GQ managed to get an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book, Def
Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years Of The Last Great Record Label – and
it touches down on one of the first and most monumental signings to the
Def Jam label, LL Cool J. They describe first meeting LL and hearing his
song “I Need A Beat”.
T La Rock: I first met LL Cool J when I did a show with
Kurtis Blow and someone else at the Encore in Queens. Here comes this
light-skinned guy with a hat on, running up to me. “T La Rock! T La
Rock! I’m so glad to meet you. You gotta hear me. I sound just like
you.” To be honest with you, I liked “I Need a Beat.” But at the same
time I was thinking, “Wow, Rick did it. He found him another T La Rock.”
Bill Stephney (producer): I thought “I Need a Beat” was a Run solo
record at first. LL sounded like Run, and musically it was just so much
in keeping with the minimalism of “Sucker M.C.’s”—beat and voice, beat
and voice. But such energy! It was bursting!
Alonzo “Mr. Hyde” Brown: Every time he came into the room, he was
just this ball of energy, like, something had to happen for him. I
remember Andre [Harrell] and I were riding in a car across the
Queensboro Bridge to Silver Lake Studios to shoot Krush Groove. LL’s in
the back. He was like, “Can I come with y’all?”
“All right. Fine.”
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