Artist: LL Cool J
Release: Authentic
Release Date: Out Now
You can’t have a career spanning decades without a little reinvention. With that in mind, LL Cool J returns with his thirteenth studio album “Authentic”. Recently, LL Cool J has focused less on music, and more on everything around it. Acting in mainstream television shows, presenting the Grammys, becoming an author, starting a fashion line and focusing on other businesses. So on his first album in five years, LL seems unsure of his place in the rap game.
The album starts in a bad way with track “Bath Salts”. Sounding like a desperate attempt to fit in with the cool kids, LL jumps on the bath salts bandwagon a year late with cringe inducing results. The upbeat track, has a lazy chorus, and tries to sound dangerous, with LL rapping aggressively about “the game” but the only time he sounds genuinely honest is when he admits: “honestly I was scared to come back/ it was ugly not knowing how the game would react/” It’s a bad start, and feels like the album couldn’t possibly have anything else to offer.
Fortunately, this seems to be more of a misstep as opposed to a sign of things to come, as second track “Not Leaving You Tonight” is an effortless return to what LL does best. Reminding us that the LL stands for “ladies love”, the song breaks no new ground, but seems effortless. Giving the usual explicit sexual escapades a back seat, he instead goes for a mature discussion of love. He praises his chosen targets mentally qualities, as opposed to her physical. It’s a breath of fresh air, and a surprising turn from the rapper who wrote “Doin’ It’”.
Things return to normal on “New Love” a cocky track where LL lists the qualities that make him the perfect partner. It feels overly familiar. And not just for LL, but for hip hop in general. Here, it feels like he’s ticking boxes, and this feeling reappears on other parts of the album as well. The rest of the breaks down into one big cliché. It isn’t quite as painful as it sounds, and definitely not as bad for anyone on their thirteenth album. It’s just a shame that when you see titles like “Bartender Please” you know what to expect.
There are a few highlights here though. Despite the unnecessary “z”, “Between The Sheetz” feels exactly how LL should sound in 2013. Reminding us exactly how much current hip hop owes to LL sexually explicit songs of the past, the song comes off so natural, it’s a wonder why the this attitude wasn’t taken with the rest of the album. And “Closer” is nigh on perfect. Unashamed of his age and now focused on making “grown ass” music. The instrumental is light and breezy, with LL rapping with confidence and not arrogance, and acting his age. “Whaddup” also has its heart in the right place. And although it does try to play the role of throwback a little too earnestly, there’s no doubting LL’s intensity. Here he sounds deranged and is a stark reminder why he felt confident enough to declare himself the greatest of all time.
So essentially what we have is an album many expect to be terrible, and simply isn’t. It may lack focus and confidence. But when it does, it gives the elder state men of hip hop a few valuable lessons about aging gracefully
5/10
