LL Cool J - Mr. Smith

So recently I was talking with someone about music, and upon asking what music this person was big into - one of the first responses was LL Cool J. After I stopped laughing, I returned a glance to notice this person was dead serious. So clearly I missed out on something and need to go back to his stuff. I went with this album as it's his best selling, at 2x platinum. He had a couple other 2x records as well, but I didn't feel like listening to 'Mama Said Knock You Out' today. Some people refer to LL as a visionary, and one of the pioneers of hip hop. Why you might ask? Great question! He was one of the first rappers to really arrange his songs in a pop style - and basically blend the two together. Before LL, believe it or not, pop fans and rap fans were two very separate groups. He took a big hit in terms of street cred for that, in which he has responded over the years. He's done a number of more hardcore rap records, in which pretty much all of them are terrible. It's hard to listen to a guy talk about all the things he likes in the bedroom as his "style" and then talk about blowin' holes in gangsta's. It just doesn't jive. He tried though, and that's half the battle. So here's why I don't like his music. This album is 15 tracks deep. The bigger singles on this album were 'Hey Lover' and 'Doin' It'. Now, if you listen to those songs, you'd get the feeling this is a guy who is going to do collabo ballads and that's his sweet spot. But then you have the 'I Shot Ya' tracks here, where he seems to be trying to be hardcore. You can't have it both ways! And then you go and do this NBC show 'In The House'? That's supposed to clean up your soft image? Get serious. I heard he's pretty good in the NCIS series and I actually liked the movie 'Any Given Sunday', in which he did a fine job. Personally, I think he should stick to acting and call it a day. Thankfully, he hasn't dropped an album since 2008 - and I don't see a plan for another.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Intro, The (Skit)
2. Make It Hot
3. Hip Hop
4. Hey Lover
5. Doin It
6. Life as...
7. I Shot Ya
8. Mr. Smith
9. No Airplay
10. Loungin
11. Hollis to Hollywood
12. God Bless
13. Get da Drop on 'Em
14. Prelude (Skit)
15. I Shot Ya (Remix)

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. I Shot Ya (Remix)
2. Doin' It
3. Loungin'

FINAL RATING:
1.5 out of 5 stars