Walking With A Panther [PA] - LL Cool J

Released in 1989, "Walking With A Panther" was the third album by the Newy York rapper, LL Cool J. It had him finally able to advance his music, and since he invented a new style of Hip Hop, the Rap Ballad, on the album before it, he wished to continue this onto this one. Many saw this switch as a turn towards the commercial side of things, but he controls it all with the heavy Hip Hop material which he staterted his career with.
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...the album off, you have him killing the thing and indicating that he is about to take things over with this album. The start of it is questionable with the Surfer Rock guitar work, but following this, the hardcore beats kick in and the rapper is given a chance to re-invent himself for this one as a more mature artist (he was only 16 when his debut came out).

**Five Stars**

2. "Smokin', Dopin'"

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Released in 1989, "Walking With A Panther" was the third album by the Newy York rapper, LL Cool J. It had him finally able to advance his music, and since he invented a new style of Hip Hop, the Rap Ballad, on the album before it, he wished to continue this onto this one. Many saw this switch as a turn towards the commercial side of things, but he controls it all with the heavy Hip Hop material which he staterted his career with.

1. "Droppin' 'Em"

To kick the album off, you have him killing the thing and indicating that he is about to take things over with this album. The start of it is questionable with the Surfer Rock guitar work, but following this, the hardcore beats kick in and the rapper is given a chance to re-invent himself for this one as a more mature artist (he was only 16 when his debut came out).

**Five Stars**

2. "Smokin', Dopin'"

You are forced to go from one extreme to another as things are dropped with a sloiwer joint from him. It shows that he is capable of of far range of things, even from listneign to a pair of tunes from him. The way that he raps is a step away from the ballad rap, but it is much more enjoyable than that stuff.

**Four Stars**

3. "Fast Peg" (Lude)

4. "Clap Your Hands"

You have an original wah-wah guitar piece being made on this one, and from it you get LL slowing it all down, and on the low tempo he is calmed down by the soothing soul clap. From here, he immediately gets bored of this low tempo, and does it is own way with hard lines, making for a fly rhyme.

**Four Stars**

5. "Nitro"

The funky groove used in this one may be more memorbale fot its part in De La Soul's "Me, Myself and I", but it is actually the work of George Clinton and the crew of Funkadelic doing "Knee Drop". From here, you have him getting right into the high-energy ways of the opening track on the album. It is heavy, and empowering.

**Four Stars**

6. "You're My Heart"

This is one of the ballads on the album, and it isn't worth wasting time on at all.

**One Star**

7. "I'm That Type Of Guy"

Although this one wasn't one of the soppy tracks from the album, it was clearly one of the weaker ones on the release, and one that would never have been taken seriously as a single. You done even have him rapping in this one, so I don't realy see the point in it being here. Rubin just wastes beats here.

**Two Stars**

8. "Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?"

Although LL was at the other end of things (after coming out with a few Pop tunes) this one is straight Hip Hop, and has him working in the hardcore Hip Hop style. It has him taking on the most popular approach on the East coast scene, and completely owning it and making it his own.

**Five Stars**

9. "Going Back To Cali"

Recently sampled by Bow Wow and Omarion, this one has LL taking it to the West Coast with this one as he raps on some beats which were pretty much alien to the East Coasters at the time as he goes into some Electro Hop. It is a big dance track by him, and I'm sure that a modern audience can feel this one too as Rick Rubin tries something new, and nails it.

**Five Stars**

10. "It Gets No Rougher"

I saw this as the best track on the album, and I don't know how you could think any other way towards it as you have him just killing it with a high-tempoed appraoch to things. It symbolises a big change in the artist from being a teenage rap sensation to being a proper star with actaul skills. It is a shame that the album is lace with the Pop matierla, and if he got more into this, it would be a flawless one.

**Five Stars**

11. "Big Ole Butt"

You have to be pretty cold not to ejoy this one as you have him just chiiling as he raps about the girls he knows, and what about them attracts them to him. It is a fun littel one, and very representative of the time with very naive topics and little aim at all. As a single, it didn't do particularly well, but this shouldn't hold it back.

**Five Stars**

12. "One Shot At Love"

Here's another ballad from him, and it is just terrible, so just ignore it.

**One Star**

13. "1-900-LL Cool J"

The way that he lists his qualities at the start of this one has been adapted many time in future Hip Hop tracks. You get him rapping to a fly groove, and it allows him to flow about a stroy which happened to him. Although he goes a little off-topic at times, he keeps it together with his authorititive voice.

**Four Stars**

14. "Two Different Worlds"

This is the last of the ballads from him, and this is just as poor as the others.

**One Star**

15. "Jealous"

The funky sampled used on this one was later used on Kurupt's 2001 album "Tha Streetz Iz A Mutha", and for this one, the thing really gives him something exciting to work with as he drags you with the "slow Gangsta beat" from Rick Rubin. You see that he's taking influence from the clumsy beats of Audio Two's "Top Billin'" with the way thatthe percussion is constructed.

**Four Stars**

16. "Jingling Baby"

This was the final single to be released off the album, and it really had to come out on its own, because it has him killing it with a newly-discovered style of rapping. He seems to take heavy influence from the acts which would have emmerged between this and his last album, so you have him taking on the fast-paced way of doign things on Breakbeat as Rakim and Big Daddy Kane did.

**Five Stars**

17. "Def Jam In The Motherland"

I was a little confused by this one as lots of things are thrown at you in this one, and not many of them make that sense when placed together. You have him speaking on being seemingly enlightened by visiting Africa, and from this he chooses to do a track which gets him performing with Jazz-influenced production. It is a lot lighter than most of his material, but his rhymes contradict the change.

**Three Stars**

18. "Change Your Ways"

Personally, I didn't see this one as the best way to end the album off as it has LL taking too much influence from Rick Rubin's plans and as Rubin is known for juggling Hip Hop with Heavy Metal, this oher side comes through, and it doesn't let the rapper show off his skills that well. The fact that he never did it again displays the fact that this shouldn't have happened too.

**Two Stars**

This is an inconsistent one from the rapper, and it gets him realy showing that he is able to do a lot of things. The Rakim/Big Daddy Kane/Kool G. Rap work is amazing, and had he kept it up, he would have really killed. It with a few tunes just a waste of time, it takes away from these. 

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