ll cool j / albums

4,430,874 plays
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20,233 FAVS
131 fans

- Radio
- - 53,330 plays
  - 95 favs
  - 0 shares
LL Cool J
Released 1985

Dear Yvette
04:07
4,332 plays

I Need a Beat
04:41
2,904 plays

Dangerous
05:56
2,578 plays

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songs

- 1
- I Can't Live Without My Radio
- 05:27
- 13,009 plays

- 2
- You Can't Dance
- 03:37
- 1,796 plays

- 3
- Dear Yvette
- 04:07
- 4,332 plays

- 4
- I Can Give You More
- 05:07
- 1,673 plays

- 5
- Dangerous
- 05:56
- 2,578 plays

- 6
- [Untitled Track]
- 04:00
- 1,400 plays

- 7
- Rock the Bells
- 04:31
- 20,366 plays

- 8
- I Need a Beat
- 04:41
- 2,904 plays

- 9
- That's a Lie
- 04:44
- 1,590 plays

- 10
- You'll Rock
- 04:52
- 2,244 plays

- 11
- I Want You
- 04:51
- 1,438 plays

album review

Run-D.M.C. was the first rap act to produce cohesive, fully realized albums, and LL Cool J was the first to follow in their footsteps. LL was a mere 17 years old when he recorded his classic debut album Radio, a brash, exuberant celebration of booming beats and B-boy attitude that launched not only the longest career in hip-hop, but also Rick Rubin's seminal Def Jam label. Rubin's back-cover credit ("Reduced by Rick Rubin") is an entirely apt description of his bare-bones production style. Radio is just as stripped-down and boisterously aggressive as any Run-D.M.C. album, sometimes even more so; the instrumentation is basically just a cranked-up beatbox, punctuated by DJ scratching. There are occasional brief samples, but few do anything more than emphasize a downbeat. The result is rap at its most skeletal, with a hard-hitting, street-level aggression that perfectly matches LL's cocksure teenage energy. Even the two ballads barely sound like ballads, since they're driven by the same slamming beats. Though they might sound a little squared-off to modern ears, LL's deft lyrics set new standards for MCs at the time; his clever disses and outrageous but playful boasts still hold up poetically. Although even LL himself would go on to more intricate rhyming, it isn't really necessary on such a loud, thumping adrenaline rush of a record. Radio was both an expansion of rap's artistic possibilities and a commercial success (for its time), helping attract new multiracial audiences to the music. While it may take a few listens for modern ears to adjust to the minimalist production, the fact that it hews so closely to rap's basic musical foundation means that it still possesses a surprisingly fresh energy, and isn't nearly as dated as many efforts that followed it (including, ironically, some of LL's own). ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide