LL Cool J - Radio

In November 1985, a 17-year-old from Queens and a college-kid producer put out the first full-length album on a brand new label called Def Jam. Radio did not just launch LL Cool J's career. It announced a new era, the moment hip-hop moved from its old-school party roots to something leaner, louder, and built for the boombox on the cover.

The sound is stripped almost to nothing. Rick Rubin's production is little more than a cranked-up drum machine, DJ Cut Creator's scratches, and the occasional stab of noise, leaving all the room in the world for LL's voice. He fills it with ease, trading boasts and disses with the confidence of a veteran on "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock the Bells," two of the hardest-hitting singles of the decade. "I Need a Beat" appears here in remixed form, while "I Want You" and "I Can Give You More" hint at the rap ballads that would later make him a crossover star.

The public caught on fast. Radio sold more than half a million copies in its first five months, reached number 6 on the R&B albums chart and number 46 on the Billboard 200, and went on to platinum status. It proved that a rap album, and not just a rap single, could sell on its own terms, and it remains widely regarded as LL Cool J's finest record and one of the essential documents of early hip-hop.

This vinyl edition delivers all eleven tracks the way they were made to be heard, loud and with nothing in the way. It is where Def Jam's album catalog begins, and it still sounds like a dare.