LL Cool J '89; The Bonus Cuts

The other day I picked up a vinyl copy of the one LL album I still don't had (while he still banged out good music on the regular that is) in a used records section - "Walking With A Panther". It's no "Radio", "B.A.D.", "Mama Said..." or even "14 Shots to the Dome" as it has a very strange mix of tracks on there. It goes from some of the cheesiest love ballads until '97s mediocre "Phenomenal" ("You're My Heart", "I'm That Type of Guy", "Two Different Worlds", etc.) to super dope lyrical exercises delivered over hardcore beats like "Droppin' Em", "Nitro", "Why Do You Think They Call it Dope", "It Gets No Rougher" and more.

Vinyl buyers drew the shortest straw as they were missing out on four bangers, and if these were added instead of the cheesy tracks mentioned above, "Walking With A Panther" would've been viewed in a totally different light is my guess. The CD version included two bonus tracks, an outro song called "Change Your Ways" as well as the classic Rick Rubin production from '88 that were recorded for the "Less Than Zero" soundtrack; the slamming "Going Back to Cali". The cassette copy featured both these tracks but also included the infamous Kool Moe Dee diss "Jack the Ripper", another Rubin production from the same soundtrack. Lastly the cassette also had a rare LL track called "Crime Stories" that's prety dope too. Thanks to Magnifik for riping and uploading the latter. Feel free to drop a comment, do you think LL's third LP would be better if including these four songs instead of some of the weaker ones? Enjoy!!

LL COOL J - "WALKING..."
THE LEFTOVERS

Pre-order "Year Of The Hip-Hop"

It was only a couple of days ago that I posted the artwork and snippet of this very limited 7" release of the previously unreleased LL Cool J masterpiece, "Year Of The Hip-Hop". Produced by K-Def @ The House of Hits back in '93, this would easily have been a stand-out moment on Ladies Loves' "14 Shots to the Dome". The reason I'm re-posting this now is because the single, which is limited to 500 copies (whereof 150 are pressed on special orange vinyl), is available for pre-order and will be shipped in time for October 31. And fuck a snippet, the whole cut can be heard below and as you'll hear LL totally KILLED this joint!

LL COOL J - "YEAR OF THE HIP HOP"

LL Cool J / K-Def single finally coming

This banging collaboration by the two legends that are LL Cool J and K-Def was first recorded in the "14 Shots to the Dome" sessions in '93/94. Just "14 Shots..." is an LL album that I feel are very overlooked and hated on for all the wrong reasons; there's a few clunkers but the good or great numbers easily outweighs them. I can understand how peeps felt LL was trying to hard to get with the times and sounding like Treach but no matter how you twist and turn at it, his delivery on here is just about perfect and many of the productions are absolutely fantastic (K-Def has previously admitted that he was in fact the uncredited producer behind the classic "Funkadelic Relic"). I might devote an entire blog post to why I think the album has been so misunderstood but right now I just want to spread the word that the release of the almost myrhical, lost K-Def production "Year Of The Hip-Hop" is finally going down.

The song has been meant for release in various incarnations and on different labels for years, including DWG; once with an unreleased Real Live cut on the flip-side. This time it's most definitely final as Slice-Of-Spice will release the lost classic on a limited 10" pressing with an instrumental TV track on the flip. Complete with a fittingly dope sketch by Joe Buck for artwork, 'Def's use of the classic "UFO" break by ESG and LL's fierce delivery is finally getting the proper handling it deserves. A one minute high-quality snippet of this was included (as a hidden bonus) on our official K-Def compilation a few weeks back, but the label has offered up two-minutes CDQ samples of two minutes in length on their SoundCloud page for both versions. Check it out below and stay tuned for more info here @ The Lost Tapes; word is that it will be released in late September so hopefully it don't get pushed back once again again.

"Year Of The Hip-Hop" [Vocal]

"Year Of The Hip-Hop" [TV-Track Instrumental]