Editor’s note: With the help of the Oh Word designed OHHLA database, 40 Dawg submits the lyrics from what is arguably the greatest rap song in the history of microphone recordings.
Rock The Bells (1986)
Rumor has it that you’re tired of my scratchin’ and drums
And of couse I wanna expand to the maximum
So I inject in one more element to that of L.L.
Came up with something’ funky called Rock the Bells
During this episode vocally I explode
My title is the king of the FM mode
See, my volume expands to consume
And my structures emote a lyrical heirloom
Vocally pulsating, I initiate gyrating
Ya must respond to my bells, there’s no waiting
For the duration, there’s no articulation
Receiving ovation for the bell association
The vocalization techniques I employ
The voice of my shadow could take a toy boy
The injection of bells into this beat
The result-enough evergy to amputate your feet
Greater insulator microphone dominator
My name is Cool J, manipulator innovator
Connoisseur, I’m sure my percussion will excite
These bells are gonna rock all night
Rock the bells
The bells make your energy escalate
A sort of musical fury L.L. might detonate
Subject matter entitled “The Bells”
The lyrical arrangement is by L.L.
My program strains the tympanic membrane
I’ve been ordained the best believe I’ll flame
Paragraphs I concoct, Cut Creator’s like an organist
Cool J exists as a journalist
I illuminate over any number on the Richter
My throat contracts like a boa constrictor
You’re totally engulfed by the structure and the format
It’s not dormant, it goes to the core, man
As you repain, you’ll say I went
To torture individuals for excitement
Ambassador, the Thane of Cawdor
Dialect so def, it’ll rip up the floor
Ignite and excite with verbal extensions
What I’ll mention will put you on pension
Makin’ you tremble, nothin’ resemble
The bells and if it don’t
I disassemble
hit if you bit
I go have a fit
The master impresario of lyrical wit
A hip-hop creature, concert feature
Amateur teacher, my rhymes reach ya
When I commence with excellence
It eradicates levels of pestilence
Upon a plateau
No mortal can go
Mythological characters stand below
Rock the bells
A B-boy symphony complete with bells
No classical fanatic is parallel
From the design of my lyrics many people call me
An immortalized B-boy prodigy
Eeee a misdemeanor, cleaner women I subpoena
No conjecture in my lecture, name and adversary Gina
Promoter, my tune revolves like rotor
Wild style decoder, the cranium of Yoda
Rehearsing steadily, growing I sing tweeter, mid-range
And woofers need guarding
The bells rip your auditory canal
Plagiarism is suicide for then I shall
Be forced to assault
Our position will halt
Upset you with words
Drink your blood like it’s a malt
Opposite of illusions
Evidently it’s true
The beat metabolism supposed to accelerate you
Hallucinating severe convulsion
Your equilibrium is took from my propolsion
I came here tonight to rock
These bells will never stop
Rock the Bells
Ya livin’ off my lines
Autographs I sign
Inferior fan-recorder of my rhyme
Perfect spectator, well I’m the dominator
You rely and refine, it and you save it for later
Swipe it as you type it
You recite it as you bite it
Then you claim it as your own to get them excited
About it as you shout it
You don’t tell them how go it
And you repeat it and rock it
Multiply it, divide it, ya even sit inside it
It’s L.L.’s rhyme, I know ya wanna bite it
You announce, I pounce, destroy, annihilate
If you break, you’ll be straight when I eliminate
You study lke scholars and you write ’em on your collars
You’ll bomb and you’ll try before a million dollars
I get like a leopard, attack, ransack, disturb, cold crush
Use a line, I make ’em hush
The lovers in the taker, faker, lovers of the Lakers, simulator
Rap traitor,l perfect perpetrator
To see ya as you bit the words
You’d think you never heard
The mike sings like a hummin’ bird
Rock the Bells
Jack the Ripper
King Hercules
Professor of Death in the Seven Seas
Grim reaper of rhyme
Holder of the rock
Eradicating suckers all around the clock
The supreme machine
A microphone dream
My revenge is brutal when you start to scheme
I mean, you’re my adversary, I enjoy the feud
No Peruvian rock, cocaine or quaalude
The story, the beginning of your death is heard
But your cries are ignored by the kind of word
I’m the super insane murderer in the rain
Like a vampire goin’ for your jugular vein
Exterminating crews with my manuscript
And the best thing you wrote was a bunch of bullshit
The night of the nights
You’re my victim tonight
You ain’t nothin’ nobody so get outta any sight
Bein’ crushed by the source
It’s reinforced (thoughts)
Now ya feel remorse ’cause ya know who’s boss
L.L. Cool J is your undertaker
Def hit-maker plus a bone-breaker
Treble terminator, bass mutilator
You can drop your drawers, I’m a rapper castrator
On the microphone you will never recoup
When I’m finished with you, boy, you’ll be suckin’ on soup
Music virtuoso, melodical employer
I knew you was a sucker, first time I saw ya
Roll the red carpet, royalty’s arrived
Don’t try to fight back ’cause you won’t survive
So don’t never ever in any kind of weather
Try to mess with the tall young legend in leather
L.L. servin’ ’em well
The beat elevates and the scratch excels
Rock the Bells
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ERRRRRRRAGHHHHHHHH! |
My XXL Comments..
