Radio
by LL Cool J

From IanFrance 11/06/2020 05:09 | #260229 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

The skeletal beats on show here were a genre being birthed – not actually at the point of genesis, but becoming a style in its own right, and one to be contended with. And there’s no doubting the ground-breaking nature of this record, pioneering rap in popular culture. The only problem is that it doesn’t stand up to modern standards and, perhaps predictably, sounds very dated. Whilst, by some reckoning, that shouldn’t be held against it, one must remember that there are plenty of older, ground-breaking LPs which do still sound good compared to contemporary music. The beats are a little too basic and there is little to distinguish one track from the next. The sampling is of poor quality, surprisingly for a Rick Rubin album (although this artform was in its infancy), and the rapping is only of a medium standard, with frequent pauses and a simplistic rhyme structure. LL Cool J would go on to produce much better material than this (and worse: I Need Love, anyone?) and it seems unfair to be harsh on this album, but sadly, it just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Pleasing, with bits to like, but nothing to love.
High Points: I Can Give You More; Dangerous; I Need A Beat [Remix]

From Graeme2 TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/01/2016 18:15 | #179446 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Haha Mehran. You realise this album is 1985?! Who exactly is making albums in '85 who is better at that rapping thing?

From Boltzmann TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/23/2021 10:28 | #270005 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

During the first half of the '80s rap was a new way to do disco and funk. Perhaps a perfect answer to the racist and homophobic pity-party of disco demolition night. It wasn't until the iconic boom bap beat that we could speak of a genre called hip hop. This has been the first full LP that flaunted this style (Run-DMC's debut album is too muddled with rock beats, and sadly T La Rock didn't make an album before 1987). Flow is still painfully '80s, something that only started to change with Eric B. & Rakim and Slick Rick.

From swhaze TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/06/2014 02:33 | #118818 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Classic LL Cool J. The problem for me is that too many of the tracks sound alike.

From RoundTheBend TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/01/2016 00:40 | #164918 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Nothing I fell in love with, but worth a listen.