Back in what would become known as the Rap Golden Age, LL Cool J was a trailblazer. He was the first true solo superstar of rap music, releasing platinum albums at a time when going gold was like a landmark achievement for rappers. He pioneered the rap ballad with the first successful love rap, “I Need Love,” while still able to appeal to a street or hardcore base. And he was the first rapper in history to make a successful comeback with the masterful Mama Said Knock You Out.
By the mid-2000s, LL was rap’s Last of the Mohicans, the only ‘80s rapper still in generally great commercial health compared to his less fortunate counterparts. After all, he finally enjoyed his first number one album with G.O.A.T.; had one platinum album with Phenomenon, and three gold ones with G.O.A.T., 10, and The DEFinition; and had 13 singles land on the Billboard Hot 100, with eight of them being Top 40 pop hits and one of them being his first number one—all within the second decade of his career.
But then came MTV’s The Greatest MC of All Time special in April 2006, evaluating and placing the Top 10 emcees in rap history, which got a lot of tongues wagging because of MTV’s, um, conflicted relationship with hip hop over the years. (To their credit, MTV had Sway and Shaheem Reid on the panel.) LL Cool J ended up at number 10: respectable, but still on the lowest end of the list, especially for a guy who had declared himself the G.O.A.T. a few years back.
Uncle L’s major demerit: His ratio of good-to-wack records was tilting toward wack. That argument is rather harsh in retrospect. But the general perception of LL’s career post-Mr. Smith then was one of a man who was releasing one mediocre album after the other.
The usually lauded albums in his catalog—Radio, Bigger and Deffer, Mama Said Knock You Out, and Mr. Smith—each received an asterisk to denote his best work. Coincidentally, Todd Smith, which came out two weeks before the MTV special, was among those that didn’t receive one.
Jay-Z was now retired—from being the “Michael Jordan of Recording,” at least. After bowing out with The Black Album in 2003, he became the president and CEO of Def Jam, an accomplishment that was ostentatiously capped off with the “I Decare War” concert on October 27th, 2005. The event was notable for the official end to the rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas, who would later sign to Def Jam. It was the era of the Carter Administration, which is credited as co-executive producer of LL Cool J’s eleventh studio album, Todd Smith, which came out on April 11th, 2006.
Poke & Tone and The Neptunes are back, this time accompanied by a phalanx of beatmakers that include Scott Storch, Jermaine Dupri, and Drumma Boy. And of the album’s 13 tracks, LL only has one all to himself. It was the most bloated and star-studded album of LL’s career up to that point, the equivalent of soldiers propping up an aging warrior king in his chariot.
Although the ferociousness of the ‘80s and early ‘90s was long gone, that didn’t stop LL Cool J from kicking off the festivities with the lazily titled “It’s LL and Santana.” And no, “Santana” does not refer to Carlos Santana, but rather, this Santana: Juelz Santana, a member of the Dipset Crew so skilled in the art of lyricism that he’d managed to gain some measure of notoriety by rhyming the word “friends” four consecutive times in Chris Brown’s debut single, “Run It,” the year before.
Well, he’s on board for a guest verse. LL constantly yelling, “You’re witnessing history!” is not exactly convincing, especially when he tosses out sloppy lines like, “hit your ladies with these languages” and Santana complimenting his lackadaisical bars by saying that this song is “for my East Coast slangers / My West Coast bangers.”
Thankfully the song lasts only three minutes flat. The album segues into what had been clearly in LL’s heart for this project: pop rap. Last time LL and Jennifer Lopez met, they managed to score a number one hit with “All I Have,” which appeared on both their albums in 2002. And they’re back together for the electro-funk-fused, Afrika Bambaataa-sampling beat that Jermaine Dupri provides in “Control Myself,” which has LL jack the old-school flow he used for his 1988 hit “Going Back to Cali.” J. Lo has always had a wafer-thin voice, which makes her passable on her own song featuring LL but makes her guest spot on “Control Yourself” rather unnecessary, outside of boosting the song into a hit. But overall, “Control Myself” is serviceable—serviceable enough to score him a Top 5 pop hit.
