LL COOL J MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT FULL
Look at it from my point of view: You’re 20 years old, you’ve got the Mercedes-Benz custom-flown in from Cali, you’ve got the champagne and the briefcase full of cash, you’ve got the panther with the gold rope and bottles, you’re laughing and smiling. But in life, you have to operate based on the amount of info you have at that time. Since you were a pioneer on that front, did you feel people didn’t understand you at the time?Īs a young man growing up in Queens, I wasn’t mature or articulate enough to express it in certain words, and I could have done a better job in that area. I wouldn’t change any of that, because it all informed who I am as a human being. So I was like the first dude over the wall with the champagne and the diamonds and all of that, so I caught all the bullets and shrapnel. It’s like the “death funnel” when a SWAT team raids a house, the first guy through gets all the bullets. People didn’t understand the diamonds, jewelry, champagne, and the models - all the things that not even 10 years later would be completely accepted and embraced. It seemed like the thing that really threw people off, more than the music, was the album cover. Were there specific reviews or comments about Walking With a Panther that made you want to go so hard on Mama Said Knock You Out? So my grandmother was like, “Yeah, get out there and knock ’em out.” I was like, “Yeah, knock ’em out.” So from there I remember being in my condo with the SP-1200, my man Bob had the beat playing, and I was just like, “Don’t call it a comeback!” It just felt right. I guess for whatever reason, it didn’t hit the mark like it did for some people. In other genres, people appreciate it when a guy like Prince does experimental albums and projects. And in hip-hop, people don’t always appreciate that.
LL COOL J MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT FREE
I’ve always been a guy who liked to experiment and be free in the studio I’ve never stuck to a script. I was beefing, moaning, and griping about what people were saying with Walking With a Panther. The title line, “Mama said knock you out,” came from my grandmother. I just felt like the fans of the radio station had no place to go to take a deep dive into classic hip-hop culture in a really authentic way.”Īfter all, as LL Cool J proves here while reflecting on Mama Said Knock You Out, looking back can be fun.ĭo you remember when you first said, “Don’t call it a comeback”? “It isn’t a site that treats these acts like commodities, like, if you’re not the chart-topper of the moment, you don’t mean anything. “I wanted to create a place for unapologetically timeless and classic hip-hop that really lifts up the culture in a big way,” he says. It features interviews, commentary, and apparel tied to the classic artists LL feels the music world has ignored, and he has formed an alliance with Big Daddy Kane, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Fab 5 Freddy, Eric B., Roxanne Shante, and others to help guide it. Now LL has launched a Rock the Bells website that he hopes will become a destination for what he sees as a marginalized group of music fans. Seeing the way people have embraced his generation of hip-hop has also inspired LL Cool J to expand his Rock the Bells brand, which continues to be a classic hip-hop radio station for SiriusXM. That’s the craziest thing, and I’m really grateful for that.” It was strong, but over the years it became a bigger song. “It got a little play on MTV and a little play on radio, but it actually grew over the years.
“The song ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ didn’t get a lot of attention back then,” he tells Rolling Stone. These days, he just marvels at the album’s staying power. At the time, the record was a response to critics and fans who thought he’d sold out or lost the plot with his previous record, Walking With a Panther, so he decided to hit back hard and turn his doubters on their ears. LL Cool J’s powerhouse fourth album, Mama Said Knock You Out, came out 30 years ago this week and its rhymes and production techniques still resonate today.
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