G.O.A.T. Featuring James T. Smith The Greatest Of All Time

Sound DNA

• Hip-Hop
• East Coast

• polished
• swaggering
• urban

About

Of LL Cool J’s many contributions to culture, none may be as impactful as his popularization of the acronym “G.O.A.T.”—short for “Greatest of All Time.” He has one of the more legitimate claims to the title and, on his eighth album, he’s not about to let you forget it. Though his sound in 2000 has a champagne-popping smoothness for the changing times, that old combative impulse refuses to be quelled: The savage “Back Where I Belong” is his third and final entry in the Canibus beef war; “Fuhgidabowdit” puts him back in the cipher with Method Man, Redman, and DMX; and his chest-puffing, self-aggrandizing, knock-you-out attitude is all over self-explanatory songs like “The G.O.A.T.” and “U Can’t Fuck With Me.” <i>G.O.A.T.</i> spiraled out from “Ill Bomb,” a song that appeared on Funkmaster Flex’s 1999 compilation <i>The Tunnel</i>. The song melded DJ Scratch’s contemporary NYC beatwork with LL’s laid-back assurance. The partnership became fruitful enough to yield five more of the album’s songs, including the raunchy phone-sex celebration “Hello” and the West Coast summit “U Can’t Fuck With Me,” where Uncle L trades verses with Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Jayo Felony (he also takes some shots at Jamie Foxx—his sparring partner in a long-squashed beef). But after the success of come-ons like 1995’s “Hey Lover” and 1997’s “Phenomenon,” LL is still peacocking as the belly-button-kissing hip-hop Don Juan on <i>G.O.A.T.</i> Its lead single, “Imagine That,” plays like a hip-hop <i>Red Shoe Diaries</i>, pairing three vivid sexual fantasies with a sparking Rockwilder beat and guest moans from “Doin’ It” vocalist LeShaun. Meanwhile, the album’s biggest hit, “You and Me,” is a Queens-life love song featuring Kelly Price. The first LL album to debut at No. 1, <i>G.O.A.T.</i> is a triumphant victory lap that not only plays to his strengths, but shows them in painstaking detail: “Ask Russell Simmons, who put him up in that skyscraper?/Ask my dogs up at FUBU, who made ’em major?”

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits