LL Cool J Proves Middle-Aged Hip-Hop Traditionalism Can Be a Pretty Good Thing on ‘FORCE’

Scant months after Q-Tip publicly debated the dubiousness of an “adult-contemporary hip-hop” class on social media comes a very Tip-produced new album by his Queens neighbor LL Cool J—the 56-year-old rapper-actor’s 14th since his 1984 debut as a youngster. In a yr when each Rakim and Masta Ace launched new initiatives, when Frequent teamed with producer Pete Rock for a stellar throwback album of Nineties-spirited hip-hop, LL’s new effort joins a development. “Name it conventional hip-hop,” Q-Tip tweeted.

The FORCE doesn’t nod to trendy drill or entice, nor are there classic boom-bap beats to be heard. Nonetheless lyrically aggressive after 39 years of rhyming, Q-Tip modernizes LL’s sound for individuals who’d truly wish to stream a brand new LL Cool J album and offers them what they got here for: boastful brags (“Murdergram Deux” with Eminem), lover-man vibes (“Proclivities”) and a few old-school rap storytelling (“Spirit of Cyrus”). 

Pairing the nonetheless musclebound MC accountable for horny classics like “Doin’ It” with the producer of A Tribe Known as Quest come-ons like “Electrical Leisure” appears nearly too on the nostril. And sure, in 2024, LL is a long-married grandpa. However we hardly even must droop our disbelief as he twists seductive rhymes round a synth line recalling Gary Numan on “Proclivities,” flirting with Saweetie about tonsil hockey and making panties drop. The FORCE is hardly LL’s grown-up 4:44 album. He’s the identical Farmers Boulevard superhero he’s at all times been and the album is healthier for it.

However LL does look again within the rearview. His first single launched Def Jam as a hip-hop label in ’84 — he identify drops the label’s co-founders Rick Rubin (on “Basquiat Vitality”) and Russell Simmons (on “Runnit Again”). Like Captain America revived from suspended animation, LL returns from 1994 to a up to date world he by no means made on “30 Decembers” (“this world ain’t like I keep in mind,” he laments). When Nas friends on the spiritualist “Reward Him,” the Queensbridge rapper brings up the golden-age hip-hop trend of sheepskin coats and Cazal eyeglasses.

The titular “FORCE” stands for “frequencies of actual inventive power” and the NCIS: Los Angeles star arguably will get his most inventive on “Black Code Suite.” He embodies a litany of African-American bona fides (“I’m the sound of Miles Davis, it’s unattainable to bury me/The sluggish pimp stroll, it’s unattainable to rush me”), together with the spice in scorching sauce and tastebuds savoring sunflower seeds, ending with the repetitive declaration “I’m Black.” Title references to Huey P. Newton, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cyrus of The Warriors match this system. If LL has completed nothing however craft his blackest album potential throughout the confines of pop-leaning hip-hop for folks, his mission is nicely completed.