Mama Said Knock You Out

Of LL nu een beetje boos is, of een beetje gevoelig. Hij kan het normaal wel overbrengen. Maar juist dat ontbreekt op dit album. Natuurlijk met uitzondering van de hit. (Boos is bij hem toch het leukst). Maar daar staan 6 minuten braakmuziek tegenover. Kom ik op een doorsnee 3 uit.

Late golden age hip hop - around the time beefs, gangsta rap and sampling license issues made everything start getting worse. A couple of classics, particularly the title track, but patchy and inconsistently paced. Very good, but falls just short of his contemporaries

Just a couple steps removed from the "My name is LL Cool J and I'm here to say" era, the production on this album is lean and clean - minimalistic beats driven by boom boom tish drums, funky looped basslines, and sparse synth/sample accentuation that put the vocals front and center. There are just 1-2 beats/parts per song so the sound is fairly repetitive. There are long verses and short infrequent choruses. It's an old-school sound, though rap is pushing into new areas, speeding up a bit with a twisting clever and boastful style that would dominate the early 90s.The delivery on this album is precise and focused - putting an emphasis on the playful wordy verses' stories of love and lust, rivalries and friendships, parties and fights, crafting LL Cool J's smooth bravado persona.

I am unabashedly nostalgic for this album and the era of hip hop it came from. This came out just when I was just beginning to develop my own musical consciousness apart from what my parents put on. I know every one of these songs despite never having owned a copy of the album myself. I had friends who had the cassette, and we were too young to have much money, so we'd all buy different albums and share. Plus the videos for the singles were all over Yo! MTV Raps and the video jukebox channel.

LL Cool J is severely underrated. He, and this album in particular, was a fucking juggernaut when it came out. I feel like around 93/94 any rap that wasn't overtly gangster became viewed as somewhat passe, even in retrospect, which is a shame. Dude was a pioneer and he played a big part in popularizing hip hop with a mass audience. His delivery is iconic, particularly on the ferocious title track.

I enjoyed the beats, but on reflection would not listen to the album again.

Hey, Kool Thing, are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression?

Yeah, tell it like it is!

Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years!

Good grief.

Nothing spectacular. Only enjoyed it slightly more than some of the formative rap albums on this list. 1.5/5

ladies may love cool j, but i don't love this album

90s hip-hop is just such a vibe. I've gotta be in the mood but when I am nothing else scratches the itch. Lyrically I'm kind of lukewarm on this album by and large but his flow and the beats are on point.

Loved this. Eastside rap was a lot more cosmopolitan than west, and I preferred its sound. Mama Said Knock You Out still sounds great, while Milky Cereal is great fun.

The title track and Jingling Baby still go hard but meh.

This is a solid groove right between the gangster hop of later rap albums and the older sounds of earlier hip hop. Murdergram is a nice change from the more laid back rhythms. Mama Said Knock You Out is one of those cultural touchstones with a huge reach. Illegal Search is 31 years old and still applies to today.

nice...