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G.O.A.T.: The Greatest Of All Time
10/03/2000 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Michael G Robinson
With a career that has spanned 15 years and eight commercially successful albums, the last six of which have been platinum, LL Cool J deservedly belongs in the pantheon of hip-hop. But is the verbal pugilist who gave us "Mama Said Knock You Out" the "greatest of all time," as he claims on his new album, G.O.A.T.? This new effort, while solid, won't put him in the ranks of Rakim, Tupac, and the Notorious B.I.G.
The G.O.A.T.--with its harder-edged tracks like "Back Where I Belong" featuring Ja Rule, "Queens Is" featuring Prodigy, "U Can't F--k With Me" featuring Snoop and Xzibit, and the poignant "Homicide," which decries black-on-black violence--is a step away from the smoothed-out ditties that LL is known for. Apparently, as a response to the criticism that he was too "Hollywood" to compete in the current bling-bling-laced hip-hop environment, LL spent a week visiting inmates at Rikers Island Prison to recover the hunger that he had when he was a shell-toed, Adidas-wearing 16-year-old who just wanted to hear his music on the radio.
The edgier sound, however, is a mistake. LL need only think of the origin of his name to understand where he's at his best. The ladies (and a lot of the fellas) have always loved Cool J on the smoothed-out tip. As he boasts on the album's first single "Imagine That," he's the type of guy who would lay your girl out on the copy machine, and "make copies of [her] kitten with his chin in between." LL is probably the only rapper who can create an ode to phone sex and still be cool ("Hello"). But the gem on the album is "This Is Us," LL's primer on what it takes to keep a man, featuring soulful crooning from Carl Thomas.
The three-year old feud with Canibus is past tired ("Where I Belong"). He should just let the diminutive rapper fade into obscurity on his own--and real gangsters aren't going to be impressed by the fact that LL beat up comedian Jamie Foxx ("U Can't F--k With Me"). LL doesn't need to be hard--his few exceptions are his classics "Mama Said Knock You Out" and "Back Where I Belong." On G.O.A.T., LL is at his best on the smoothed-out tip, despite what the heads on Farmer's Boulevard say.
"Queens Is" is flooded with the clack, clack, clack of semi-automatic weapons. But is this LL? The ominous sound from LL is not the sound of a weapon being loaded; what's scary is the sound of him tearing a condom wrapper as he takes your girl.
On the track "LL Cool," LL has already given his response to any second-guessing from "broke ass critics who always got something to say." His reply is simply, "What the f--k you know 'bout hip-hop?--I'm LL Cool J."
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