LL Cool J - Walking with a Panther

Released at a time when hip-hop's anxieties about crossover success were at a fever pitch, Walking With A Panther found Ll Cool J trying to reinvent his sound while building on the commercial breakthrough of Bigger And Deffer. Even though the album succeeded on both counts, it did so in a way that didn't sit well with hip-hop purists, who began to call Ll's credibility into question. Their fears about commercialism diluting the art form found a focal point in Ll, the man who pioneered the rap ballad -- and there are in fact three ballads here, all of them pretty saccharine (and, tellingly, none of them singles). Read More