I Need Love


"I Need Love" is the second single from LL Cool J's second album, Bigger and Deffer.

Background

The drums were played with a Roland TR-808 and the keyboard tone was played with a Yamaha DX7 using the Fulltines patch.

Reception

It reached #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 while becoming one of the first rap songs to enjoy mainstream popularity in the UK, reaching #8 in the UK Singles Chart. The single won a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1988 Soul Train Music Awards. The song ranked #13 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs. It was Number 60 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

Track listing

A-side
  1. "I Need Love" – 5:23
B-side
  1. "I Need Love" – 4:15
  2. "My Rhyme Ain't Done" – 3:45

    Charts

Covers and samples

The music, both melody and beats, were lifted from an instrumental by Brooklyn songwriter Jayson Dyall entitled "Zoraida's Heartbeat" which was written and recorded in 1984. This song, along with other songs on a cassette tape of several raw recordings by Jayson Dyall, was presented to LL Cool J by an associate, who met Dyall through a music classifieds ad in early 1986 and told him he could get LL to listen to his music. Dyall never received any acknowledgment from LL Cool J or Def Jam Records for originally writing the music for this song.