Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith

“This was to be my coming-of-age album, something like Janet Jackson’s Control,” said LL Cool J about his sixth album, Mr. Smith. “For the first time I was making my own decisions and making my own rules. But doing it in a spiritual way—allowing others to help.” A multi-platinum smash that came a decade into his recording career, Mr. Smith forges the path that would take the endlessly charismatic rapper into his next decade: Sensuous R&B jams for the charts, and merciless feats of rhyme agility for the streets—all of it constructed by the hottest producers of the day. By 1995, Puff Daddy had finally mastered the once-uneasy marriage between hardcore hip-hop and smoothed-out pop, thanks to Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die, which dominated radio. On Mr. Smith, LL borrows a handful of Biggie’s hitmaking producers—mostly Trackmasters, but also Rashad Smith and Easy Mo Bee—for something similarly rugged and smooth. The Trackmasters and LL Cool J partnership yielded its biggest coup in the Grammy-winning marriage fantasy “Hey Lover,” which had been made in a rush of excitement: Sensing a hit in the sumptuous, Michael Jackson-sampling beat, the producers and LL piled into manager Chris Lighty’s car, and ambushed the members of Boyz II Men in Philadelphia, where they played the track for the mega-selling R&B superstars. As a result, “Hey Lover” promptly became the first and only rap song to boast a feature spot from the classic four-man Boyz II Men lineup. It also became one of Mr. Smith’s three singles to hit the Top 10, along with the legendarily raunchy hit “Doin’ It” and the slightly less steamy “Loungin’,” which would become a breakout thanks to a lush remix with Total. Despite the sweat and sleaze of the singles, Mr. Smith bursts with vintage Cool J fury (“No Airplay,” “Get Da Drop on ’Em”), as well as butter-smooth boasts that wouldn’t feel out of place next to B.I.G. or Nas (“Make it Hot,” “Mr. Smith”). Meanwhile, the “I Shot Ya” remix would emerge as one of the most legendary posse cuts in history, with the veteran Cool J batting cleanup after Keith Murray, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Fat Joe, and a 17-year-old Foxy Brown—all on a beat originally intended for Biggie. Featuring LL Cool J as both fighter and lover, Mr. Smith would bring the living legend to his highest peaks on the pop charts, while still providing the hardcore material that would pepper mixtapes from the likes of DJ Clue and Tony Touch.

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