Mama Said Knock You Out

Better actor than rapper. And he is not a good actor.

The album is too long, and a lot of the material either didn't age well ("I sure wouldn't rape you" as a pickup line? Yikes) or is super corny (Milky Cereal, among others). There is no denying the power of the title track, though. Best track: Mama Said Knock You Out

LL breaks new ground and pioneers "sexy rap". NWA talks about bitches. Beastie Boys want girs to do their laundry. LL is here to wear a Kangol hat give your girl a dozen orgasms. Fun and very consistent album. B

I knocked out Bald Bull during his bull charge in Mike Tyson's punch out right after "Don't call it a comeback"

Such a clear portrait of the transition from 80's hip hop to 90's hip hop. At times feels like listening to two different albums on shuffle. That sounds like a knock, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My first real exposure to LL Cool J's music was when I saw his performance of "Mama Said Knock You Out" on MTV Unplugged in 1990 and it blew me away. Listening to this album all the way through serves only to make me more of an admirer. Such great music, lyrics, performing, fun, depth, all of it. Loving the groove, loving the energy in his voice; just really loving this album.

Holy damn wow. 1990?! 1990!!!!???!?! The whole album is good, with incredibly clever, powerful rhymes delivered perfectly, the mixing is great, the samples are minimal but effective--this is the perfect rap album, and I can't believe it happened in 1990. LL Cool J is the father of modern rap, and it's right here in this album. When he does the obligatory "I am the greatest at this and you suck" rap songs, a weird staple of all rap albums, I JUST NOD AND AGREE.

Having just gotten to Mr. Good Bar, I have to ask... how can anyone find this anything but incredibly cringey? Some hip-hop acts from this era have aged pretty well... Rakim, Run-DMC... but the punchiest moments on this album feel like Will Smith trying to be Ice Cube.

I don’t know what I thought LL Cool J sounded like but it was not this. Pleasantly surprised by the banger beats and his flow. “Around The Way Girl”s’ chorus was so smooth and weaved perfectly into the song at the right times. His lyrics are witty and full of finesse. This is possibly one of the biggest surprises so far with just how much I enjoyed this. “Milky Cereal” is probably my favorite song on the album. It was basically banger after banger. I found myself nodding along to every song and will probably relisten to this album a couple more times. 10/10

I remember listening to this as a teenager. It was ok then, but didn't pass the test of time. Not only are the lyrics trivial, but also very sexist.

All the bad traits of 90s Rap that killed Hip Hop. The tracks were ok but the lyrics were crap. Also the line "I Sure wouldn't rape you' is worrying

Ladies Love Cool James.... As for me? Not so much. His music has just never done it for me. Mama Said Knock You Out is great and there’s a few other good tracks here. But there’s probably a hundred or so rap records I would listen to before this one

I'd rather have mama knock me out than listen to this shitload of crap again.

Top classic hip hop

Awesome hip hop album

Loved this. Eastside rap was a lot more cosmopolitan than west, and I preferred its sound. Mama Said Knock You Out still sounds great, while Milky Cereal is great fun.

Pretty cheesy tbh

Competent rap but not my style. A bit aggro masculine. Did not finish.

Pretty shite. Run of the mill, cliched, insincere tat. Mr. Cool wreaks of desperation, wanting to be in the cool gang but probably spend his high school years playing Warhammer.

I never would have sought this album out, but I really enjoyed it. It had great flow throughout and good beats.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hell yes.

Yeh, something else. 32 years old my arse. Still so fresh.

I love this album! Remember when he performed Mama Said Knock You Out on VH1 Unplugged? Yeah, he was part of the first rappers to do unplugged shows. Also hard to compute that “comeback” was even a part of this. Around the Way Girl makes me FEEL. Ugh. This album has sexy, fun, hard vibes throughout. Listened to it several times!!

Classic. This one comes with special memories

They don’t make hip hop like they used to…

amazing

So fucking good. 5 stars.

