30 years ago, LL dropped his sophomore album and it still rocks today.
Once all the bells had been rocked and his radio had been lovingly placed on the floor, James Todd Smith, better known as LL Cool, J took his one-man lyrical wrecking crew to new heights upon the July 22nd, 1987 release of his sophomore album, Bigger and Deffer.
WATCH- Celebrating 30 Years of LL’s “Bigger and Deffer”
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Whether he was chillin’ with Kanday at the Bristol Hotel, watching Cut Creator go, professing his undeniable badness or wooing throngs of women via his explanations of a need for love, LL Cool J became a force to be reckoned with. And the Hip Hop game would never forget it.
Lyrically impenetrable, Cool J would become synonymous with battling anyone who dared enter the spitting ring. While this was not a new phenomenon, it was still something like a phenomenon as emcee after emcee was dissed and dismissed with full fanfare and Mr Smith was the one packing their bags and sending them straight out of the Hip Hop game.
Bigger and Deffer was a catalyst for this lyrical poetry in motion, as he declared ultimate supremacy upon all other artists throughout the album. However, this message was probably the most effective on his first release from the album on a cut called, Im Bad in which Cool J declared,
MC’s retreat, cause they know I can beat ’em
And eat ’em in a battle and the ref won’t cheat ’em.
Upon saying the kind of rhymes that made emcees wish that hed die, LL did a complete 180 on the masses when he released a Hip Hop ballad entitled I Need Love. It just solidified his position as the dude all the guys wanted to be and all the girls wanted to be with.
Needless to say, the new first of its kind teenage love anthem soared to the top of the charts with a bullet. And that bullet was shot from the metaphorical gun of a youthful LL Cool J.
Bigger And Deffer went on to sell more than 2 Million copies and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. Not too shabby for a then 19-year-old from Queens.
Bigger And Deffer would be but one of the long line of album stepping stones that would propel LL into being a household name for much more than an urban audience.
But it was the bravado, strength, lyrical venom, vulnerability and complexity of persona that Bigger and Deffer exuded that would in large part be the catalyst for the career that would still be to come.
He has made it onto many Hip Hop fans Greatest Of All Times lists and for one very good reason. He deserves it. Weve said it before, he even said it before, and well say it again…hes bad!!!
