12/12/2023 0 Comments 1975 oakland raiders roster![]() ![]() When it was released on Def Jam Recordings in the United States on November 18, 1985, Radio achieved a high level of commercial success and sales for a hip-hop album at the time. 1985–1987: RadioĬritical acclaim for Radio’s innovative music and LL’s potent lyrics came as no surprise. The singles “I Need a Beat” and “Rock Hard” by the Beastie Boys helped Def Jam secure a distribution contract with Columbia Records the following year. ![]() I immediately declared, “This is what I want to do.” Over 100,000 copies of LL’s debut single were sold, establishing Def Jam as a record company and Smith as a rapper. ![]() As soon as it was over, girls started yelling and demanding signatures. They pushed the lunchroom tables together as me and my DJ, Cut Creator, started playing, LL Cool J recalled in a subsequent interview. In a later interview, Smith said of his hunt for a record company, “I sent my demo to many different companies, but it was Def Jam where I found my home.” Smith performed his first concert as a professional the same year at Manhattan Center High School. The song’s rapid rhymes and sparse sounds made it a hard-hitting, street-smart b-boy number. Smith was signed by Def Jam under his new stage name LL Cool J, which stands for Ladies Love Cool James and was created by his buddy and fellow rapper Mikey D. This led to the release of his first official record, the 12-inch single “I Need a Beat” (1984), which was his new stage name. Rappers who use “Ski” or “Blow” as part of their stage names, such as Kurtis Blow and Joeski Love, were depicted in the 1983 Scarface remake as being associated with the rise of the cocaine culture. Smith revealed in the VH1 documentary Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation that he was originally known as J-Ski but changed it because he did not want his stage name to be linked to the rise of the cocaine culture. Smith created and mixed his own recordings using the mixer he had inherited from his grandfather and sent them to several record labels in New York City, including Def Jam. At the same time, promoter-manager Russell Simmons and NYU student Rick Rubin formed the independent Def Jam record company. Growing up in a Spanish-speaking home is similar to speaking Spanish. His mother bought him a Korg drum machine with her tax refund as another example of her support for his musical endeavors.Īccording to Smith, he “was already a rapper” when he acquired musical instruments from his relatives. Smith made amends with his father during this time, who “made amends for a lot of things” by helping him get his music career off the ground. His jazz saxophonist grandfather gave him a $2,000 gift that included two turntables, an audio mixer, and an amplifier. ![]() Smith, then sixteen, was recording demo cassettes in his grandparents’ house in 1984. His mother’s ex-boyfriend Roscoe beat him physically and mentally.Īt the age of 10, Smith started rapping, inspired by the hip-hop crew The Treacherous Three. Albans, Queens, which they moved into in 1972. Smith was raised at his grandparents’ house in St. They were covered in blood when 4-year-old Smith discovered them. His father wounded his grandfather and mother with a gun, almost killing them both. The Chicago Tribune reports that Smith’s childhood in Queens, where he was raised middle class and Catholic, was heartbreaking. Ondrea Griffith, who was born on January 19, 1946, and James Louis Smith Jr., also known as James Nunya, had James Todd Smith on Januin Bay Shore, New York. His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction took place in 2021, and he received a prize for musical excellence. The first rapper to win the Kennedy Center Honors was LL Cool J in 2017. LL Cool J, a two-time Grammy Award winner, is best known for his R&B successes like “Doin’ It,” “I Need Love,” “Around the Way Girl,” and “Hey Lover,” as well as hip hop songs like “Going Back to Cali,” “I’m Bad,” “The Boomin’ System,” “Rock the Bells,” and “Mama Said Knock You Out.” He was listed among the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” by VH1 in 2010. ![]()
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