I believe Walking with a Panther came out in 1988? It was the first rap album I ever bought. I still like it to this day. I saw LL in Atlanta about 5 years ago and he did about four tracks off the album including, There Jingling Baby. If you like old skool rap with a mix of R & B this is a great album.

Review by Robert Johnson

Though a big commercial success upon it’s release (it hit the Top Ten and sold Platinum), WALKING WITH A PANTHER is largely considered to be a disappointment by many of LL’s biggest fans. True, it is not in the same league as RADIO or BIGGER AND DEFFER in terms of consistency and cohesiveness, but PANTHER is actually quite good on it’s own terms.

LL’s emotional range as a performer remains as impressive as ever. He can run the gauntlet from explosively bold (“Nitro”) to smoothly seductive (“You’re My Heart”) to deliriously horny (“Jingling Baby”) and back again. The best track is easily the sophisticated jazz-rap tour de force “Going Back To Cali” (#31 Pop, #12 R&B), which had been previously released on the LESS THAN ZERO soundtrack. This surprising maturity is also found in the deep lyrics to “Jealous” (which is one of the more sparsely-produced tracks here) and the disturbing “Fast Peg” (which starts out like a typical ode to lust but comes to a chilling end).

The album’s biggest hit was the boasting “I’m That Type Of Guy” (#15 Pop, #7 R&B, #1 Rap), but the disc’s best macho anthem is actually the tight and very funny “Clap Your Hands.” Unfortunately, LL’s humor mostly falls flat elsewhere, with the dull “Big Ole Butt” and “1-900 LL Cool J” (both of which have no hooks or wit) being the prime offenders. Even worse are the crop of “I Need Love”-rip-offs. “You’re My Heart” succeeds due to LL’s intense performance, but “One Shot At Love” and “Two Different Worlds” are almost laughably lame.

The biggest problem with PANTHER is that it does not have enough quality material to justify it’s long 76 minute runtime and many of the strong tracks get bogged down by filler. However, PANTHER has more than enough strong moments to make it a good release. Interestingly enough, the B-side to the “Going Back To Cali” single (the terrific “Jack The Ripper”) wasn’t included here, even though it’s actually much better than half the songs that did make the cut.

2 Thoughts on “South DaCola music club w/ LL Cool J

  1. Oliver Surden on October 16, 2008 at 2:28 pm said:

    You need some Run DMC yo!

  2. Angry Guy on October 17, 2008 at 7:26 am said:

    or some Too $hort.

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