I am unabashedly nostalgic for this album and the era of hip hop it came from. This came out just when I was just beginning to develop my own musical consciousness apart from what my parents put on. I know every one of these songs despite never having owned a copy of the album myself. I had friends who had the cassette, and we were too young to have much money, so we'd all buy different albums and share. Plus the videos for the singles were all over Yo! MTV Raps and the video jukebox channel. LL Cool J is severely underrated. He, and this album in particular, was a fucking juggernaut when it came out. I feel like around 93/94 any rap that wasn't overtly gangster became viewed as somewhat passe, even in retrospect, which is a shame. Dude was a pioneer and he played a big part in popularizing hip hop with a mass audience. His delivery is iconic, particularly on the ferocious title track.

Just the epitome of that era of hip hop. The lyricism is clever, the production is simple yet great, and LL Cool J is obviously one of the best to ever do it. What I didn't expect was the range of song themes and tones. I expected the entire album to be somewhat similar to the titular track but there was a broad range of different themes and emotions that really added a lot of depth to the album. Truly one of the greats.

This album strongly reminds me of the late 00s, possibly the early 10s as I used to have this album in rotation for my drives to work. I'd often drop off my housemate at his work while on the way to the office while this album was playing, and his office was best accessed via a lay-by clearly signed as being "No buses". We would always shout "fuck you, no buses!" as we pulled into the layby, because clearly we weren't even in a single bus, let alone multiple buses. Anyway, this album is just fun. It makes you glad that you're listening to it.

Deep Blue Sea! He’s real! Rapping about milk and cereal my fave

Great Hip Hop

A blueprint.

Assured and aggressive but still approachable and amusing.

I enjoyed the beats. Don't know what he was saying to much. Something about ice cream, riding the bus and raping a woman. xXxplicit

Is it just me or is the most famous track on this record (the title track) the weakest of the bunch? Also, I appreciated the Bartles and Jaymes reference in “To da Break of Dawn”, but that’s because I’m old and the first sip of alcohol I ever had was a Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler I stole from my parents at a Fourth of July Barbecue in the early 90’s. The music is pretty good, the lyrics mostly are dated and of their time at best, 3 stars.

Good

I'M On My Way To Tounes Taw. Work Work Work

Can't beat a bit of LL Cool J

Great LL Cool J album, almost just as good as his debut (Radio, one of the best rap albums from the 80s).

I thought it was good wouldnt really call it rap more like MC

I bought this on release (vinyl) and listened to it a lot. Sad to say it fell out of my rotation and I probably last listened to the complete album 20 years ago. What a fool I've been. An absolute masterpiece, not one bad track.

Absolute classic from the GOAT. Ladies love cool James for a reason.

Oh my heavens! I had A GREAT TIME listening to this! FIVE STARS

I've always have a bit of admiration for old school hip hop, but i never haerd the music of LLcoolJ, a guy that i discovber not musically but in the crime serie NCIS Los Angeles. The songs that i like: The boomin' system is very groovy and rythmy, prefect intro to the guy. Around the way girl, the sample on it and the RnB sound is so chill and cool. Cheesy Rat Blues also bennefit for, his incredible flow. Mama said knock you out is the title track and one of his most famous, honnestly its not better than other song, but the verses, the sample and the chorus is peak so yeah it deserved the title track. Illegal search also benefit from cool lyrics, flow and sample. LLCoolJ have a solid flow, could be agressive and provocative, could be very lover and smooth, very mainstream in the form but still pretty obvououssly from the street it came from and that why its so good.

Solid, old school, hip-hop album. Sure, a couple of songs are a bit goofy (looking at you "Milky Cereal" and "Jingling Baby"), but the first bunch of songs are so strong you can almost forgive their goofiness. Almost. One of the good things about the album, I wasn't waiting for the "hit," the title track, which is so undeniable. The first bunch of songs were just as good: "The Boomin' System" slams, "Around The Way Girl" is a great, cool song, "Eat 'em Up L Chill" is a good egg-em on song. The groove to pretty much every song I enjoyed, I can see how this album was such a success, even without the title track. The two songs I mentioned "Milky Cereal" and "Jingling Baby"... yeah, they're goofy. But I still kinda liked them. The album is replayable. There's no skits or goofy stuff that breaks up the song that you want to skip on a replay. Classic album, really enjoyed it.

