![]() ![]() Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. We’ll try calling you again on your 40th. So happy 30th, “Mama” and LL, and thanks for a great song. It’s also grandma who at the end of the video walks down the basement stairs to yell, “Todd, Todd, get upstairs and take out that garbage,” so yeah, grandma rules.ħ) The Superfriends bonus: Sure, it’s super silly, but this Super Friends-inspired mashup of the song from “The Tonight Show” shows that only the best songs can survive such a spoof. “Oh baby, just knock them out!” is what she told him, as he recalls it in his memoir. “I’m gonna knock you out / Mama said knock you out” he raps on the chorus, tying the song together with the boxing theme of the video.Ħ) Todd’s grandma rules: It’s LL Cool J lore that his grandmother inspired the song when she encouraged him not to feel left behind by the increasing popularity of gangsta rap, but to instead fight back. “Watch me bash this beat like a skull / That you know I’ve beef with,” he raps at one point, later taunting, “How you like me now?” a phrase nicked from Kool Moe Dee’s earlier dis track that claimed LL Cool J had ripped off his style.Ĥ) Sweet samples: On “Mama Said Knock You Out,” the beats are funky and draw upon sources such as James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Trip To Your Heart.”ĥ) The striking video: Music videos on TV still mattered in 1990 - “Yo! MTV Raps” was just a couple of years into its run at the time - and the striking black-and-white video for “Mama Said Knock You Out” looked sharp then - and now. He’d recorded some ballads, even: “I Need Love” on his second album, and by the third album “Walking With the Panther,” he included three gooey love songs that weighed down stronger tracks such as “Going Back To Cali” and “Big Ole Butt.” So it seems Cool J heard the talk and set out to prove a point with this fierce, defiant track.ģ) High-grade beef: Who doesn’t love a good rap battle to motivate the MC? LL Cool J and Kool Moe Dee were thick in a feud at the time, and “Mama Said Knock You Out” takes more than a few shots at Cool J’s New York City rival. ![]() It is indelible.Ģ) From ballads to badass: Three albums into his career, LL was just 22 years old, but his star had lost a bit of its luster in hip-hop circles. Initially delivered as a warning not to underestimate Cool J, it’s become a pop-culture catchphrase, the text on an untold number of memes, even the name printed on cans of a Canadian Double IPA. 1) That killer opening line: “Don’t call it a comeback / I’ve been here for years,” snarls LL Cool J as the song kicks off.
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