Released on 14 September 1990, "Mama Said Knock You Out" was the fourth studio album by US rapper LL Cool J. It was produced mostly by Marley Marl and recorded at his "House of Hits" home studio in Chestnut Ridge and at Chung King House of Metal in New York City achieving commercial and critical success. The album spawned five singles "To Da Break Of Dawn", "The Boomin' System", "Around The Way Girl", "Mama Said Knock You Out" & "6 Minutes Of Pleasure".
When LL Cool J
famously snarled "Don’t call it a comeback” on "Mama Said Knock You
Out," the triumphant title track of his milestone 1990 album of the same
name, his indignation was understandable. After all, James Todd Smith
was one of rap’s premiere superstar soloists – a charismatic rhyme
prodigy who’d buoyed a fledgling Def Jam Records
as its teenaged flagship artist, broke new ground as a uniquely
dual-skilled battle lyricist/balladeer, and had just come off his third
consecutive smash LP with the platinum-certified Walking With a Panther. Yet the year prior, LL’s career was inarguably also in crisis.
A misguided lead single,
“I’m That Type of Guy,” belittled and taunted his male listeners by
reciting all the ways in which LL was infinitely cooler than they were.
Kool Moe Dee, Ice-T, and even MC Hammer
all critiqued him on record. But the nadir was September 17, 1989.
Appearing at a Stop the Racism rally and concert on 125th Street in
Harlem alongside Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and Doug E.
Fresh – an event organized in response to the racially motivated murder
of a Black youth in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn – LL was unceremoniously
booed. As Billboard magazine reported, “According to young
people in the audience, LL’s politics – which oft-times seem to promote
self over community issues – are no longer acceptable.
Not everyone believed the criticism was warranted – particularly
revered producer and radio host Marley Marl.
Championing Panther’s rawest cuts on his popular NYC mix show,
Marley wooed LL into offering him a remix opportunity. The resulting
“Jingling Baby (Remixed But Still Jingling)” revamped the track with
just the right touch of party time bounce, and inspired L to re-voice
his lyrics in a rejuvenating performance that sounded conspicuously
like, yes, a comeback, and the most significantly, a winning creative
partnership was inaugurated.
Galvanized by Marley's vibrant production, Mama Said Knock You Out powered LL Cool J with a sonic continuity unheard since his early work with Rick Rubin,
and revitalized him as an exceptional talent who's also, crucially,
once again relatable. A paean to the everyman joys of driving around
blasting music, "The Boomin' System" rode an irresistible sampled
merging of James Brown's "The Payback" and En Vogue's then-current R&B hit "Hold On" that
more than satisfies the low-end joys extolled within the song. Its
narrative rejoinder, "Illegal Search" addressed police harassment.
The brilliant "Around the Way Girl" rejects Panther's models and
affectionately celebrates the charms and sass of a girl over a consummate
R&B/hip-hop synthesis that musically outpaces all his past romantic
material. The self-deprecating deep cut, "Cheesy Rat Blues," on which his pen proved most mighty. A hilariously exaggerated account
of LL's fall from grace, it chronicles the fleeting nature of fame and
hangers on.
Mama Said Knock You Out
reestablished LL Cool J as the most articulate of the homeboys,
sounding "tougher and funnier" rapping about "crass materialism" and
"simple pleasures". It was LL's stack of samples add the icing to a cake that is all dark,
remorseless rhythm, a lo-fi drum beat shadowed by a crude bass rumble.
Mama Said Knock You Out Track List:
1. The Boomin' System
2. Around The Way Girl
3. Eat 'Em Up, L Chill
4. Mr. Good Bar
5. Murdergram (Live At Rapmania)
6. Cheesy Rat Blues
7. Farmes Blvd. (Our Anthem)
8. Mama Said Knock You Out
9. Milky Cereal
10. Jingling Baby
11. To Da Break Of Dawn
12. 6 Minutes Of Pleasure
13. Illegal Search
14. The Power Of God
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