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Mama Said Knock You Out was released on September 14, 1990, by Def Jam Recordings. It was promoted with five singles, four of which became hits: "The Boomin' System", "Around the Way Girl", the title track, and "6 Minutes of Pleasure". The album was certified double platinum in the United States, having shipped two million copies. According to Yahoo! Music's Frank Meyer, Mama Said Knock You Out "seemed to set the world on fire in 1990", helped by its hit title track and LL Cool J's "sweaty performance" on MTV Unplugged. The title song reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA. LL Cool J won Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1991.
In The New York Times, Jon Pareles wrote that Mama Said Knock You Out reestablished LL Cool J as "the most articulate of the homeboys", sounding "tougher and funnier" rapping about "crass materialism" and "simple pleasures". In Mark Cooper's review for Q, he wrote, "This 22-year-old veteran has lost neither his eye for everyday detail nor his sheer relish for words." Select magazine's Richard Cook said, "LL's stack of samples add the icing to a cake that is all dark, remorseless rhythm, a lo-fi drum beat shadowed by a crude bass rumble. It could be Jamaican dub they're making here, if it weren't for LL's slipper lip." Mama Said Knock You Out was voted the ninth best record of 1990 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice. Poll creator Robert Christgau later named it among his 10 favorite albums from the 1990s.
The album was included in Hip Hop Connection's "Phat Forty", a rundown of rap's greatest albums: "The LP's title track proved to be the single of the year and probably LL's best record since 'I'm Bad', while 'Eat 'Em Up L Chill' and 'To Da Break Of Dawn' was the sound of Cool J getting his own back – and in style." In 1998, it was listed in The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. In 2005, comedian Chris Rock listed it as the sixth greatest hip-hop album ever in a guest article for Rolling Stone. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 246 on their updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The hip hop duo Run the Jewels took their name from a lyric on the album's sixth track, "Cheesy Rat Blues".
Notes: The single version of the track "Jingling Baby (Remixed but Still Jingling)" was remixed by Marley Marl. "The Boomin' System" is censored on all editions of the album. The 12" single has the uncensored version.
Mike, Killer (June 26, 2013). "Doubling Down with Run the Jewels". Interview Magazine (Interview). Interviewed by Erin Brady. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 169.
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