This ended up getting about six or seven plays, and it got better every time. Favourite tracks: pretty much all of them. It's such a solid record.

Classic hip hop stuff, really good flow

I can hear how much this influenced. Some great tracks

Tiukkaa settiä ja yks tuttu klassikkokin mukana.

Verrassend goed album eigenlijk ondanks dat ik over t algemeen niet de grootste LL cool J fan ben. Duidelijk uit onwetendheid en dus misplaatst.

Much better than I expected. Several gems on this record.

always wanted to listen to this as an album

very solid overall, couple weird songs but definitely golden age hip hop

Definitely a time piece, but still sounds great today

Solid album. Better than I expected. Got some classic bangers. 7.5-8/10

4 - Top Album, gefällt mir sehr gut.

I had two songs favorited on album. I favorited a new one when listening to the entire thing, for the fist time. So, pretty good but not life-altering.

Fun to listen to

This is a solid groove right between the gangster hop of later rap albums and the older sounds of earlier hip hop. Murdergram is a nice change from the more laid back rhythms. Mama Said Knock You Out is one of those cultural touchstones with a huge reach. Illegal Search is 31 years old and still applies to today.

always liked him

I really liked the samples on this, overall it was a fun listen. Even when it’s corny (which is often), it’s still pretty entertaining, although Milky Cereal would be an easy skip . 8/10

Classic Hip-hop. Uncle L's flow is unmatched in today's era of rap where you can barely discern the lyrics, LL enunciates every line beautifully. A man before his time, this album doesn't sound like it was made in 1990. Best songs = Mama said knock you out & Round the Way Girl.

90s

Okie doke

Love me some 90s hip hop complete with hilariously cheesy lyrics. Wicked.

This album was more fun to listen to than I was expecting and I really liked finding a rap album that didn’t overly rely on cussing throughout each song.

This is terrific. Classic beats (praise to Marley Marl), entertaining lyrics, smooth delivery from the one and only LL. The influence of this album on hip hop was massive - you hear beats and lyrics later ‘borrowed’ by other artists but also the style and swagger. LL raps about anything, broadening rap’s horizons. Such an enjoyable, fun album. Groundbreaking. Loved it. Stand outs - Mama Said Knock You Out, Around the Way Girl, Mr. Good Bar

Funky hip-hop humour.

Classic

Big fun 90s hip hop vibe, absolutely banging backing tracks with some tasty bass lines.

LL is the man

mmm

ll cool j doesn't hold back rapping over funky beats. mama said knock you out is such a great tune, if you don't like it, there's something wrong with you. bit too long though

Thanks to albums like this one is that I’m starting to really apreciate hip hop.

Some songs I wasn't a big fan of, but overall this is solid '90s hip-hop. I will say I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I feel like I'm saying that about a lot of albums here, but preconceived notions are TOUGH to overcome!

Knockout

Really dug it

LL is the original rap star. Good album. Lyrics are a little corny for 2021 standards, but for this time LL comes off original and sells his identity well.

LL Cool j is next level

Solid 3.5 for me

Because the opening line of the title track is "DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK!", I had assumed this album came a considerable amount of time after LL's last. It was little more than a year - and in the 80s/90s, that was short. But when gangsta rap reared its head in the late 80s and Ladies Love Cool James's loverboy schtick was looking dated, perhaps it felt like a cultural comeback. The album proved that LL could navigate the new hip hop landscape and deliver something as hard and defiant as the title track. But at the same time, he showed that he could make the ladies love him in a way that those gangsta rappers could only wish. (Case in point - when I was 15 I was OBSESSED with "Around the Way Girl" and had a dumb crush on LL. Hey, he had it!) The Mama Said album is LL Cool J in his imperial phase, showing his skill as an MC, a lyricist and his (and his producer's) ability to deftly mix rap with pop stylings.

Fun flows and lyricism, production got a bit repetitive for me

Pretty killer rap album. Couple off tracks here and there. The title track is 10/10. Album holds up.

