warmly embraced LL Cool J's powerful return to the scene. The LP spawned six singles, three of them topped rap singles chart ("The Boomin' System", "Around the Way Girl" and the title track), allowing the author to be awarded as Top Rap Artists at the Billboard Music Awards 1991. Released by Def Jam and Columbia Records, the disk arrives in the second place in charts among rap efforts and is the best-selling rap album of the 1991, certified double platinum in 1992. Included in The Source list of 100 Best Rap Albums Ever in 1998, in retrospect, it's considered one of the best hip-hop albums of the era.
Rating: 9/10.
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