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.
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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. The track is certified Gold in the US, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #29 on their “50 best rap songs in history” list, as well as the track receiving a Grammy for “Best Rap Solo Performance”.Don’t call it a comeback. Songwriter/s: James Todd Smith (LL Cool J), Marlon Williams (Marley Marl), George Clinton, Gregory Jacobs, James Louis Mccants, Leroy Mccants, Sylvester Stewart, Walter Morrison, William CollinsĬhart Rankings, Certifications, Awards & Accolades: “Mama Said Knock You Out” ranked in the charts worldwide in its year of release, ranking #37 in Australia, #47 in New Zealand, and #17 in the US Billboard Hot 100, #7 in the US Billboard Dance Club Songs, #12 in the US Billboard Hot R&B /Hip-Hop Songs, and #1 in the US Billboard Rap Singles. As of August 2019, the music video has over 26 million views. It features LL Cool J in a boxing ring singing into a microphone hanging from the ceiling, all shot in black and white. The music video was uploaded to YouTube in June 2009 on LL Cool J’s official YouTube channel. The track samples tracks from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer”, Sly & The Family Stone’s “Trip to Your Heart”, as well as LL Cool J’s own songs. The track opens up with the lines “Don’t call it a comeback/I’ve been here for years”, and sources have stated that the track was inspired by LL Cool J’s grandmother, who always told him to “knock out” all his critics. The album and track were meant to act as a reminder to his audience about his talent and ability, as his previous 1989 album “Walking with a Panther”, had received disappointing reviews. “Mama Said Knock You Out” is the eighth track from the fourth studio album of the same title by American rapper LL Cool J, released in 1990.