Released at a time when hip-hop's anxieties about crossover success were at a fever pitch,
Walking With a Panther found
LL Cool J trying to reinvent his sound while building on the commercial breakthrough of
Bigger and Deffer. Even though the album succeeded on both counts, it did so in a way that didn't sit well with hip-hop purists, who began to call
LL's credibility into question. Their fears about commercialism diluting the art form found a focal point in
LL, the man who pioneered the rap ballad -- and there are in fact three ballads here, all of them pretty saccharine (and, tellingly, none of them singles). Apart from that, some of the concerns now seem like much ado about nothing, and there are numerous fine moments (and a few great singles) to be found on the album. It is true, though, that
Walking With a Panther does end up slightly less than the sum of its parts. For one thing, it's simply too long; moreover, the force of his early recordings is missing, and there's occasionally a sense that his once-peerless technique on the mic is falling behind the times. Nonetheless,
Walking With a Panther is still a fine outing on which
LL proves himself a more-than-capable self-producer. The fuller, more fleshed-out sound helps keep his familiar b-boy boasts sounding fresh, and force or no force, he was in definite need of an update. On the singles -- "Going Back to Cali," "I'm That Type of Guy" (inexplicably left off
All World), "Jingling Baby," and "Big Ole Butt" --
LL exudes an effortless cool; he's sly, assured, and in full command of a newfound sexual presence on record. So despite its flaws,
Walking With a Panther still ranks as one of
LL's stronger albums -- strong enough to make the weak moments all the more frustrating. ~ Steve Huey