LL Cool J releases 'Mama Said Knock You Out'

Why it matters

Mama Said Knock You Out came out on Def Jam on August 27, 1990. It is LL Cool J's fourth LP and it is the comeback album. LL had been getting old fast in rap terms: he had won a 1989 boo-off at the Apollo Theater (the wrong direction of the boo-off), and the New Jack Swing-y Walking with a Panther had not landed. He went back to Marley Marl. Marley Marl produced the entire album. The title track is the famous one. "Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years." The line is supposedly a direct shot at the people who had been writing LL off for being soft, which in 1990 was a lot of people. The song won the 1992 Grammy for Best Solo Rap Performance. The album sold 2 million copies. LL pulled it off in a year when basically every new act was younger, harder, and West Coast or PE-shaped, and he did it by going back to a Queensbridge producer and a tighter, leaner sound. You can teach a whole class on career rehabilitation in popular music using just this album.