This is America right here. LL was an alternative to Van Halen in their time. He is one of the voices that we all heard from a boom box while someone was washing a car in their driveway and kids were jumping ramps on their BMX bikes. 80s were fucking sweet. Kids have no idea how much fun they could be having right now but they just don't for some reason.
I remember when this song came out. I grabbed my pencil and paper and boom box and did the "PLAY, PAUSE, write down lyrics, REWIND and PLAY" technique. I memorized this whole song and still know it until this day. #memories
Moe Dee, KRS and Rakim are the ones who really put the oomph into my pen and freestyles... but LL is the one who made me want to rap in the first place. This was the first rap song I ever memorized
It was in the street. Selling your cassette tape on the corner, get it played at a club, go to the radio station and try to get the DJ to play it. Back then DJs on the radio had autonomy over their playlist. Different DJs had different shows that they programmed. Radio DJs wanted to find the freshest artists to break their career, help the artist, and grow the DJ's fanbase and street cred.
Love your old school journey, I'm 50, grew up in da hood....Your reactions are so great....I used to breakdance, so I have a recommendation......JAM ON IT, that was one of the first in Hip Hop
yes def! another one was Tour de france. I forget the name of the band but I saw friends breakin to in in 84. That was my first time really seeing breakdancing
Back in the day, you HAD to go to a studio and it was expensive. That's how a lot of artists got robbed. They wanted a record deal so bad because they couldn't figure out another way to even get their music out there. Over time we figured out how to make our own studios and then the internet came along. But to hear LL Cool J way down here in Texas... he had to have a record deal with a major distributor or something. Radio shows had a lot of power. I had a cousin who went to NYC and brought back stuff that no one around me had ever heard. Stuff recorded right off the NYC radio. It was like hearing music from another planet.
Lol@ major label and distributuin deal......there was no major label pushing rap back then. Def Jam was started with LL. Rap music was only played on the radio on Sunday nights.
As a white kid from the middle of the country, I heard this the first time and lost it. Made me spend a small fortune on my stereo to get that bass. LL is awesome.
6:50 This album was recorded in a Studio since Rap was becoming more Main Stream by the time this album was released. However, his first album was recorded in the Rick Rubin's (Producer) closet of his College Dorm Room at NYU.
HA!!! We would record in my friends basement with his DMX equipment, reel to reel recorder and a set of cheap a$$ flimsy mics....lol.... those were the days. WOW, life was so much more simple back then.
To tell you the truth back in the day radio shack was the place to get all your recording stuff you get two technics turn tables a mixer a reel to reel and you go to Tower records or your local record store and buy a bunch of blank cassettes and sell your raps to the folks that you know also you get your name out there by rapping at high school dance or a house or block party and if you had dope lyrics you'd get famous by word of mouth and one more thing you'd had to be original facts 💯💯😉😉
I was born in 1972, was there in the beginning of all this great music,i subbed to ya brotha cuz i like like how you roll. Im just a 52 yr old white dude who absolutely loves old hip hop
70. Born during Nixon. A year older than Tupac. Watched the star wars holiday special live. Owned a pair of acid washed bugle boys and reebok high-tops. If you were conceived at Woodstock, you're my age.
I loved your reaction. This song is when I first fell in love with hip hop. Because where I grew up we only had MTV not BET. No music from black people was played on the radio. But my dad’s side of the family lived in a more diverse area with culture. I visited them one summer and sitting on my grandma’s floor watching a big box tv, I saw LL Cool J’s I’m Bad for the first time. It was like magic to me, I was 12 years old. I’m so glad you can feel how great that song was and still is. Real Hip hop to me!
Lol. In the 80's a lot of music from black musicians was played on the radio. Actually, this song and a lot of LL's songs were played on the radio. It was a great era for black artists!
80s marketing of music took longer. You would read about it in magazines at book stores, you would go to club concerts, then MTV came out and the music videos became mainstream. But the most effective advertisement was word of mouth, and being able to trust someone's musical tastes. Most bands would have to open for famous groups before they would get recognition that they existed. Midnight radio shows was another way to market music.
Yeah lots of smaller venues survived via a thriving music scene with live bands playing various circuits. It happens now but it was really big in the 80s and 90s. I think internet has really damaged lots of the old live socializing stuff. It was how you used to find girls etc as well. Also the time frame was weeks to months rather than days to weeks like now. I.e a band could release a record or tape and they'd have a much longer window of opportunity for advertising than these days. Magazines were weekly/monthly etc so that cycle ment that people would be thinking/talking about that new band or that new album for at least that long.
Yo MTV raps with Fab 5 Freddy was the only time this got played on MTV. And shout out to all the college radio stations that played this because it was rare for rap to get airplay on comercial radio.
@@jamessomers8808just looking at any part of that car only a rookie ain't know that's a Jag son. You prob 30 or younger. If older you should be ashamed of yo self
LL is a legend in the game. As a teenager, it was special to see him in concert in the 1980s. He would come out on the roof of the arena in a big radio, which was a prop. He is still making music today and just dropped a new album. Made his debut in Krush Groove as a teenager.
Actually Boxer Mohammad ALI is the original G.O.A.T. Coining the phrase Greatest.of.all.Time. He never said G.O.A.T, NO one said Goat until they began referring to Michael Jordan as 'The G.o.a.t" LL Referred to himself as both Goat and Greatest of all time, taking the phrase and meaning from Muhammad Ali.
@@masai711 Yes, the He's the DJ I'm the Rapper album was great. Played it a lot in high school. Rakim, KRS-One, BDK and Kool Moe Dee were just on another level lyrically for me. Even Slick Rick, Public Enemy, those are the 80s artist I keep going back too over and over.
That car was an XJ6… one of the baddest!! There was also an XJS. One time, back in ‘90s I believe, I was in a cab on 129th and Amsterdam, and LL pulled up next to us in a black Camaro with a nice looking young lady with him. Back in the day, we used to record on 1/4”, 1/2”, 1” or 2” reels. We’d go to one of the studios here in the city before it became easy, and less expensive, to record at home. I can be in one state, record something, send to friend in another country thru the internet, have him or her record something on it, and have it back when they finished. Back then, you couldn’t do that… Great post!!
1989 - I was 19... just moved into 3 story apt on 2nd level. Somebody was cranking music loud in my area. I had $1,500 Sanyo entertainment system (made pmts on it for 2 years!)... one of 1st systems with CD player. We spent ALL of our extra $ on music. I was making about $6/hr then.... paid $1,100 for my car... lol... I put this CD in, cranked Bass to Max & started this song.... 30 seconds later I pause it & other person's music had stopped. This song has some SERIOUS Bass! Good times... good memories.
Young Man....I subscribed to your page because I was born in 1975....that means I was 9 in 1984....I remember when all of Def Jam dropped. You asked a lot of questions about the type of technology that was used in the 80z to make the music....everything was from scratch and not computer generated...no frooti loops...no pro tools....you had a real DJ...equalizers...turntables...mics....the artist had promoters and pushed their own tapes...then CDz later....Real Hip-Hop is always the best.
I remember people selling records out of the back of their cars to use for scratching. The labels were scratched off. This is where Run DMC started for Walk this Way. The very beginning of rap. It was an amazing time for music.
Yo MTV raps was the main thing that brought hip hop to the masses, but in the streets, it was mixtapes and word of mouth. radio stations werent playing alot of hip hop still in the late 80's. very few hip hop songs got played on the radio, only the "lighter, happier" tracks like Push It, Turn This Mutha Out, got airplay, and hip hop heads deemed those songs on radio as "soft" at the time. hip hop didnt really start to get played on radio more often til the early 90's (The Chronic by Dre had alot to do w it also).
House parties and in the streets battling each other was the way to get their music heard and handing out cassette tapes they made with a popular dj from the hood
Mix tapes were life. And touring. Lots of touring.small clubs. 20 people night until you get seen..lots of handbills, college radio, more touring. Record signings.. remember those anyone? Did I mention touring? Shout out to #TexasTapesNRecords #TTNR for the raddest record signings ever.
In the 80's, getting your video on MTV was the gold standard. In the late 80's there was a show called Yo MTV Raps, that's where all the main stream music was discovered. The radio was also big in promoting music, there were (and still are) stations that played various kinds of music, pop, rock, hip hop and rap, and r&b. My ideal station would have mixed all of that together, which is why I'm glad I'm alive now.
One of LL Cool Js most underrated songs is Droppin Em from the Walking with a Panther album. Others were more popular, like Going Back To Cali but the bars in Droppin Em are fire.
I used to be in the music industry at the time. The way it was done. You had to do what is called “shopping”, meaning you made a demo tape and let a panel of executives listen to your demo. You had to do so with several record labels. This is how talent was scouted.
LL, Beasties, Run DMC all had huge MTV air play back then. That's how they all blew up. I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in NY all three of them were known before they blew up on MTV, because thats where they are from.
This song singlehandedly got me into hip hop and it makes me feel old lol. Glad you checked this out...true classic hip hop. Also mtv played a hig part in getting hip hop out. Michael jackson was the reason they started playing black music..they refused at first. Mj refused to release the thriller video on mtv unless they started allowing black artists to have their music played. LL was the first rapper to dominate mtv..remeber that cable and radio were really just taling off so thats the avenue you jad to take. Most times guys would find a dj back in those days and record in the dj's basement. They actually had alot of the things we still use today to record. Just more simplified.
My generation (X) was when MTV showed videos..radio stations got request calls..magazines were popular with cd premier date...headed to Spencers at the mall to buy the cd...
Back then, artists had to depend on the record label for the majority of their promotions. They could get tv show appearances, magazine articles, live shows, and interviews, but the label had to pay a lot of expenses for promoting an individual artist nationwide/worldwide.
I think that's why the record companies hated the internet. It took out the necessity for a middle man for new artists. I found a lot of indie stuff on LimeWire, etc. back in the early internet days.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s record labels had street teams, album signings at record stores, cassettes sold out of your trunk, radio stations, touring city to city, and ultimately MTV through music videos started giving us visuals prior to the internet 🛜
Marley Marl was helping a lot of ppl @ that time, too. Them two hookin' up, (Marley & LL) and coming up w/ 'Mama Said Knock You Out' 😂 was pure magic. Talking 'bout chemistry.
@@bamnjphoto No Ad-Rock discovered him by listening to demo tapes in Rick Rubins Dorm. He also made the beat for his first single I Need a Beat. "Shout out to Ad Rock, the man who gave me my break," LL Cool J says at one point, nodding along to his verse, before remembering MCA, who passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer. Over the years LL has spoken about Ad Rock and his role in LL becoming the first artist signed to Def Jam. Read it yourself google "LL Cool J Remembers How Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys Gave Him His Break" Don't be so quick to comment when you don't know.
@@bamnjphoto The article continues. "Ad Rock was the one who gave my demo to [Def Jam Co-founder] Rick Rubin," LL said in a 2020 interview with talk show host Jimmy Fallon. "That's how I got my break. Ad Rock of The Beastie Boys used to hang out with Rick in his dorm room every day, and I sent a tape there - Rick would just throw 'em in the corner in a box with a bunch of other tapes Ad would go through the box when he had nothing to do, he was playing hooky from school. He listened to my tape, he liked it and told Rick to listen to it." He then talked about Ad Rock's role in his early music. "Ad rock actually made the beat on my first song 'I Need A Beat'," LL recalled. "Rick Produced it, but Ad Rock programmed the drum machine." LL went on to say that before Ad Rock's version that he himself programmed the beat on a Korg drum machine. "It was similar, but Adam's was definitely better."
This song came out the same night as my melody and they played them back to back on wbls and kiss fm both red alert and marley marl played them back to back. i was in harlem and every car adn box was playing it at te same time.
LL was and still is that Ninja as a kid I swagger jacked and made me begin to workout as a teenager and adult and get into boxing. Check out that entire BAD album it's a true classic
love this...one of my favorite lines "when i retire i'll be worshiped like an old battleship"...keep doing the old school ones (like the Beastie Boys)...subbed!
It was all about the Radio, mostly for publicizing. Like L.L Kool Js jam. Called Radio.!Sending demos to producers. Giving away tapes at events. It spread.
You needed a good DJ, an sp1200, and a lyricist willing to put out his or her blood sweat and tears to make it big back in the day .. hip hop could not be contained, it blew up no matter how much the radio stations tried to suppress it.. 💯💯💯
Word of mouth! Dollar parties, clubs, performing on the block while chilling and now a crowd starts-now it’s something happening there every week. Selling cassette tapes. U had to hit the street. Everybody was outside so it was the way of life.
My young sir Back in the 80's we had to stay up late to hear hip hop WBMX in Chicago for one All the rap shows on the radio were on late on the weekends
80's gear, there were 4 track cassette machines and 8 track reel to reel, if you had $$ they had 24 track reeel to reel. The boards back then were great, Neve, Sphere. Late 80s saw the rise of DAT machines, some used VHS tape. The 80s saw the rise of PC tools like Pro-Tools and pro-level audio cards. Back then you had to spend the $$ to get a strong enough computer to do any justice. By this time LL was able to pay for pro-studio. Saw him live way back when and "high energy" would short sell it, master showman, had the crowd jumping. I used to help bands make demos, long time ago, and I worked with just about every type of musician. Usually using the DIY stuff that rappers, rock groups, country artists, they all used the same stuff pretty much to record.
The deejay made the record popular. That happened w disco songs too. You gotta research the battle between L.L. Cool J and Kool Moe Dee, they battled from 1987- 1992. Bad stands for bigger and deffer. Kool moe dee said "im bigger and better forget about deffer" on how ya like me now. Also on kool moe dee s album cover he s rolling over a kangol w his jeep. That was L.L. 's hat
you are asking great questions about the equipment and whole distribution process. That curiosity will take you far and give you insights that others are not privileged to.
1. The car was a Jaguar 2. We recorded music on Cassette tapes, 4 tracks. And reel to reels. Then take them and re record them a hundred times and sell them at the mall And downtown or in the hood or in the trunks of cars. Every house had at least o e turntable and a tape deck 4. The NYC blackout of 77… everybody had a dj setup😅😅😅
Back in the day we used to go out and get together, we might here something coming from someone's boom box or in a record store. It's wild what happens when people get together in person and not online. Word of mouth was everything. I remember in elementary school I got licensed to Ill and the adventures of slick rick and we would play them on my walkman at recess, passing the headphones around. I know at least 4 of my friends went out and got the tapes after that. That's how it happened. As a little white kid, I loved rap the minute I heard it and my dad would take me to the record store every other week or so and let me get a tape. I'm as old school as they come. Thank God my dad never cared what I got or I never would've gotten too short or nwa. Nwa wasn't really for me though. I lovef LL, rakim, run DMC beastie boys etc....gangsta never was for me till doggy style came out. Anyway I could go all day on how great old school is. Love that young kids are learning about it. Keep up the good work.
This was the first rap album I had my mom buy me when I was in 3rd or 4th grade 35 years ago. I thought it was the dopest shit I ever heard. I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!✌You gotta hear some old Hieroglyphics or Living Legends from the 90's, that shit is fire.
We had DJs like Kool DJ RED Alert who was able to choose what he played. Friday and Saturday night master mixes on 98.7 and 107.5 was the shit. We also We big into music videos. When this video dropped everyone was talking about next day in school
This gentleman has so many good songs this is one of my favorites some other good songs are Mama Said knock you out I'm going back to Cali deepest bluest I need love and I need a beat and I need my radio and around the way girl and if you're like LL it may also suggest iced tea song called reckless I'm your pusher I can't remember some of his other good ones
We used to have Video shows and record stores.... Radio was the promotion until Stretch and Bobbito and a few others had late night radio shows.. Thats how it was promoted... Plus bills posted on boards
Many either used basic cassette recorders, or DIY studios in their basements. They recorded their tracks on cassette tapes (Mix Tapes), gave them out to anyone who would take one, and submitted them to any radio stations that would except them. Back then they truly had to hustle, if they wanted to be heard.
We used to go to house parties or hops (parties at a hall or club) and the dj's would always have the latest records. There was also some homeboy that would turn up with records we never heard before or sometimes we would just go to the record store and buy a new record we never heard before.
them hard material dark blue Levis was big where im from, we used to use a half a can of starch when irioning the creases in em, they could stand up by themselves they were so stiff😅, we put creases in everything, had to have the sharpest crease too😂
You are killing it family!! Being an old school DJ I'm loving you learning the culture of my time. I congratulated you on your 1000th and I definitely congratulate you on 10k!! Well deserved..
One of the best written rap songs ever
LL Cool J is hard as Hell but he can't live without his radio.
He also "Rocked The Bells" before "Mama Said Knock You Out".
@@NinetyFiveBravo1775 And then he swung an episode in the back seat of his jeep.
@@steviegenoski9977 grew up listening to LL. He left a stain on the brain with a small role in Krushgroove when he did "Can't Live Without My Radio"
@@NinetyFiveBravo1775 Yep, I'm old too. lol
It's funny, these kids think of Snoop and Dre when you say old school.
Fah real word. Can't live without his BOOM BOX or Kangol or cap. 😂
This is America right here. LL was an alternative to Van Halen in their time. He is one of the voices that we all heard from a boom box while someone was washing a car in their driveway and kids were jumping ramps on their BMX bikes. 80s were fucking sweet. Kids have no idea how much fun they could be having right now but they just don't for some reason.
To blow up in the 80s and 90s you needed this thing called talent
I remember when this song came out. I grabbed my pencil and paper and boom box and did the "PLAY, PAUSE, write down lyrics, REWIND and PLAY" technique. I memorized this whole song and still know it until this day. #memories
That was a whole task we all did back then 😅
right? The good ole cassette tape, the newer gen will never know.....
@@Jayizzo007 if you were hardcore, you would call the radio station and wait for your request, lol
@@feverish6708 lol would call with a fake birthday request just so they would for sure get the song and shout out!!
Moe Dee, KRS and Rakim are the ones who really put the oomph into my pen and freestyles... but LL is the one who made me want to rap in the first place. This was the first rap song I ever memorized
It was in the street. Selling your cassette tape on the corner, get it played at a club, go to the radio station and try to get the DJ to play it. Back then DJs on the radio had autonomy over their playlist. Different DJs had different shows that they programmed. Radio DJs wanted to find the freshest artists to break their career, help the artist, and grow the DJ's fanbase and street cred.
Right !!!! It wasn’t no just put it on the internet and get hella likes .
Maybe we need a reaction to De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) to get this one over to bro
Yeah that’s how I got Wu Tang’s first tape! Just a copy of a copy!
Label A&R's, Street Teams, and local DJ's mix tapes.
This is your answer
Love your old school journey, I'm 50, grew up in da hood....Your reactions are so great....I used to breakdance, so I have a recommendation......JAM ON IT, that was one of the first in Hip Hop
yes def! another one was Tour de france. I forget the name of the band but I saw friends breakin to in in 84. That was my first time really seeing breakdancing
2024 VISION 👍👍👍 BIG FACTS...YOU REMEMER THE WINDMILL 🤔
Love that one. I hear it imma dance period! Lol
"Wiki, Wiki, Wiki, Wiki...Shut up"
USED TO ROCK IN MY BASEMENT, NOW I'M NUMBER #1 ⚡⚡⚡💥💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I like this guy he seems open,willing to listen and learn. So im throwing my support for to get 50k and so on❤🎉
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two 🔥 🔥🔥
lol, grew up in Miami, and that was the shit, know every word!
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
na
@@feverish6708that song ain't never make you forget every word...even the beats that come wit it ya feel me?
I concur let’s go!!!! joy and pain too while we’re at it
"goin back to cali" next!!!!!!!! LL was my MAN!
I’d like to see him do Mama Said Knock You Out!
Big ole butt
Upvote. Came to day this as well.
These LL Cool J Jams were big back then.
1. I need love
2. Boomin system
4. Back seat of my jeep
5. Mama said knock you out
6. Doin' it
@@rgw1380rw The Doo Wop Song!!
Back in the day, you HAD to go to a studio and it was expensive. That's how a lot of artists got robbed. They wanted a record deal so bad because they couldn't figure out another way to even get their music out there. Over time we figured out how to make our own studios and then the internet came along. But to hear LL Cool J way down here in Texas... he had to have a record deal with a major distributor or something. Radio shows had a lot of power. I had a cousin who went to NYC and brought back stuff that no one around me had ever heard. Stuff recorded right off the NYC radio. It was like hearing music from another planet.
Lol@ major label and distributuin deal......there was no major label pushing rap back then. Def Jam was started with LL. Rap music was only played on the radio on Sunday nights.
As a white kid from the middle of the country, I heard this the first time and lost it. Made me spend a small fortune on my stereo to get that bass. LL is awesome.
You need to peep "It's Funky Enough" by The D.O.C... He was in the NWA camp.
Yes The D.O.C. was solid!
THAT song still knocks! 🔥🔥🔥
Or The Formula
D.O.C. Was one of the best.
The "Musclebound Man and put his face in the sand," is a reference to Charles Atlas comic book ads that ran from the 1920s to the 1980s
6:50 This album was recorded in a Studio since Rap was becoming more Main Stream by the time this album was released. However, his first album was recorded in the Rick Rubin's (Producer) closet of his College Dorm Room at NYU.
HA!!! We would record in my friends basement with his DMX equipment, reel to reel recorder and a set of cheap a$$ flimsy mics....lol.... those were the days. WOW, life was so much more simple back then.
To tell you the truth back in the day radio shack was the place to get all your recording stuff you get two technics turn tables a mixer a reel to reel and you go to Tower records or your local record store and buy a bunch of blank cassettes and sell your raps to the folks that you know also you get your name out there by rapping at high school dance or a house or block party and if you had dope lyrics you'd get famous by word of mouth and one more thing you'd had to be original facts 💯💯😉😉
LL Cool J been Bad since his early years with Rick Rubin On Def Jam Records back In 85''!🎶🔥🔥🔥😎
I was born in 1972, was there in the beginning of all this great music,i subbed to ya brotha cuz i like like how you roll. Im just a 52 yr old white dude who absolutely loves old hip hop
Right there with you, man. Born in ‘74.
Hey I was born in 72 too
'71 here. Us white suburban kids couldn't get enough of hip hop!
70. Born during Nixon. A year older than Tupac. Watched the star wars holiday special live. Owned a pair of acid washed bugle boys and reebok high-tops. If you were conceived at Woodstock, you're my age.
@@InverseofAbstersive haha Bugle Boys. I forgot about that brand! 😝
I loved your reaction. This song is when I first fell in love with hip hop. Because where I grew up we only had MTV not BET. No music from black people was played on the radio. But my dad’s side of the family lived in a more diverse area with culture. I visited them one summer and sitting on my grandma’s floor watching a big box tv, I saw LL Cool J’s I’m
Bad for the first time. It was like magic to me, I was 12 years old. I’m so glad you can feel how great that song was and still is. Real
Hip hop to me!
Lol. In the 80's a lot of music from black musicians was played on the radio. Actually, this song and a lot of LL's songs were played on the radio. It was a great era for black artists!
Keep these old school classics coming
80s marketing of music took longer. You would read about it in magazines at book stores, you would go to club concerts, then MTV came out and the music videos became mainstream. But the most effective advertisement was word of mouth, and being able to trust someone's musical tastes. Most bands would have to open for famous groups before they would get recognition that they existed. Midnight radio shows was another way to market music.
Yeah lots of smaller venues survived via a thriving music scene with live bands playing various circuits. It happens now but it was really big in the 80s and 90s. I think internet has really damaged lots of the old live socializing stuff. It was how you used to find girls etc as well.
Also the time frame was weeks to months rather than days to weeks like now. I.e a band could release a record or tape and they'd have a much longer window of opportunity for advertising than these days. Magazines were weekly/monthly etc so that cycle ment that people would be thinking/talking about that new band or that new album for at least that long.
that and the streets a lot of artist, give and sold their tapes to local DJs, house parties and ppl just recording from the radio
Yo MTV raps with Fab 5 Freddy was the only time this got played on MTV. And shout out to all the college radio stations that played this because it was rare for rap to get airplay on comercial radio.
@@anthonycuervo4754 Night Flight is where I first saw Fab 5 Freddy.
MTV was our window to the new and freshest hits!
We recorded our music off the radio plays and made our own playlist on tape!
The car (Whip) in the video is a Jaguar XJS V12.
yup knew it was a jag, poor company just fkd themselves
I couldn’t get a good look at it, but I did think it was a jag. Thank you.
Same car hes standing on on the bigger and deffer album right?
@@jamessomers8808just looking at any part of that car only a rookie ain't know that's a Jag son. You prob 30 or younger. If older you should be ashamed of yo self
Nice I couldn’t even tell from that angle
Special Ed
LL is a legend in the game. As a teenager, it was special to see him in concert in the 1980s. He would come out on the roof of the arena in a big radio, which was a prop. He is still making music today and just dropped a new album. Made his debut in Krush Groove as a teenager.
My tongue’s a chisel in this composition’s sculpture!
LL had St. Louis rockin with this one! From the babies to the old folks...🍻
Don’t forget L.L. on the mobile phone was big baller stuff.
remember LLCOOLJ is the reason why people use the term G.O.A.T he coined the GOAT as the greatest of all time he is known as the GOAT
Actually Boxer Mohammad ALI is the original G.O.A.T. Coining the phrase Greatest.of.all.Time. He never said G.O.A.T, NO one said Goat until they began referring to Michael Jordan as 'The G.o.a.t" LL Referred to himself as both Goat and Greatest of all time, taking the phrase and meaning from Muhammad Ali.
LL also wrote for RUN DMC.
1987, an important year in rap. NYC, cassettes on corners.
This was a whole Marvel movie in 1 video!!!!!! LL jumping around like Spiderman and Earl is spinning that wax!
Since you've made it here...
Big Daddy Kane
"Raw"
100% anything from Kane, add in some Kool Moe Dee - I go to work.
@treyschick264 there's also
Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
"Brand New Funk"
....everybody knows "Summertime"...but..
@@masai711 Yes, the He's the DJ I'm the Rapper album was great. Played it a lot in high school. Rakim, KRS-One, BDK and Kool Moe Dee were just on another level lyrically for me. Even Slick Rick, Public Enemy, those are the 80s artist I keep going back too over and over.
@@masai711 Most definitely. Or some of 'em Marley Marl & The Juice Crew -joints. Great lyricists there; Kane, G. Rap, Shan, Craig G... 🤔
Mortal Combat and Ain't No Half Steppin
REAL MEN TALK LOUD AND CLEAR! LIL BRO!!!!
That car was an XJ6… one of the baddest!! There was also an XJS. One time, back in ‘90s I believe, I was in a cab on 129th and Amsterdam, and LL pulled up next to us in a black Camaro with a nice looking young lady with him. Back in the day, we used to record on 1/4”, 1/2”, 1” or 2” reels. We’d go to one of the studios here in the city before it became easy, and less expensive, to record at home. I can be in one state, record something, send to friend in another country thru the internet, have him or her record something on it, and have it back when they finished. Back then, you couldn’t do that… Great post!!
1989 - I was 19... just moved into 3 story apt on 2nd level. Somebody was cranking music loud in my area. I had $1,500 Sanyo entertainment system (made pmts on it for 2 years!)... one of 1st systems with CD player. We spent ALL of our extra $ on music. I was making about $6/hr then.... paid $1,100 for my car... lol... I put this CD in, cranked Bass to Max & started this song.... 30 seconds later I pause it & other person's music had stopped. This song has some SERIOUS Bass! Good times... good memories.
Make hiphop great again 🫡
It's about time for a revival. Look at how many young men are discovering the classics and are totally amazed!
@@familyheissinger5833 Agreed.
Young Man....I subscribed to your page because I was born in 1975....that means I was 9 in 1984....I remember when all of Def Jam dropped. You asked a lot of questions about the type of technology that was used in the 80z to make the music....everything was from scratch and not computer generated...no frooti loops...no pro tools....you had a real DJ...equalizers...turntables...mics....the artist had promoters and pushed their own tapes...then CDz later....Real Hip-Hop is always the best.
Another album I know front to back, word for word. At 14 I must not have had much more to do than learn lyrics.
I remember people selling records out of the back of their cars to use for scratching. The labels were scratched off. This is where Run DMC started for Walk this Way. The very beginning of rap. It was an amazing time for music.
Yo MTV raps was the main thing that brought hip hop to the masses, but in the streets, it was mixtapes and word of mouth. radio stations werent playing alot of hip hop still in the late 80's. very few hip hop songs got played on the radio, only the "lighter, happier" tracks like Push It, Turn This Mutha Out, got airplay, and hip hop heads deemed those songs on radio as "soft" at the time. hip hop didnt really start to get played on radio more often til the early 90's (The Chronic by Dre had alot to do w it also).
House parties and in the streets battling each other was the way to get their music heard and handing out cassette tapes they made with a popular dj from the hood
Mix tapes were life.
And touring. Lots of touring.small clubs. 20 people night until you get seen..lots of handbills, college radio, more touring. Record signings.. remember those anyone? Did I mention touring?
Shout out to #TexasTapesNRecords
#TTNR for the raddest record signings ever.
I met in around 2001 for just a minute. Super nice guy 👍. He's a big dude
In the 80's, getting your video on MTV was the gold standard. In the late 80's there was a show called Yo MTV Raps, that's where all the main stream music was discovered. The radio was also big in promoting music, there were (and still are) stations that played various kinds of music, pop, rock, hip hop and rap, and r&b. My ideal station would have mixed all of that together, which is why I'm glad I'm alive now.
KOOL G RAP
- road to the riches
Oh Hell Yeah Hes Going Love it Too
And he was still a teenager when this came out!!!...19 years old!!! Tha GOAT FR!!!!
This album was the soundtrack of my senior year of high school❤
Speak That Truth Same Here
One of LL Cool Js most underrated songs is Droppin Em from the Walking with a Panther album. Others were more popular, like Going Back To Cali but the bars in Droppin Em are fire.
YO, MTV RAPS. That’s where you found Rap , and all kinds of music on MTV back then .
I used to be in the music industry at the time. The way it was done. You had to do what is called “shopping”, meaning you made a demo tape and let a panel of executives listen to your demo. You had to do so with several record labels. This is how talent was scouted.
Pullin up in a Jaguar
LL, Beasties, Run DMC all had huge MTV air play back then. That's how they all blew up. I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in NY all three of them were known before they blew up on MTV, because thats where they are from.
Rakim….Follow The Leader….Lyrics Of Fury🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
what about a bit of Marley Marl - He Cuts So Fresh (Uptown Is Kickin' It Mix)
Eric B. & Rakim - Juice (Know The Ledge) 🤔
You can never go wrong with some classic LL cool J
I'm liking your reactions thus far keep going...
This song singlehandedly got me into hip hop and it makes me feel old lol. Glad you checked this out...true classic hip hop. Also mtv played a hig part in getting hip hop out. Michael jackson was the reason they started playing black music..they refused at first. Mj refused to release the thriller video on mtv unless they started allowing black artists to have their music played. LL was the first rapper to dominate mtv..remeber that cable and radio were really just taling off so thats the avenue you jad to take. Most times guys would find a dj back in those days and record in the dj's basement. They actually had alot of the things we still use today to record. Just more simplified.
I like how you've been reacting to these Def Jam records artists recently .
My generation (X) was when MTV showed videos..radio stations got request calls..magazines were popular with cd premier date...headed to Spencers at the mall to buy the cd...
Public Enemy "Brothers gonna work it out" needs to be on your list
Three weeks later and you doubled that! Some of your reactions are just priceless. 😄
Back then, artists had to depend on the record label for the majority of their promotions. They could get tv show appearances, magazine articles, live shows, and interviews, but the label had to pay a lot of expenses for promoting an individual artist nationwide/worldwide.
I think that's why the record companies hated the internet. It took out the necessity for a middle man for new artists. I found a lot of indie stuff on LimeWire, etc. back in the early internet days.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s record labels had street teams, album signings at record stores, cassettes sold out of your trunk, radio stations, touring city to city, and ultimately MTV through music videos started giving us visuals prior to the internet 🛜
Don't forget that the Beastie Boys discovered and helped LL get to where he is today!
Marley Marl was helping a lot of ppl @ that time, too. Them two hookin' up, (Marley & LL) and coming up w/ 'Mama Said Knock You Out' 😂 was pure magic. Talking 'bout chemistry.
Beastie didn't discover him, he knew Russel Simmons because he grew up in Queens. He was the first artist to put out a record on Def Jam
Yep. Song was called I need a beat
@@bamnjphoto No Ad-Rock discovered him by listening to demo tapes in Rick Rubins Dorm. He also made the beat for his first single I Need a Beat. "Shout out to Ad Rock, the man who gave me my break," LL Cool J says at one point, nodding along to his verse, before remembering MCA, who passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer. Over the years LL has spoken about Ad Rock and his role in LL becoming the first artist signed to Def Jam. Read it yourself google "LL Cool J Remembers How Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys Gave Him His Break" Don't be so quick to comment when you don't know.
@@bamnjphoto The article continues. "Ad Rock was the one who gave my demo to [Def Jam Co-founder] Rick Rubin," LL said in a 2020 interview with talk show host Jimmy Fallon. "That's how I got my break. Ad Rock of The Beastie Boys used to hang out with Rick in his dorm room every day, and I sent a tape there - Rick would just throw 'em in the corner in a box with a bunch of other tapes Ad would go through the box when he had nothing to do, he was playing hooky from school. He listened to my tape, he liked it and told Rick to listen to it."
He then talked about Ad Rock's role in his early music. "Ad rock actually made the beat on my first song 'I Need A Beat'," LL recalled. "Rick Produced it, but Ad Rock programmed the drum machine."
LL went on to say that before Ad Rock's version that he himself programmed the beat on a Korg drum machine. "It was similar, but Adam's was definitely better."
This song came out the same night as my melody and they played them back to back on wbls and kiss fm both red alert and marley marl played them back to back.
i was in harlem and every car adn box was playing it at te same time.
4:50 that’s a Jaguar
Ll cool j im bad is my favorite ll cool j rap songs/videos ever.ll cool j is from my borough in queens new york.word up son
Ad-Rock found him 👍
Blow Up = Radio, Video, and we bought ALBUMS on WAX!!!
The underground clubs. Mix tapes. WOM baby!!
This DJ was the first DJ scratch that sound like music made me start liking When they scratch
Radio, word of mouth, concerts, albums, cassette tapes and music videos... That's how they blew up back then!!!
LL was and still is that Ninja as a kid I swagger jacked and made me begin to workout as a teenager and adult and get into boxing. Check out that entire BAD album it's a true classic
love this...one of my favorite lines "when i retire i'll be worshiped like an old battleship"...keep doing the old school ones (like the Beastie Boys)...subbed!
That's a cold line, for real. 💯 LL w/ some maritime flexing. 😂
It was all about the Radio, mostly for publicizing. Like L.L Kool Js jam. Called Radio.!Sending demos to producers. Giving away tapes at events. It spread.
You needed a good DJ, an sp1200, and a lyricist willing to put out his or her blood sweat and tears to make it big back in the day .. hip hop could not be contained, it blew up no matter how much the radio stations tried to suppress it.. 💯💯💯
Word of mouth! Dollar parties, clubs, performing on the block while chilling and now a crowd starts-now it’s something happening there every week. Selling cassette tapes. U had to hit the street. Everybody was outside so it was the way of life.
My young sir
Back in the 80's we had to stay up late to hear hip hop
WBMX in Chicago for one
All the rap shows on the radio were on late on the weekends
Also try
I got it made by special ed
We just need you to stay genuine.🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
One of my all time favorites
This jam is a cornerstone in my old school playlist, I grew up on this, Ice Tea, the Beasties, Moe Dee, you name it.
Great video reaction. You're right about understanding every word.
80's gear, there were 4 track cassette machines and 8 track reel to reel, if you had $$ they had 24 track reeel to reel. The boards back then were great, Neve, Sphere. Late 80s saw the rise of DAT machines, some used VHS tape. The 80s saw the rise of PC tools like Pro-Tools and pro-level audio cards. Back then you had to spend the $$ to get a strong enough computer to do any justice. By this time LL was able to pay for pro-studio. Saw him live way back when and "high energy" would short sell it, master showman, had the crowd jumping. I used to help bands make demos, long time ago, and I worked with just about every type of musician. Usually using the DIY stuff that rappers, rock groups, country artists, they all used the same stuff pretty much to record.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce over You. A must hear. Love the channel bro, I will definitely be the one to send good ones
The deejay made the record popular. That happened w disco songs too. You gotta research the battle between L.L. Cool J and Kool Moe Dee, they battled from 1987- 1992. Bad stands for bigger and deffer. Kool moe dee said "im bigger and better forget about deffer" on how ya like me now. Also on kool moe dee s album cover he s rolling over a kangol w his jeep. That was L.L. 's hat
Mate this song is sick. The vocal is so tight
you are asking great questions about the equipment and whole distribution process. That curiosity will take you far and give you insights that others are not privileged to.
1. The car was a Jaguar
2. We recorded music on Cassette tapes, 4 tracks. And reel to reels. Then take them and re record them a hundred times and sell them at the mall And downtown or in the hood or in the trunks of cars. Every house had at least o e turntable and a tape deck
4. The NYC blackout of 77… everybody had a dj setup😅😅😅
Back during this era in the New York metropolitan area, we didn't wear Levi's, we wore Lee Jeans. Levi's became popular a few years later.
Back in the day we used to go out and get together, we might here something coming from someone's boom box or in a record store. It's wild what happens when people get together in person and not online. Word of mouth was everything. I remember in elementary school I got licensed to Ill and the adventures of slick rick and we would play them on my walkman at recess, passing the headphones around. I know at least 4 of my friends went out and got the tapes after that. That's how it happened. As a little white kid, I loved rap the minute I heard it and my dad would take me to the record store every other week or so and let me get a tape. I'm as old school as they come. Thank God my dad never cared what I got or I never would've gotten too short or nwa. Nwa wasn't really for me though. I lovef LL, rakim, run DMC beastie boys etc....gangsta never was for me till doggy style came out. Anyway I could go all day on how great old school is. Love that young kids are learning about it. Keep up the good work.
This was the first rap album I had my mom buy me when I was in 3rd or 4th grade 35 years ago. I thought it was the dopest shit I ever heard. I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!✌You gotta hear some old Hieroglyphics or Living Legends from the 90's, that shit is fire.
ll cool j is the best of the best.."my radio" is where is where i first found him out, fuc*in epic
We had DJs like Kool DJ RED Alert who was able to choose what he played. Friday and Saturday night master mixes on 98.7 and 107.5 was the shit. We also We big into music videos. When this video dropped everyone was talking about next day in school
You killin it boogie, well done and thanks for the Golden age of hip hop
This gentleman has so many good songs this is one of my favorites some other good songs are Mama Said knock you out I'm going back to Cali deepest bluest I need love and I need a beat and I need my radio and around the way girl and if you're like LL it may also suggest iced tea song called reckless I'm your pusher I can't remember some of his other good ones
We used to have Video shows and record stores.... Radio was the promotion until Stretch and Bobbito and a few others had late night radio shows.. Thats how it was promoted... Plus bills posted on boards
Many either used basic cassette recorders, or DIY studios in their basements. They recorded their tracks on cassette tapes (Mix Tapes), gave them out to anyone who would take one, and submitted them to any radio stations that would except them. Back then they truly had to hustle, if they wanted to be heard.
back in the 1980's we had record stores where you could buy the album whether it was an 8 track , cassette, LP record or the new CD
We used to go to house parties or hops (parties at a hall or club) and the dj's would always have the latest records. There was also some homeboy that would turn up with records we never heard before or sometimes we would just go to the record store and buy a new record we never heard before.
Levi's 501 with the button fly were extremely popular in the 80s. They came out with white, black and light blue denim around 87 and they were fire.
them hard material dark blue Levis was big where im from, we used to use a half a can of starch when irioning the creases in em, they could stand up by themselves they were so stiff😅, we put creases in everything, had to have the sharpest crease too😂
You are killing it family!! Being an old school DJ I'm loving you learning the culture of my time. I congratulated you on your 1000th and I definitely congratulate you on 10k!! Well deserved..