The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

avecigrec said:
If Will Smith is the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I'd say LL Cool J is the Fresh Prince of Gold's Gym.
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There's a fantastic documentary called Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes that focuses on the masculinity, homophobia, and sexism in hip hop, and it talks about how homoerotic the pictures of LL were on Source back then because they were so focused on his body. And how they weren't marketing this to women but to men. The interviews on it in the film were great. His workout book was legit good when I was lifting weights in my younger days.
 
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Hemotep said:
There a fantastic documentary called Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes that focuses on the masculinity, homophobia, and sexism in hip hop, and it talks about how homoerotic the pictures of LL were on Source back then because they were so focused on his body. And how they weren't marketing this to women but to men. The interviews on it in the film were great. His workout book was legit good when I was lifting weights in my younger days.
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That sounds super cool. Gonna have to track it down.

LL Cool J as a brand/image was is a genius. LL Cool J as an emcee, for me, is lacking. Especially 1990 forward.
 
Lest I be seen as to negative and harsh here, I do not begrudge LL his success at all and do believe be is an icon and am comfortable calling him such but to me, he's an entertainer not an emcee. He came out hot and played business and trends well to stay so in the industry but his style never really evolved and most of his Rhymes are incredibly basic. But he played great in the mainstream because he was a "safe" rapper to like who sounded more edgy and "street" without being "scary." Meanwhile a lot of those "scary" cats could and would rap circles around him, but they didn't move as many units. Plus he had mad sex appeal. He was easily the most objectified male in the hip hop industry and that worked on a lot of levels too.

As far as this album goes, it's alright. I'd say his first two or classics his second two are good/decent and after this it starts to plummet fast.

2/5
 
I haven't listened to LL Cool J since college, when my friend Josh - yes, he called himself LL Cool Josh - was obsessed with him and played him incessantly. Really wish I'd stayed in touch with him to get his take on this album today.

My only notes are that Mama Said Knock You Out is a great single, and the MTV unplugged version of it is iconic. Jingling Baby has a great bass line and groove. Everything else is ok but not memorable imo. And why is 6 Minutes of Pleasure only 4:35? 2/5.
 
Lee Newman said:
4/5/23
62e93559b61732d8d0f5e091bdacd3eea5510858

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out



Allmusic Review:
www.allmusic.com

Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J | Album | AllMusic

Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J released in 1990. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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I had to listen to this two weeks ago in the other thread and wasn't looking forward to listening to it again so soon. Same as others, the nostalgia means less than two weeks ago when it had been a long time since I'd heard it. 2/5 now
 
Thread Business question, with the first list post full, I am thinking about management. We are clearly going to run out of space well before 1000, which is fine. I'll at some point move the lists and have a list link post in the first 11.

The real question is what to do with them now. My concern is how to keep a reader from coming into the thread and having to scroll through the whole list before getting to the current record which could certainly stop folks from coming on board now if they wanted to.

There are two thoughts that I have...
  1. move the first list behind the second. Would have to do a lot of shuffling every 50 or so records, but that is fine
  2. somewhere near the top, possibly the very first line of the first post, put the album of the day and link to the post like I do in the list.
I am leaning towards #2, but welcome input from you guys.
 
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list 1
1. 1/20/2023 Artic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (3.16 stars)
2. 1/23/2023 A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (4.44 stars)
3. 1/24/2023 Miriam Makeba - Mariam Makeba (2.81 stars)
4. 1/25/2023 Wire - Pink Flag (3.72 stars)
5. 1/26/2023 Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus (3.53 stars)
6. 1/27/2023 Nick Drake - Pink Moon (4.33 stars)
7. 1/30/2023 The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (4.33 stars)
8. 1/31/2023 Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (3.41 stars)
9. 2/1/2023 Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (2.63 stars)
10. 2/2/2023 Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (3.94 stars)
11. 2/3/2023 Little Richard - Here's Little Richard (3.94 stars)
12. 2/6/2023 Songhoy Blues - Music in Exile (3.14 stars)
13. 2/7/2023 Fiona Apple - Tidal (4.44 stars)
14. 2/8/2023 Leftfield - Leftism (3.29 stars)
15. 2/9/2023 Love - Forever Changes (3.87 stars)
16. 2/10/2023 Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow (3.08 stars)
17. 2/13/2023 Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (4.29 stars)
18. 2/14/2023 Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (3.54 stars)
19. 2/15/2023 Van Halen - 1984 (2.94 stars)
20. 2/16/2023 Michael Jackson - Thriller (3.93 stars)
21. 2/17/2023 Jeru the Damaga - The Sun Rises in the East (3.15 stars)
22. 2/20/23 The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (4.5 Stars)
23. 2/21/23 Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (3.53 Stars)
24. 2/22/23 Ray Price - Night Life (3.53 Stars)
25. 2/23/23 PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (3.69 Stars)
26. 2/24/23 Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (4.13 Stars)
27. 2/27/23 Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (3.31 Stars)
28. 2/28/23 Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn & Party - Devotional Songs (3.31 Stars)
29. 3/1/23 Slint - Spiderland (3.82 Stars)
30. 3/2/23 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers (3.29 Stars)
31. 3/3/23 Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything? (2.55 stars)
32. 3/6/23 Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (4.13 stars)
33. 3/7/23 Sepultura - Arise (2.73 stars)
34. 3/8/23 The Cure - Seventeen Seconds (3.38 stars)
35. 3/9/23 Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul (4.63 stars)
36. 3/10/23 Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka (3.93 stars)
37. 3/13/23 Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (3.31 stars)
38. 3/14/23 Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (2.54 stars)
39. 3/15/23 Circle Jerks - Group Sex (3 Stars)
40. 3/16/23 Garbage - Garbage (3.4 Stars)
41. 3/17/23 Portishead - Dummy (4.35 Stars)
42. 3/20/23 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps (4.42 stars)
43. 3/21/23 The Divine Comedy - Casanova (1.64 stars)
44. 3/22/23 Faith No More - The Real Thing (3.47 stars)
45. 3/23/23 Willie Colon & Ruben Blades - Siembra (3.33 stars)
46. 3/24/23 Jay-Z - The Blueprint (4.27 stars)
47. 3/27/23 Machito - Kenya (2.88 stars)
48. 3/28/23 Arcade Fire - Funeral (3.92 stars)
49. 3/29/23 The Beatles - Rubber Soul (4.47 stars)
50. 3/30/23 Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll (2.67 stars)
51. 3/31/23 Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark (4.3 stars)
52. 4/3/23 The Chemical Brothers - Dig You Own Hole (3.31 stars)
 
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