The third album from LL Cool J, 1989’s Walking With a Panther remains his most divisive. Music critics praised it for his unwavering lyrical dexterity, while hip-hop purists berated it because the Baron of Braggadocio was baring more and more of his softer side. And while consumers drove the album to platinum status—thanks to hit singles like “Going Back to Cali”, “I’m That Type of Guy” and “Big Ole Butt”—Walking With a Panther wouldn’t reach the heights of 1987’s Bigger and Deffer. Still, Walking With a Panther is no footnote in LL’s discography. Lushly co-produced by L.A. Posse’s Dwayne Simon and LL Cool J himself, it’s a diverse panoply of 18 tracks showcasing everything the rapper does best: battle records, diss records, love records, crossover records, funny records and, in the case of “I’m That Type of Guy”, all of the above. The album’s biggest hit, “I’m That Type of Guy” marries LL’s new-found lothario persona to his endless surfeit of hip-hop boasts: “I’m the type of guy that loves a dedicated lady/Their boyfriends are boring, and I can drive ’em crazy/You’re the type of guy to give her money to shop/She gave me a sweater. Thank you, sweetheart.” The Casanova continues his reign on the cheating-heart story “Big Ole Butt”, a track whose rubbery, Zapp-fried beat is one of 1989’s funkiest—so irresistible, Ice Cube borrowed it on “Jackin’ For Beats”. Following the blockbuster success of “I Need Love” two years earlier, the album boldly includes a series of ballads, including “You’re My Heart” and “One Shot at Love”. But the greatest ego-tripper of the 1980s refuses to abandon the rough, rugged, battle-tested rhymes that built him, and he’s still going for blood on cuts like “Droppin’ Em” and “Clap Your Hands” (the latter features an especially ribald boast that UGK turned into an equally ribald track on their 1992 debut). Two more classic swagger raps, “Nitro” and “It Gets No Rougher”, get an extra layer of production chaos, courtesy of Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad. And Def Jam kindly includes “Going Back to Cali”, a song that dates back to the 1987 Less Than Zero soundtrack, but still sounds like the future—thanks to Rick Rubin’s cavernous 808s, some slow-motion scratching and a neo-noir sax solo.