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LL Cool J

LL Cool J

40 articles

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LL Cool J, Doug E. Fresh, Kurtis Blow: Krush Groove Party, Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 18 January 1986

RUSH PRODUCTIONS, an organization with the best intentions, conceived this event to be a celebration of the success of the film Krush Groove and of the consolidation ...

LL Cool J: Hard as Hell

Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 25 January 1986

That's LL Cool J, possibly the best rapper ever and main thrust of Def Jam Recordings, possibly the coolest label this decade. They're both here ...

L.L. Cool J: Radio (Del Jam 8FC 40239. Distributed by Columbia.)

Review by RJ Smith, High Fidelity, February 1986

THIS IS A test. Entrepreneurs Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons recently inked a distribution deal with Columbia, heralding potentially the biggest commercial boost to underground ...

Radio On: LL Cool J: Radio (Def Jam)

Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 8 February 1986

LABEL OF THE MOMENT Def Jam's first album release in this country is the debut of the newest star in the hip hop firmament, 18-year-old ...

The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Def Jam: Escape From New York

Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 8 February 1986

New York's superhip Def Jam label has burst upon the Great British Public via a distribution deal with CBS. Frank Owen, tireless beatbox gumshoe, endured ...

Def Jam: The Rap Brat Pack

Report and Interview by David Toop, The Face, March 1986

THE GREATEST CREATIVE CONVERGENCE IN 20th Century music has been the American Jewish/Black independent record company. Reel 'em off: Herman Lubinsky and Savoy Records, Hy ...

LL Cool J: Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Beat Box

Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986

LL COOL J COMES on like a rap version of Muhammad Ali, taking delight in clever wordplay with a showman's sense of timing and a ...

Yo Boys: Boys Keep Killing

Report by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 13 September 1986

The pervasive sound of hip hop becomes punctuated by an altogether more sinister noise — the bark of hand-guns — as, on the streets of ...

Run DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 27 September 1986

RUN LIKE HELL ...

Def Jam: License to Thrill

Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 20 December 1986

RICK RUBIN and RUSSELL SIMMONS are the creative mavericks behind the outrageous antics of THE BEASTIE BOYS and RUN DMC and a whole host of ...

Dawn of the Def

Overview by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 9 May 1987

The wit and wisdom of DEF JAM as captured in the NME. From Rick Rubin as hipster to Beastie Boys as Sex Zeppelin and beyond. ...

LL Cool J: Bad Man Bites Back

Report and Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 30 May 1987

Woah, boy. This is LL COOL J, sitting behind the wheel of an automobile, sensing disrespect! Our man in the wraparounds and the probe-stick: DELE ...

Def Jam: Don't Knock The Rock – Rap It

Report by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 1 June 1987

Mark Cooper on how Def Jam crossed over punk with rap, white with black, and stayed cool with both sides ...

LL Cool J: Bigger And Deffer (Def Jam 450515)

Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 6 June 1987

DEF FOREVER ...

LL Cool J: Top Of The World

Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 13 June 1987

WITH BIGGER AND DEFFER, HIS SECOND LP, LL COOL J HAS INFLATED THE BOUNDARIES OF MEGALOMANIA. FRANK OWEN MEETS THE SELF-ACCLAIMED WORLD'S GREATEST RAPPER TO ...

L.L. Cool J: Bigger And Deffer (Def Jam)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1987

THE INEVITABLE challenge of a great debut: what to do for an encore. For James Todd Smith — a.k.a. Cool James, a.k.a. L.L. Cool J ...

LL Cool J Takes The Rap, Beats The Rap, Raps It Up, Raps Around The Clock, Encourages Bad Puns

Interview by Jon Young, Creem, October 1987

"YOU AIN'T gettin' no scoop, lookin' at me with your beady eyes!" ...

LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 7 November 1987

SOFA, SO GOOOOOOD! ...

LL Cool J: Rap – A Storm In A Teacup

Report and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Q, January 1988

WITH WORLDWIDE sales of his second album, Bigger And Deffer, approaching the three million mark (50,000 in Britain) three times more than the last David ...

Rick Rubin: Mental Metal Master

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 11 March 1989

From rap to metal, LL Cool J to Slayer, producer Rick Rubin has shaped the definitive street beats of the decade. Paul Elliott hears the ...

