Tuesday, 24 September 2024

One heLLuva guy

LL Cool J - Illegal Search (Pre-Trial Hearing mix)
(From one of the Jingling Baby (remix) 12" singles; 1990)



LL Cool J - No Airplay (Bad Boy remix)
(From Bad Boy's Gettin' Down In Da LB mixtape; 1995)



LL Cool J - Bring On The Mo's & Ho's
(From Double L Cools Down bootleg 12" EP; 1996)



Oil up your ankles and let your Timbs tap to three of my favourite LL Cool J deep cut gems. Firstly, we got the Illegal Search (Pre-Trial Hearing mix) which was done by Large Professor and is more flavour like praline than the LP version. Secondly, we got the blowticious No Airplay (Bad Boy remix) which features entirely new lyrics and a completely different beat. And third and finally, we got a track recorded for Mr. Smith which was relegated to a Def Jam bootleg EP due to it sharing the same sample as a certain 2Pac song, word to mama. If LL ever does a Lost Tapes album then I guess like the jeans that these three tracks would be no brainer inclusions alongside Mr Controversy, Year Of The Hip Hop, the uncensored version of the O.G No Airplay, and Set It Off New York.

Kangol bucket hat tips to EttelThun and Step Wun for the Audiomack uploads of the two remixes, and to Yohan for suggesting Year Of The Hip Hop which completely slipped my mind.

15 comments:

Yohan said...

LL's catalogue runs deep indeed.

Late write-in for K-Def produced "Year Of The Hip-Hop" which if my memory serves me well remains unreleased to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP4gDJErPOA

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Gah how did I forget that one? 🤦‍♂️ I should include that since I've got a post about it.

Bobby Dee said...

https://www.discogs.com/master/396424-K-Def-Featuring-LL-Cool-J-Year-Of-The-Hip-Hop

There is a 10" single of 'Year of the Hip Hop' on rip off boutique label Slice of Spice records. I own it but hate 10" singles, stupidest format in history.

Yohan said...

Totally unrelated but checked to see if Nine & Dex were up to anything interesting after Pecan Pie and stumbled on this absolute banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHvgyOsCeS8

Max B interview on the intro. Beanie Sigel 'Roc The Mic' reference. Banging production. I'm totally sold.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Yohan, good find 👍

Bob, my mate had some power violence 5" which wouldn't even play on his turntable. That's surely a stupider format than 10"s.

L.A said...

An LL lost tapes would be amazing

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

It needs to happen and it needs a CD release.

Hooligan said...

I found this many years ago trawling for unreleased stuff, and I can't find any info on it, or it's existence anywhere else. It sounds like a "Mr Smith" era demo to me. "Freak Thing" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxxy3aR5Y3w

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Good find. Not heard that one before. Yeah, definitely sounds like it was recorded that era.

hotbox said...

at this point you may as well block out the next few weeks for a string of ll cool j posts i'll break out the shake-n-bake to celebrate

Yohan said...

More unrelated: DaBoii x P-Lo x Miles Minnick (the guy from LaRussell's Remote Job) - Feel Me?

Not 100% sold but at the very least the production is fire.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Coming next: a ranking of LL's jackets in the Doin' It video.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Yohan, hmm yeah, beat is the highlight.

Smell Rell said...

What happened to Step One? He hasn't blogged for years or posted on Twitter for months.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Not sure. Not spoke to him in ages.