The fourth album from LL Cool J is a head-knocking reboot for the battle-tested hip-hop veteran. Already a certified legend at 22 years old, he found new creative and commercial life by dedicating himself to the “future of the funk” on this triumphant 1990 LP: He’s no longer the bombastic teenager screaming over guitar stabs, but a technician finding the pocket in 14 Marley Marl co-productions. By the time the 1990s began, the most unflappable MC of the 1980s was experiencing a crisis of confidence. His 1989 album Walking With a Panther had underperformed commercially, and many fans took him to task for the album’s handful of love ballads. Hip-hop was changing: Cooler heads like Rakim and EPMD had prevailed over rap-rock shouters, Los Angeles reality rap was starting to take over New York ego flexes, and Kool Moe Dee and Ice T were calling for war. Lost and forlorn, LL Cool J retreated to his grandmother’s basement where the matriarch gave him some advice that changed the trajectory of his career: “Oh, baby, just knock them out!” Mama Said Knock You Out would bring that competitive drive to songs like the stormy title track, not to mention the absolutely venomous “To Da Break of Dawn”, a roaring response to Kool Moe Dee and Ice T’s threats. But LL is just getting started, as Mama Said finds him sinking his teeth into critics, rivals and doubters alike: “When I’m on the microphone I want silence,” he insists on “Murdergram”. “Let KRS-One stop the violence.” The verses on Mama Said are brutal and efficient—and Marley Marl’s neck-snapping production is just as raw, built on classic breakbeats like James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and The Honeydrippers’ “Impeach the President”. Even pop-friendly singles like “Around the Way Girl” and “Jingling Baby (Remixed but Still Jingling)” crackle with vinyl noise. Whether pitching woo or going for the jugular, LL Cool J’s charisma has never been higher than this moment, cementing his legacy not only as the Mike Tyson of microphone jousts, but as a commercial titan who would persevere as hip-hop rapidly evolved its styles and sounds.