LL Cool J: Walking With A Panther (Def Jam)

Review by Bob Stanley, Melody Maker, 1 July 1989

RUMOUR HAD it that this was a bad record — as in crap, not bigger and deffer. Rumour was wrong. ...

A Schism Divides Black Pop Radical Rappers And Soul Stars – Or The Street Vs. The Sweet

Comment by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 31 December 1989

MYRIAD GENRES and subgenres make up the world of pop music, some complementary, some clashing. Look around, and you'll find heavy metal, hard rock, post-modern, ...

U.S. Rap: Listen Up!

Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, January 1990

RAIN IS STREAMING down in sheets on the Long Island suburb of Hempstead but, inside Public Enemy's headquarters, the group's leader Chuck D is just ...

LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out (Def Jam LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 22 September 1990

LL SYSTEMS GO! ...

LL Cool J: Knocked Out Loaded

Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 September 1990

After the critical and commercial disappointment of Walking The Panther, LL COOL J is back on more typically outrageous form with his new album, Mama ...

Mike Tyson vs. LL Cool J

Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1991

BOTH WEAR the mask of the invulnerable ultra-man. Both are naked aggressive — one physical, one metaphorical. Both are in a business where the competition ...

LL Cool J: 14 Shots To The Dome (Def Jam)

Review by Push, Melody Maker, 17 April 1993

THE CAREER of LL Cool J, which began almost 10 years ago with the first Def Jam release, has been a helter skelter of ups ...

L.L. Cool J: 14 Shots to the Dome (Def Jam/Columbia 53325; CD and cassette)

Review by Amy Linden, The New York Times, 9 May 1993

Making a Pitch To Rap's Hard Core ...

Rick Rubin: The Buddha of Suburbia

Interview by RJ Smith, Details, July 1993

Rick Rubin built a recording empire from a dorm room at NYU. With Def American Recordings, he's taken the sound of the streets to the ...

L.L. Cool J, Naughty by Nature, H-Town, Jade, SWV, Silk, Shai: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Amy Linden, New York Daily News, 20 July 1993

Hormones in Harmony at Garden Summerfest sizzles with sex as rappers drop trousers & leave pants in their wake ...

Russell Simmons: Def Shepherd

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 9 December 1995

Yeah Boyee! DEF JAM, the record label that put the ROCK in hip-hop and brought you the likes of Public Enemy and Beastie Boys, is ...

LL Cool J: Hello Again Ladies

Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, February 1996

HE WAS RAP'S FIRST KNICKER-WETTING SENSATION, A PROWLING PANTHER WHO BROUGHT THE SWEAT OF TEEN SEXUALITY INTO THE HIP HOP ARENA. TEN YEARS LATER, HE'S ...

Romeos of Record

Comment by Amy Linden, New York Times Special Features Syndication, 9 April 1996

Today's black singers conquer charts and hearts by crooning instead of crowing. ...

LL Cool J: Tellin' it like it is

Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, January 1998

Million-selling rap king, actor, ladies' man and now a no-holds-barred autobiographer… who in their right minds could resist LL COOL J? ...

LL Cool J, Canibus and Wyclef Jean: The '4,3,2,1' Beef

Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2000

WHEN CANIBUS recorded a verse for LL Cool J's '4,3,2,1' in 1997, he can hardly have realised what was about to unfold. ...

LL Cool J: G.O.A.T.

Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 2000

YOUR MOUTH IS contorted into a G. Dubya-worthy smirk. Your mind is flooded with the sights and scents of your adolescence: your senior prom, that ...

The LL Cool J Interview

Interview by Amy Linden, sonicnet.com, Summer 2000

You were the guy who coined the phrase, "Don't call it a comeback." But it seems that every record has the air of a ...

LL Cool J: Beacon Theatre, New York

Live Review by Mac Randall, New York Daily News, 23 June 2003

At Beacon, everybody loves Cool James ...

LL Cool J, Faith Evans: Grant Park, Chicago

Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, July 2005

NOW WE KNOW why the Ladies Love Cool James: it’s not for his remarkably buff 40-something body (though they do love that); not even for ...

Hip-Hop's best-kept secret: the story of Extravagant 3

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Merlis, Rock The Bells, 25 June 2020

BENEATH HIP-HOP'S surface lies a wellspring of untold stories about the players that made the movement what it is today. Even the most diehard of ...

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