On this day, LL Cool J released his groundbreaking debut album Radio, marking a cornerstone chapter not only for the record's author, but for Hip-hip in its vast entirety.
Released under Def Jam Records, Radio signified the label's first full-fledged album with production managed entirely by Rick Rubin, whose minimal, bare-bones approach and instrumentation seemingly flowed exceptionally well with the seventeen-year-old Cool J, “the result is rap at its most skeletal, with a hard-hitting, street-level aggression that perfectly matches LL's cocksure teenage energy,” as reviewed by AllMusic's Steve Huey.
While the album attained much commercial success with over 500,000 copies sold in its first five months, critics esteemed the record as a pivotal moment in Hip-hop history, wherein Cool J's brash B-Boy attitude matched with Rubin's booming beats ushered in a “New School” of rap, that would only progress in generations to come.
Cool J's lyrical themes anchor upon reflective verses which do well in painting an introspect image of inner city culture, mashing up well with his distinct braggadocio persona. Apart from this, the album also featured memorable singles “I Want You” and “I Can Give You More”, which are characterized by listeners and critics as Hip-hop's earliest form of ballads.
“Please be his ex and be my bride,” raps Cool J on the latter title, “Don't blame it on yourself, sweet thing, you tried/ Love you claimed to share just wasn't there/ You're too good for that, and it wasn't fair/ Love's taken its toll, your heart he stole/ You was fooled by the face of a phony role/ But I'll take up the slack, support you, baby/ Now the knight in shiny armor can only be me.”
Needless to say, the album's initial 500,000 mark would eventually reach well over one million copies sold in the US, and attaining RIAA-Certified Platinum. LL Cool J's debut album debuted at #46 on the US Billboard 200, and climbed up to #6 on the Top R&B/Hip0Hop Albums chart, remaining there for forty-seven weeks—which only project a modest comparison to Trouser Press's review, which named Radio a “primary classic of Hip-hop's original commercial surge”.
By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com