“Control Myself” sets the tone for the rest of Todd Smith, which finds LL Cool J feeling more comfortable with his moniker than ever before. Sure, he somewhat acquits himself midway through the album with “What You Want,” where he trades bars with Freeway inside the raucous beat that The Narcotics provide, and for once has a cadence that doesn’t sound unintentionally time-warped. Otherwise, LL leaves the half-baked battle raps in the trash bin and primarily focuses on the ladies. The pick of the litter might be “Down the Aisle.” It’s the wedding song that LL should have done at his mid-‘90s peak with the Track- I mean, Poke & Tone, who lift the sunny breeze of Alexander O’Neal’s “If You Were Here Tonight” and have 112, now on Def Jam after their initial run with Bad Boy under P. Diddy (or, rather, Diddy), sing the chorus.
Apart from that song, though, it’s rather slim pickings with Todd Smith. The overabundance of guests was at least supposed to be enhancing. Lyfe Jennings compensates for a drowsy beat and LL’s tired lyrics by singing a soulful hook in “Freeze,” and there’s this back-and-forth sugar-daddy vibe between LL and then-promising singer Teairra Mari in “Preserve the Sexy.” There’s also Mary J. Blige on “Favorite Flavor,” Ginuwine on “Ooh Wee,” City High alum Ryan Toby on “I’ve Changed,” and Jamie Foxx on “Best Dress.” (Speaking of Foxx, thank God he and LL made up.) But overall, the star guest list does not translate into anything extraordinary with the album’s listening experience. Weren’t session singers available?
And while Todd Smith is stuffed with more romance and sex material than any LL album before it, there shouldn’t be a problem if the material is at least good. There’s the standard appeal to leave an unworthy boyfriend with “Best Dress,” the begging for a second chance with “I’ve Changed,” the constant flirting with “Control Myself” and “Favorite Flavor,” the myriad promises in “So Sick (Remix),” the previously mentioned wedding song with “Down the Aisle,” and the solo song “#1 Fan,” where LL attempts a sing-song flow for the first time in his career—complete with the occasional Spanish sentence. They’re all okay, just not of “Hey Lover” or “Doin’ It” caliber.
And it’s hard to justify the inclusion of “So Sick (Remix),” other than the fact that Ne-Yo was on the same label as Uncle L. It was a number one hit for the songwriter-turned-singer the year before. And now here it is as a “remix”—with Poke & Tone using Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” for the main melody, the drums from Gang Starr’s “You Know My Steez” to hippity-hop it up, and two verses from LL shoehorned into the track. Compared to the original, the result is a stilted, syrupy, and soulless mess for Ne-Yo’s now slightly off-tune singing and LL’s cliched rapping. If the song had not been added as a bonus, at least the album would have had a nice send-off with the gospel-fused, Mary Mary-featuring “We’re Gonna Make It,” where LL takes us to church—figuratively, of course.
If it wasn’t obvious to the untrained ear or willfully oblivious that LL was past his years of innovation and determined to stay relevant in the music industry, Todd Smith must have flipped that switch. At least its immediate predecessor, The DEFinition, had LL gambling with a club-oriented feel. Compared to that, Todd Smith feels safe and formulaic, more so than any LL record in the 2000s. A fourth consecutive Gold plaque might have been compensatory, and some people can contend that at the age of 38, married with four kids, and with a growing list of ventures outside of music, Todd Smith reflects his true self at the time, down to the fact that the album bears his middle and last names.
But many fans can’t help but think that the streak of humdrum albums has tarnished LL’s standing among the pantheon of all-time solo rap greats. Otherwise, who knows, LL Cool J might have been placed well above then-Def Jam head honcho Jay-Z on that MTV list, rather than the other way round.
