LL Cool J - All World -Def Jam

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

The beauty of LL Cool J’s greatest hits All World is not only can you listen to it, but you can prop the CD up next to your bed for sweet dreams. Sure LL can rap like a mutha, but the fact that he is a stallion does not hurt my impression of him either. Real name is James Smith and the stage name LL Cool J stands for Ladies Love Cool James, well this lady does for sure.

This CD has all the ditties you remember LL for past as well as the present. The CD starts off with the metal tinged “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”. This is the song that made Rick Rubin and Def Jam a viable record label and made Kangol millions shelling out little terry cloth Kangaroo adorned hats.

LL, although not the first rapper to do it, is known for mixing in heavy metal guitar licks to his songs. His versatility is one of the things that gives him longevity. One of my earliest memories of Mr. Cool J was from the movie Less than Zero. You might remember the sexy song with a sampled rock guitar line “Going Back to Calli”. Reminds me of my best friend, we would sing along and even had a little hand jive to the part about “Her bikini small, heels tall, she said she like the ocean….”

Another gem is “Momma Said Knock You Out”. Although this a great anthem of a song, there is a stigma attached with it. A blemish on LL Cool J’s ultra sexy image is the infamous antiperspirant dingle berries episode on Yo MTV Raps Unplugged. LL hit the stage to sing topless then lifted his arms up to gesticulate the feeling behind the song and there they were all white and round like spider eggs in his pits.

LL is not always radio and MTV friendly. The man has a mouth like Lil’ Kim sometimes. There is a line in the self explanatory “Doin It” that comments about “Making a cane rain”, I have a good idea about what that is implying. Still the back beat and the ohs and ahs make the song a winner.

All World is quite thorough in its musical guided tour of LL Cool J’s life. There is the rap ballad “I Need Love” that is always a winner. Plenty of old school jams like “Rock the Bells” and “I’m Bad” (Oh I bet you are LL). There are also some newer additions to LL’s discography like “Loungin” and “Hey Lover” with Boys to Men.

This CD is 5 years old, and there is an even newer Greatest Hits available on the market these days entitled G.O.A.T. (The Greatest of All Time). No home is complete without at least one of them. Cool James is one of the grand daddies of Rap music. Hell he has been on the scene for almost 20 years now. Sure Outkast and Wu Tang are great, but listening to them without a firm appreciation of LL is like trying to hear Le Tigre without knowing The Slits or X ray Spex. There is a reason these people are called innovators are influences.