This is a cheat because it's really a Greatest Hits compilation, but I just couldn't help myself. All the greats are here, from "Jingling Baby" to "Around the Way Girl," which quite possibly features the most haunting sample ever used in a rap song: "You got me shook up, shook up, shook up..." "Mama Said Knock You Out" has the greatest opening line in a rap: "Don't call it a comeback/I've been here for years." And "I Need Love," is probably the most sentimental rap song ever recorded, though LL's friends dissed him, claiming it "sounds like Christmas music." Still, James Smith's rhymes were straight from the heart ("We'll get cozy and huddle/I'll lay down my jacket so you can walk over a puddle") and served as the antithesis to his oversexed follow-up "Doin' It." The cherry on the cake is the remixed, superior version of "Loungin'" off the also excellent Mr. Smith, which quickened the song's pace and turned it into a bigger hit than the original. He fancies himself an actor now, but after 30 years, Ladies (still) Love Cool James.
Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.
