![]() So my grandmother was like, “Yeah, get out there and knock ’em out.” I was like, “Yeah, knock ’em out.” So from there I remember being in my condo with the SP-1200, my man Bob had the beat playing, and I was just like, “Don’t call it a comeback!” It just felt right. I guess for whatever reason, it didn’t hit the mark like it did for some people. In other genres, people appreciate it when a guy like Prince does experimental albums and projects. And in hip-hop, people don’t always appreciate that. I’ve always been a guy who liked to experiment and be free in the studio I’ve never stuck to a script. I was beefing, moaning, and griping about what people were saying with Walking With a Panther. The title line, “Mama said knock you out,” came from my grandmother. I took that challenge head-on and I was victorious.ĭo you remember when you first said, “Don’t call it a comeback”? But I felt like people were saying that I wasn’t capable of putting together art that could last and that mattered, and I felt like I could. That’s just the way our brains process information sometimes. ![]() You always have the core fans who support and love you, but sometimes the naysayers’ words are written in bold letters and the compliments are written in fine print. The whole idea behind that album came from the fact that people thought I couldn’t do it - or I felt that people thought I couldn’t do it. What strikes you when you think back to that time in your life? Mama Said Knock You Out turns 30 this week. I just felt like the fans of the radio station had no place to go to take a deep dive into classic hip-hop culture in a really authentic way.”Īfter all, as LL Cool J proves here while reflecting on Mama Said Knock You Out, looking back can be fun. “It isn’t a site that treats these acts like commodities, like, if you’re not the chart-topper of the moment, you don’t mean anything. “I wanted to create a place for unapologetically timeless and classic hip-hop that really lifts up the culture in a big way,” he says. It features interviews, commentary, and apparel tied to the classic artists LL feels the music world has ignored, and he has formed an alliance with Big Daddy Kane, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Fab 5 Freddy, Eric B., Roxanne Shante, and others to help guide it. Now LL has launched a Rock the Bells website that he hopes will become a destination for what he sees as a marginalized group of music fans. Seeing the way people have embraced his generation of hip-hop has also inspired LL Cool J to expand his Rock the Bells brand, which continues to be a classic hip-hop radio station for SiriusXM. That’s the craziest thing, and I’m really grateful for that.” It was strong, but over the years it became a bigger song. “It got a little play on MTV and a little play on radio, but it actually grew over the years. “The song ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ didn’t get a lot of attention back then,” he tells Rolling Stone. These days, he just marvels at the album’s staying power. At the time, the record was a response to critics and fans who thought he’d sold out or lost the plot with his previous record, Walking With a Panther, so he decided to hit back hard and turn his doubters on their ears. LL Cool J’s powerhouse fourth album, Mama Said Knock You Out, came out 30 years ago this week and its rhymes and production techniques still resonate today.
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