A hot slice of G-funk. Didn't expect to like this as much as I did but I got right into it.

Ladies Love Cool James manages to nut a commodious autonomic album full of great tracks

I thought the album was fine, never really cared for LL but the rhymes are nice. Still has a very 80s sound of hip hop. "Around The Way Girl" is my favorite song on the album. 7/10.

Åter igen. Old school hip hop är det coolaste vi har. För bra! + tänker bara på kultklassikern Kangaroo Jack när jag hör mama said knock you out. Mm helt sjukt hur bra smak jag kan ha?

Historic and influential.

LL Cool J is probably one of the more underrated rappers in hiphop. He did not seem to make a grab at the headlines as much as his contemporaries did, but that does not seemed to have made a negative impact on his resume. Disclosure: First exposure to LL Cool J was his song with Boyz II Men "Hey Lover". Late night radio on the local Top 40 station for the win. "Hey Lover" is on another album though, but it serves as the blueprints for how this review approaches "Mama Said Knock You Out". Rap music and the wealth of catchy phrases and quips that make it into the modern lexicon are on full display here even thirty years later with "Don't call it a comeback!" on the title track. LL Cool J has an amazing voice with near crystal clear clarity. While the lyrics are not complicated, the delivery by LL Cool J is rhythmic and on time. This is a fairly great representation of what may have been hiphop's most appealing era where it was a balanced mix of fun and inviting with stories happy, sad, and socially aware. A key example of where this album remains socially aware is "Illegal Search" where LL Cool J chides the stereotypes by which the black community is essentially punished for being successful, or even just appearing to be. Crossed T's, dotted I's notwithstanding, he laments angrily the sort of gauntlet that they have to navigate just to verify that. Interestingly enough, the following track "The Power of God" contains a message of hope, an exhortation of sorts acknowledging the struggles and temptations of his early life but documenting his commitment to stay above those things, to maintain focus on the "power of God". Overall, the album is a great listen on par with his 90s contemporaries where messaging and storytelling take precedence on the whole over the single. These days are truly missed.

Nek sam se ja na MSN-u zvao LL Cool L, ah. Dosta sam njegovih albuma preslušao, nisam detaljno većinu, ali se uvijek znalo nać par pjesama koje sam si stavljo na plejliste, ali to je davno bilo kad sam ga baš slušao. Mama Said Knock You Out je izvrstan klasik, spot, uvijek slika ostaje te boje spota. Nisam očekivao da će album biti malo udaljeniji od njegove klasične r&b/love story + hip hop sheme (za kojom bome nisam lud). Album definitivno može biti kraći, pjesma-dvije definitivno ne bi falile ako bi se izrezale. Sve u svemu, drago mi je da je malo skrenuo sa svoje rute glazbe pa izbacio malo jači hip hop album što se tiče samog sebe.

I love this album. Early 90s had more fun than a lot of modern rap. LL Cool J was a really fun rapper before he turned into a "meh" actor.

It pretty good album. I am not the biggest LL Cool J fan but this album does have his best overall song. I would definitely listen to some of the songs again

Fun 90s hiphop. Some good beats, some good rhymes, some total cheese, but it's all good.

Wasn’t looking forward to more rap, but this was good! Got a little bored here and there but mostly into it. I liked the smoother jams like “Around the Way Girl” and “6 Minutes of Pleasure” a lot!

Really enjoyed the first two and a few of tracks near the end but got a bit bored in between. I like his smooth sound.

Used to listen to this albums quite a bit back in the early 90’s but admittedly, it’s been at least over a decade since my last full listen of it. Great beats, dope rhymes. Still a great album all the way through. The fact that Run the Jewels took their name from a line in “Cheesy Rat Blues” tells you how influential this album was.

the name LL cool J reminded me of a C tier famous person in bad mtv shows, but this album is surprisingly good. Lyrically very nice and the beats are also creative enough.

Nice listen.

Never knew how far back in time LL had music! Old school style for sure. Pretty clean overall, beats and lyrics.