G. O. A. T. (Greatest of All Time)

Funny thing about innovators: To stick around they have to become imitators. Though LL Cool J’s 1985 boom-box staple Radio showed today’s emcees how to work a mike, it now sounds like a tinny nursery rhyme. To stay relevant, LL has gone surprisingly hard-core: representin’ for his Rikers Island homeys, calling his Any Given Sunday costar Jamie Foxx a pussy, and boasting over electronica-fied beats and samples that his rhymes will “make your bitch’s nipples as hard as rocks.” But, hey, he’s still a romantic (remember: Ladies Love Cool James) and makes naughty exercises such as “Hello” (a phone-sex dramatization) and “Imagine That” (with a chorus that’s a dead ringer for Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”) downright stylish. Fresh? Hell, yeah. Innovative? Well, no.