I think the problem is this:
1. This joint is older than most of you nigglets who post here (at XXLMAG).
2. Problem with most nigglets is that even with a link right there, cats don’t listen you just comment. The uninformed comment basically nullifies itself.
3. Considering that this lyrical massacre is older than Rakim and Kane’s careers and this actually predates The Golden Era, cancels out that point. The credit was given for ’86 when the 12″ was released but this song is closer to early ’85.
4. Considering that most think a man kissing prison-yard Maytag bitch is the “hottest in the game” because he just babbles his pharmaceutical induced sillyness I find the response to this hilarious.
5. LMAO @ all of you bring up Can-I-Bus. I’m sure none of you even thought of Lil Jermaine since 2nd Round K.O. Yeah he got LL on that joint, but this record was made when Can-I-Bus was still watching Sesame Street. Also when you idolize kids who get a dick-eating tattoo well then you’re starting at a negative in the manhood category. But then again y’all love Wayne…
6. I don’t consider LL the GOAT, but this lyrical beatdown is unfathomable especially considering the time it dropped. I think Ghost is better than LL and he’s even awed by this rap.
7. I’m gonna leave it on the God Degree. To quote Ghost, “You can’t feed a baby steak”. But the problem is most of y’all got your grown teeth in and slapped a grill on them but still stuck suckin’ on that baby food.
DICK IN YO’ MOUF ALL DAY.
FREE KENNETH MCGRIFF.
Yes…”Rock The Bells” is a lyrical and sonic masterpiece hands down. Add to the fact that homie was only 16 when he recorded it and it’s a wrap. Since I was 9 or 10 when this dropped (2 years before I ever even heard from Kid Wizard Rakim outta Wyandach, Long Island) I remembered how crazy this song was. LL also was a huge Grandmaster Caz fan and he seemed to channel T La Rock’s flow sometimes.
It kills me when I hear accusations by Just Ice that LL’s cousin wrote his joints for him during the early days. I can’t call it cuz I wasn’t there…but I know that this is definitely a Top 5 all time joint.
Sorry, I’m still going with The Microphone God over Uncle L. Between his first two 12″s and subsequent LP, it’s a done deal for me. I feel you, though.
One.
^Dart… and all other future readers. I will say my top 10 of all time ranks as such (and this is MY HUMBLE OPINION):
1. Rakim Allah
2. Nasir Jones
3. Ghostface Killah
4. Ice Cube (pre-gettinghisfeelingshurtandgoingallWessideConneckgang)
5. LL Cool J
6. Big Daddy Kane
7. Chuck D.
8. GZA/Genius
9. KRS-One (before he claimed he WAS hip-hop)
10. Jay-Z
But in having this discussion with Dallas I have to separate singular lyrical performances as opposed to top 10 talent. I like to compare rap to the NBA all the time. Where as Jordan is arguably the best of all time, comparing songs are like best singular games. Some of the great punchlines can be equated to an incredible dunk (ala Starks on Jordan, Pippen, and Ho. Grant). Great albums are like great seasons – and careers are careers. For example GZA cracks my top ten but I think “Liquid Swords” is one of the greatest lyrical album of all time (and arguably neck & neck with “Cuban” and “Clientele” for greatest Wu solo project.) “Nation Of Millions” to me is like the season when the Bulls went 72-10 DAMN NEAR FLAWLESS.
I think if we are to discuss hip-hop critically and academically then we need consistent criteria that is akin to the structure found in academia or any other discipline where there is measured understanding and performance strata. Unfortunately most of the youth who take hip-hop for granted as some disposable, deleteable, downloadable commodity “greatness” is only defined by how many records or ringtones they sell, or rattling off the bank accounts of rappers like they’re their own dollars. When you measure solely on “being hot” you’re automatically limiting yourself because its such a relative term. Boiling lead is cold compared to the sun. And all hot things even the Sun itself eventually cool.
I like to say… ‘Nuff Said.
welp thats all folks…
Yo 40, I feelin’ you (NHOC) of that GZA. “Fame” is one of my favorite songs ever by him.
Word up on that KRS (I am hip hop). Boy has lost his mind.
This was the L.L. I liked…before he became “Hot Lips Hoolihan”.
On a sidenote, for those of us lucky to be alive when Rock The Bells dropped……there was no HARDER song out. Hip Hop was new and exciting and up to this point, the trend was mostly playful and fun. This joint came out and it was HARD AS HELL. LL broke it down with this and yes, he was just a teenager.
Excellent post 40.
Sorry folks, but I don’t think there’s anyway in hell that LL Cool J wrote this verse.
Reading it bar by bar, it sounds like a mixture of Rakim, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane and GZA ghostwriting.
If no one told you that this was by LL Cool J and read the lyrics, I doubt any hip hop fan would say, “Oh yeah, that’s easily LL spitting that shit.”
When would LL ever be heard saying these bars:
“Evidently it’s true
The beat metabolism supposed to accelerate you
Hallucinating severe convulsion
Your equilibrium is took from my propolsion”
This sounds dead like Rakim.
Artists grow, mature and sharpen their skills–but how could LL be so advanced in 1986 with these lyrics and then not flash this brilliance again?
^Simple this sh*t didn’t sell… But he realized he had a formula with “I Need Love”. Also LL was a major dust head, and mixed coke with his weed as a kid. Along with his short stint as a 5% as a kid I’m sure with all those things this verse was more than easy for him to knock out. You apply those same ingredients 10 years later and you got Ghostface…
Thank you 40
LMAO at Amadeo
When ever people start ranting on about PAs, or BIG, or lil wang Being the greatest at this or that.. I always throw LL at therm. Granted not one of my favorite artists anymore (lost faith when started that Cali ish…), he is still on my list of GOATS.
LL is about 12 albums deep, I think all of them went gold and at least half went plat(dont quote me just guessing!)
Im with 40, cant just say an artist is hot. There a new HOT artist every day. MiMS was hot, now hes not. I think consistancy and creativity have to be looked at together. The ability to make CREATIVE music CONSISTANTLY is who gets the GOAT award.
Take Ye toodles, ALL of his work is way creative, not all of it is good, now if he can remain consistant he can start claiming that GOAT award. The fact that not all of his good doen’t change much for me because I think an artist that does his own thing, and doesnt copy the music formula of the week is way greater than any artists that drops ten songs that all sound the same because they use same formula(Just Blaze anyone?).
^^Zilla I gotta disagree…Maybe GZA, maybe MOE, but the GOD MC? The RAKIM I remember, (and its been a minute), while having complex rhyme flows, was not using all those mulitsyllabic words. Shit, I dont think he ever read a dictionary. Not that LL would have either. I think Caz influnced him greatly if he didnt actually write the shit for him.
I thought you were talking about the remix. Yeah, I’m with 40 on this. The original version of Rock The Bells was LL at his best lyrically. This from a kid that was rocking shows then falling asleep in class the next day. Son was a lyrical prodigy too. Eff what ya heard.
Lion XL,
If LL wasn’t reading a dictionary that nigga was definitely reading MacBeth…
“Ambassador, the Thane of Cawdor”
Crazy.
It’s funny how Dart mentioned T La Rock. T La Rock’s Def Jam career got ethered by LL before it even got rolling. L was younger than T so Hustle Simmons went that route. LL was even rocking the Kangol.
I understand LL stuck his formula, but there’s absolutely NOTHING else in his catalogue that spans 20 years that even comes remotely CLOSE to this.
LL doesn’t need to be a lyrical messiah on every track, but I don’t understand how he could be this vicious once in 1986 and then never truly flex that muscle again.
It’s almost like Cappadonna’s verse on “Winter Warz”
^^^LMAO @ The Cappa reference. Good point.
^ “…we paid our debts for mad years, hibernate a sound and now we out like bears…”
Wow… LL Cool J huh? No Biggie Smalls in anyones comment?
Personally I like KRS One. Love is going to get ya (not sure if that is the actual name of the song) is the best song in the history of rap.
You can hear the Rock the bell song on Dame Dash sneaker website Pro-Keds (which by the way,has some pretty fly sneakers coming out) and I didn’t think it really deserves greatest rap song EVAR. It is a good rap though
I guess to each his own.
The greatest rap song ever is Beat Street by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five.