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| Brilliant debut from the Queens hip-hop talent produced by Rick Rubin. I Can't Live Without My Radio, Rock The Bells, That's A Lie, You Can't Dance, more. |
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| 1 I Can't Live Without My Radio |
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| 2 You Can't Dance |
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| 3 Dear Yvette |
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| 4 I Can Give You More |
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| 5 Dangerous |
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| 6 [Untitled Track] |
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| 7 Rock the Bells |
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| 8 I Need a Beat |
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| 9 That's a Lie |
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| 10 You'll Rock |
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| 11 I Want You |
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Album Review
Run-D.M.C. was the first rap act to produce cohesive, fully realized albums, and LL Cool J was the first to follow in their footsteps. LL was a mere 17 years old when he recorded his classic debut album "Radio", a brash, exuberant celebration of booming beats and B-boy attitude that launched not only the longest career in hip-hop, but also Rick Rubin's seminal Def Jam label. Rubin's back-cover credit ("Reduced by Rick Rubin") is an entirely apt description of his bare-bones production style. "Radio" is just as stripped-down and boisterously aggressive as any Run-D.M.C. album, sometimes even more so; the instrumentation is basically just a cranked-up beatbox, punctuated by DJ scratching. There are occasional brief samples, but few do anything more than emphasize a downbeat. The result is rap at its most skeletal, with a hard-hitting, street-level aggression that perfectly matches LL's cocksure teenage energy. Even the two ballads barely sound like ballads, since they're driven by the same slamming beats. Though they might sound a little squared-off to modern ears, LL's deft lyrics set new standards for MCs at the time; his clever disses and outrageous but playful boasts still hold up poetically. Although even LL himself would go on to more intricate rhyming, it isn't really necessary on such a loud, thumping adrenaline rush of a record. "Radio" was both an expansion of rap's artistic possibilities and a commercial success (for its time), helping attract new multiracial audiences to the music. While it may take a few listens for modern ears to adjust to the minimalist production, the fact that it hews so closely to rap's basic musical foundation means that it still possesses a surprisingly fresh energy, and isn't nearly as dated as many efforts that followed it (including, ironically, some of LL's own). ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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• Biography
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Other albums by: LL Cool J |
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