This year marks 30 years since LL Cool J dropped his classic sophomore masterpiece BAD: Bigger And Deffer. This was the year of going Bad because Michael Jackson himself released his own album of the same name. LL became a worldwide sensation with his debut album Radio, as it went multiplatinum and was a huge critical success for Def Jam and the world of rap overall. Young James Todd Smith proved that he had what it took to carry Def Jam on his shoulders. By 1987, LL had reached the prime of his career and was on his A game from a creative and lyrical standpoint. Cool J continued to bring the fire that he had on his first album with this classic. LL knew how to take command whenever he performed and this album was another prime example of how dominant he was. Released on May 29, 1987, this album would take LL's career to a whole new level. This was also the time where LL would start to explore another side of his personality. On this album, fans would understand why LL stands for Ladies Love as he broke ground with the first rap ballad "I Need Love". LL was still the classic B-Boy that everyone respected, but he slowly started to make himself more well-versed as he would collaborate with producers from the West Coast like the LA Posse.
Track Listing:
1. I'm Bad
2. Kanday
3. Get Down
4. The Bristol Hotel
5. My Rhyme Ain't Done
6. .357-Break It Down
7. Go Cut Creator Go
8. The Breakthrough
9. I Need Love
10. Ah, Let's Get Ill
11. The Do Wop
12. On the Ill Tip (Skit)
The Tracklist speaks for itself. It shows LL exploring different ventures. From being the B-Boy hero in "I'm Bad" to his romantic side in "I Need Love" to his savage side in "Kanday", LL was multi-dimensional. He was also never afraid to dig into history with samples of legends like James Brown in "Kanday" to Chuck Berry in "Go Cut Creator Go". In "Go Cut Creator Go", LL paid tribute to his legendary DJ as he sampled "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven". This was clearly one of my favorite tracks along with the title track of the Album. "My Rhyme Ain't Done" was a great freestyle track that showed what kind of master he was in that area at the time. LL was still hungry for more and to go for bigger and greater things, and this was evidence of that, especially in his song "The Breakthrough".
Many of LL's critics came at him for "I Need Love" because it showed a softer side of him. You could say that it helped to create the stigma, but it helped him crossover between Rap and Pop. I don't fault LL for doing songs for ladies because LL stands for "Ladies Love". Marvin Gaye can go from singing "What's Going On?" to "Let's Get It On" and nobody says anything. James Brown could go from "I'm Black and I'm Proud" to "Sex Machine" and nobody blinks. Yet, LL goes from "I'm Bad" to "I Need Love" and people have a problem. You like Women don't you? I know I do, so LL made a great move in that sense to balance things out. That song also reached number 1 on the "Hot Black Singles" chart and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Title Track "I'm Bad" was a breakthrough single in the UK.
The Overall Album reached number 3 on the US Billboard 200 Chart and number 1 on the Billboard Charts for R&B/Hip-Hop Albums at the time of the release. The front cover of the Album was taken outside of Andrew Jackson High School in Queens (The school that LL attended before he dropped out). The back cover was shot in the basement of LL's Grandmother. Marvel Comics even paid tribute to this album in their Hip Hop Variants Cover Series where they replaced LL with Luke Cage. LL himself even posted the picture on Instagram.
In 1998, The Source ranked this Album on their 100 Best Rap Albums list while receiving mixed reviews. Overall, it was LL's biggest career album as it went Triple Platinum (3,000,000 copies).
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