Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J

In 1990 came LL Cool J’s fourth album, “Mama Said Knock You Out”. It appeared to have him move on significantly as the last album was filled with ballad raps, and hear he made a turn towards the street Rap to please his core fan base once again. This was taken even further with the album after it, so this is seen as a point where he chooses to change how people perceive him and his music.

1. “The Boomin’ System”

This kind ...
...it was pretty fresh to do so as this one has him do more bragging raps which have him talk about the type of thing he is able to spend his money on, and so here he gets a chance to flows about how heavy the sound system is in his car, and how he makes everyone’s head turn as he hits the corner. It was the first single from the album, and was appropriately chosen to start this record.

**Five Stars**

2. “Around The Way Girl”
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In 1990 came LL Cool J’s fourth album, “Mama Said Knock You Out”. It appeared to have him move on significantly as the last album was filled with ballad raps, and hear he made a turn towards the street Rap to please his core fan base once again. This was taken even further with the album after it, so this is seen as a point where he chooses to change how people perceive him and his music.

1. “The Boomin’ System”

This kind of thing is on another rise, and at the time it was pretty fresh to do so as this one has him do more bragging raps which have him talk about the type of thing he is able to spend his money on, and so here he gets a chance to flows about how heavy the sound system is in his car, and how he makes everyone’s head turn as he hits the corner. It was the first single from the album, and was appropriately chosen to start this record.

**Five Stars**

2. “Around The Way Girl”

Based upon the title to this one, I’m sure that many would expect it to be one of the soppy tunes which really annoyed me in his “Walking With The Panther" LP, but this one finds him do things different as he raps bout girls. Here he get to use the classic “Impeach The President” break as well as a sample of The Mary Jane Girls, so this immediately draws you to a comparison to Big Daddy Kane.

**Five Stars**

3. “Eat ‘Em Up, L Chill”

As he chooses to show what this album is truly about, this one gets him doing a track where is is quite simply in a rage with his rhymes as he just flows with great power and energy about how he will take out all competition. It reminds you of his very early days, and how relentless hie was then, and how he hopes to bring it back now with this album. It is well-structured and this rigid form allows him to tame the flows and manage them around the fiery rhymes.

**Four Stars**

4. “Mr. Good Bar”

In this track he goes hard to, just as he has done with many others on the album (as you come to see later). The raps in this one are highly effective in what they do and the fact that he is able to fit so many popular, topical references in , displays how he hopes to engage his listeners and want to hear him bring even more high-quality flows along these same sort of lines.

**Five Stars**

5. “Murdergram”

L takes on some Breakbeats with James Brown on the samples for this case, and it seemed as though it motivated him to do the type thing which he also began doing a lot of on his late album as he raps in the style which the likes of Kool G. Rap, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane made popular with speedy flows on up-tempo breaks.

**Four Stars**

6. “Cheesy Rat Blues”

This on seems to clam thing down quite significantly as he is forced to take the fast pace down to a pace which suits the fact that he wishes to do a tune which has him deal with the girls. The type of things which he flows on his fresh, and the Funk really excites you as you here him do his thing as he rips the mic apart.

**Five Stars**

7. “Farmers Blvd.”

The flows from LL on this one are so funky, and the fact that he does it all to some laid-back production means that you are made to get into the stuff much eaier as he gets you grooving along as he raps in a collaboration with a couple of other MCs, who all have something fresh to add. It is a big tune, and get him doing some real Old School stuff here as he takes us back.

**Five Tsars**

8. “Mama Said Knock You Out”

This is the titular track to the album, and probably one of his most well-known tracks to the general mainstream listner as this one displayed exactly how different he new material was going to be from this point on as he comes with “Lyrics that’ll make you call the cops”. It is a hardcore track from him and shows how rough he can get with the lyrics at times. He samples some Sly & The Family Stone, as well as the “Gangster Boogie”, and these hype him up to go hard as an end result.

**Five Stars**

9. “Milky Cereal”

This is an innuendo-rich track from LL which has him test out his storytelling skills on the mic(rophone). It appears that he is extremely talented at it, and he does a lot moe than what we had found in his earlier work in that he iis able to show how well he is able to convey his ideas of a deeper meaning without making it blatant to the listener, thus making them have to search for the hidden meanings.

**Five Stars**

10. “Jingling Baby” (Remix)

This is a remix to one of the big single from “Walking With A Panther”, and it has him revist the joint and take it to places it has never been before as he has Marley Marl take things a stage further and give a much harder twist to the thing than what it started out as. I couldn’t say that it is better than the original, but it seems to take it to the time more and make it fit in with the subtle shifts in the tastes of Hip hop fans.

**Five Stars**

11. “To Da Break Of Dawn”

Here LL just doesn’t mess about as he addresses all the animosity he has faced over the times which have filled the gap between this and his last album, and he does so by directly taking on MC Hammer, Ice-T and most significantly Kool Moe Dee (of The Treachery Three). It is a heavy tune from him, and influential in how other rap acts when on to do the same sort of thing in the future.

**Five Stars**

12. “6 Minutes Of Pleasure”

As we come towards the end he is sure to remind us of what the album prior to it largely consisted of as he does a track which has him rhyme in the style which he used in his ballads raps on “Walking With A Panther” and “Bigger And Deffer”, but this time around it seemed as though he had taken on the criticism he had felt from doing such material by making the track much more sustainable for the streets that the one which actually used ballad-type production before.

**Three Stars**

13. “Illegal Search”

With New Jack Swing the biggest thing in the urban world at this point, LL has a go at that type of production for this one as he takes on the Swingbeat, but uses it in a way which completely contrasts from dancey grooves which he is given as the content of his rhymes focuses upon him speaking about police brutality. It sounded as if he made the most out of it, as the lyrics were shocking and thought-provoking.

**Five Stars**

14. “The Power of God”

Ending the album you get him on more classic Funk, but in this case I wasn’t really feeling the overall content of his raps as he seems to undergo yet another significant change in his character by rapping about his relationship with God, and does this through a little tale. It wasn’t that impressive, in relation to the rest, but it ends the album in a mellow way.

**Three Stars**

This album is filled with bangers, and so you can’t help but see it as a step up from the album before it, as he finds his groove nice again. There are a few which let it down a little as he drops his guard, but when he chooses to rage in the booth, it comes through with the hardcore raps and even a direct diss track.
 

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