Somehow I completely missed this amazing original mix of LL’s ‘Illegal Search’ until I picked up the 12″ of ‘Jingling Baby’ last year. For starters, it reminds me of Little Shawn’s ‘Hickey’s On My Chest’, which was released three years later with Howie Tee’s take on the same James Brown loop and still rocks on to this day after hearing DJ Clak Kent going berserk like Red Alert with two copies. But more importantly, this single marked the point where Cool J shook off the doldrums of the tepid reaction to Walking With A Panther and hit his stride again as a top-tier rapper, despite the legions of contenders to the throne.
This is cool but I’m glad it wasn’t the official version because I don’t want to live in a world where Hickeys On Your Chest doesn’t exist.
I still wish LL and Marley would have put THIS version on “Mama Said…” instead of that diet New Jack Swing version…
i’ve been playing this for 30 years and mentioning for it just as long-finally someone else has mentioned it. One of Marley’s best remixes.
Oh, it’s not the 12″ version- which is what i thought it was.