Songs You Should Know - I Need Love

Don't call it a comeback!!! Aight I know it's been a week but I'm biggedy biggedy biggedy back y'all.

The year was 1987. The album Bigger and Deffer. The artist L.L. Cool J. Now I have been an L.L. fan since my freshman year in High School. L.L. was the young brash shit talkin' rapper who was knockin' everyone out with his sped up delivery and ultra-braggadocious ways. I had listened the shit out of Radio, his debut album, and songs like "You Can't Dance", "That's a Lie", "Dear, Yvette", and the title track still have a spot on my Ipod. So Bigger and Deffer became one of those special summer albums. It was one of those albums that you get hooked on after school is done and listen to all...the...time.

The thing with hip-hop albums in those days was that you HAD to play them because you weren't gonna hear them anywhere else. Radio? Hell No! MTV our town didn;t have it at the time. So if you wanted to hear songs like "I'm Bad", "Kanday" or the Bristol
Hotel" You had to play the tape. For those of you who don;t remember. Skipping tracks with cassettes was annoying or impossible when you were doing other shit. Sure there was AMS but you had to be right on top of the player, so when you listened to an album back then you listened to the whole fucking thing!!!

Like I said I listened the fuck out of this album so much that we wondered as kids what it would be like to hang out with E. Love, Bobcat, and Cut Creator. We were even more intrigued when E. Love got shot in the butt. We listened to that album so much it inspired a "No Rap Match" in the Wilson Drive Wrestling Association. (And no that is a story I am never ever telling)

The album itself was a masterpiece and still holds up over time. However...there is one song...whose first three notes make me cringe like some sick pavlovian experiment. It was the much ballyhooed track on the album and received the most radio airplay of any song on the album. It was lauded as Rap's first love song. The song: I Need Love. (seriously I'm cringing just typing it)

I think I've spent more time analyzing and breaking down this son and its ridiculousness more than I've actually spent listening to it. Though, don't get me wrong, I still know every insipid lyric. Here's a sample

You can scratch my back, we'll get cozy and huddle
I'll lay down my jacket so you can walk over a puddle

Seriously...think about that for a second...who the fuck thinks some punk kid from Farmer's Boulevard in Queens is gonna pull out the Sir Walter Raleigh BULLSHIT for his lady. What the fuck is all I can say...after 19 years that line still kills me

Here's another one:

I need your ruby red lips sweet face and all
I love you more than a man who's 10 feet tall

I've had discussions about this line for hours!!! What we settled on is this; The taller you are the more love you are capable of giving. A man who is 10 feet tall can love like no other, except for L.L. 'cause that's how he rolls.

Okay, what kills me is that this song still gets played on the radio, and was even lifted for a craptastic R and B song. So that means this...it must have actually worked for some people!!! Seriously, if I had to be the fly on a wall for one scenario, it would be the guy who plays this for woman to get her in the mood. If any of my friends are reading this, have you been holding out on me??? Any success stories with this song? Sucka's gots ta know.

Anyway...I ran across this last weekend which inspired this installment of songs you should know. I can still remember the first time I caught this video on "Night Tracks". Unintentional comedy at it's finest...the hot tub scene always got me. I now present to you L.L. Cool J's "I Need Love".

Tags: Songs You Should Know, Music