LL Cool J "I'm Bad"

Rap is nothing if not boastful. Every rapper says they are the "best" and "greatest."

Of course, there can be only one "best," and for a while, LL Cool J was just that.

"I'm Bad" is a never-ending series of self-aggrandizing statements that actually held water. The young, brash New Yorker was a gold mine of album and single sales for a genre just starting to take off outside the East Coast.

Released when LL Cool J was 19, "I'm Bad" and its album, Bigger and Deffer, would put him and rap more squarely on a cultural map that widely did not considered the genre a serious form of music.

LL Cool J would go on to become a legendary rapper and go into acting, which led to him becoming a bit of a meme as his character in Deep Blue Sea would be one of the few black characters in a major-release 20th Century horror film to not only survive but be the hero.

Location: Michigan, USA

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