LL Cool J's I Need A Beat was the very first release on Def Jam back in 1984, that is if you're not counting T La Rock and Jazzy Jay's It's Yours which was a joint release with Partytime the same year. It's a Rick Rubin production as all the earliest Def Jam singles were and while LL is in his early, pre-Radio form, he still manages to rock the bells and keep the crowd moving. This track also gets a co-writing credit from one A. Horovitz, aka Adrock of the Beastie Boys, although his name was strangely removed from the track's credits on Radio. The story I've heard is that Rick Rubin was already getting a little power hungry and decided half of the credit looked a lot better than a third. Of course, it could also have been to establish LL's reputation as an MC and the writer of his own rhymes, but I'm more likely to believe the latter story as Rubin's abuse of his relationship with the Beasties is legendary, especially since they contributed more to the start of Def Jam than they ever receive credit for.
This is the original version of I Need A Beat, as opposed to the version which appears on Radio which is a remix by Jazzy Jay, although it only notes that on the album's inner sleeve. You might have to listen with headphones to notice the beat has been tuned to LL's voice. The credits read "Reduced by Rick Rubin" and list J. Burzootie as the mix engineer. Burzootie also gets credit for a remix on the b-side. Herb Powers gets the mastering credit and the vinyl sounds like a million bucks! There is also a message in the runout groove from Herb, listed there as Herbie Jr., which states "You think this is f____d up, it's gonna get worse".
This and the MCA and Burzootie record, Drum Machine, are both on my dream list of vinyl to own, so I was totally shocked when I came upon this record the other day for a buck or two, and it's an original 1984 pressing to boot! Since I'm still lacking in the employment field at the moment I have made a conscious decision not to spend any money on entertainment, but with the holidays having just passed, me having a little extra cash in the pocket and knowing where I could snag a copy of the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack on vinyl, I decided to drop into a little shop in Kent called, I believe, The Vinyl Exchange. Nice shop, good selection, and lots of expensive rarities all along the walls, though there is a ridiculous section of cheap dance 12"s from the seventies through the nineties in the back of the store and I found this, along with some stuff from Wang Chung, Junior, Greg Phillinganes and Blowfly in that section for a total of less than ten dollars. The Graffiti Bridge vinyl, which is in great shape, was nine dollars and they wouldn't run the transaction on my card for less than ten so I went digging. I thought about posting the Blowfly 12", Rapp Dirty, for which the b-side, Blowfly's Rapp, is legendary, but I was legitimately afraid I'd offend someone, so if people want me to post that let me know. As for the rest of the stuff mentioned, there will be some more vinyl posted in the near future as well as some stuff I've been sitting on.
One important thing to note about this rip, while the vinyl is old and a little beat up it still played rather well, but I didn't bother with manual declicking and used iZotope RX's excellent declicking software. I just didn't want to sit around for an hour and half watching for clicks. As I've said before, all praise to PBthal and the other vinyl ripping geniuses, but I'm definitely not on their level! Enjoy!
LL Cool J - I Need A Beat
FLAC
V0 MP3
01 I Need A Beat (Vocal)
02 I Need A Beat (Zootie Mix)
03 I Need A Beat (Instrumental)
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