In 1987, LL Cool J unleashed his syrupy lurve ballad ‘I Need Love’. The track, that featured on his second album Bigger and Deffer, stood out like a sore thumb against the hard-boiled hip hop landscape dominated by acts like N.W.A.
The lovelorn, sentimental track saw LL Cool J embrace sincerity, and plead for the love of a girl as “sweet as a dove.” This brand of unadulterated sincerity was a bold move in the testosterone-fueled era, and was, naturally, met with backlash.
Nevertheless, the track was a roaring success. ‘I Need Love’ was arguably LL Cool J’s first big hit, peaking at #14 in the US and reaching the top 10 in five European countries. While his hip hop contemporaries may have rejected him, the track projected him to heartthrob status. Playgirl Magazine even named him one of the ten sexiest men at the time.
In an interview with Complex, LL Cool J delved into the track, and the influence it has had on modern hip hop.
“Back then, it was really conservative and if the energy wasn’t testosterone, like I’m punching you in your face, kicking the door down, you don’t get a lot of credit,” he shared.
“In hip hop, you only get brownie points for creativity within certain parameters… When you try to go outside of that box, if it’s anything that’s not considered 1000% street, [you get] no credit.”
Elsewhere in the interview, LL expressed that he was “glad that it created a genre”, before dropping the names of rappers he believes his track inspired.
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“I’m glad that now, years later, a Fabolous can go out and do his thing and still be very well-respected as a lyricist. A Jadakiss can do his love song and still be well-respected as a lyricist… I’m glad I was able to help it.”
When asked about his comparisons to rap’s favourite soft boy Drake, LL said: “We’re very different artists because I have a lot of hard records and I’m very diverse,” he continued. “But in that aspect of my career, it paved the way for guys like that… who I’m happy for. I like a lot of his music too.”
Check out ‘I Need Love’ by LL Cool J:
