Album Review: LL Cool J, Authentic

Authentic (to be released April 30, 2013)

Here’s a fun fact that will make you want to seek early retirement: LL Cool J’s first album, Radio, was a released is 1985 – a year before current hip-hop golden boy Drake was born. It’s a testament to LL’s longevity that he’s still releasing music almost 30 years (!!!!!) after this debut, especially in an industry that is known for mocking its elder statesmen.

But let’s be honest, these days LL is know more for Hollywood than Hollis. Like fellow hip-hop pioneers Queen Latifah and Ice-T, many fans consider LL more of an actor than a rapper. Still, no one can deny his place among rap’s elite. Arguably, his tender-hearted rap ballads helped hip-hop cross into the pop charts and paved the road for Drake and his contemporaries.  

LL doesn’t have much to prove on Authentic, his 13th studio release. Platinum records, books, box-office success, business ventures, endorsements – James Todd has done everything your favorite rapper dreams about. This album seems more a hat tip to his loyal fans than a desperate attempt to crawl back to Top 40 stations.

“I could give a d*mn if a young boy’s my fan/long as his momma 2-steps to my jam,” LL spits on “Closer.” The track samples New Jack Swing stalwarts Guy’s “I Like,” making it a familiar romp down memory lane. “We Came to Party” is another throwback – LL resurrects his furious “Rock The Bells” flow to recap his life in the 21st century: “TMZ in my face, Oprah all on my couch/now I’m hosting the Grammys, what is this all about?” If those lines dribbled from the lips of any other rapper they would ring hollow, but we know L actually lives that life so it’s, well, Authentic. And it doesn’t hurt that Fatman Scoop, my favorite hype man of all time, heaps mountains of energy into the track.

Of course, this wouldn’t be an LL album without Cool James showing the Ladies Love. Uncle Charlie Wilson teams with Uncle L for “New Love,” where LL is up to his old tricks of seducing lovelorn women. “Between the Sheetz” is tailor-made for urban radio rotation and even though “Not Leaving You Tonight” is much more pop that LL’s usual fare, Fitz and the Tantrum’s hook is too good to ignore.

Unfortunately, Seal’s voice seems on the verge of collapse on “Give Me Love,” which knocks the track down several notches. And while “Live for You” with Brad Paisley isn’t bad per se, it’s pretty forgettable.  On that note, I praise the good lord above that “Accidental Racist,” LL’s hotly debated duet with Paisley, is nowhere to be found on this collection.

My biggest beef with Authentic is that while LL shows lots of love to his female fan base, there’s little for his die-hard male fans to cling to. There’s nothing here in the vein of “Ill Bomb,” “4,3,2,1” or “I Shot Ya.” “Bath Salt” tries but falls way short with eye-rolling lines like “hand on my nuts, that’s product placement.”

Authentic shows that LL still has gas in the tank and he refuses to conform to today’s hip-hop standards. While rocking out on the album closer “We’re the Greatest” with Eddie Van Halen and Travis Barker, LL says “I got Van Halen, I don’t need a baseline.”

Don’t call it a comeback; LL’s not trying to get into your good graces. He’s just having fun partying like it’s 1989.

Best tracks: “Welcome to the Party,” “Not Leaving You Tonight,” “Between the Sheetz”

3.5 stars out of 5