"I'm Bad" (sometimes written as I'm BAD) is the first single from

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...

's second album, '' Bigger and Deffer''. It was released in 1987 for

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

and was produced by the production group, The L.A. Posse and LL Cool J, with

Russell Simmons Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has p ...

executive producing the single.

Background

The song samples the " Theme from ''S.W.A.T.''" by Rhythm Heritage,

's " Rock the Bells", Federal Signal Corporation's famous Q2B siren, and an

interpolation In the mathematics, mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one ...

of the theme song from the 1960s syndicated animated series '' Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse''. It also uses a riff from "Daisy Lady", by 7th Wonder, which made the song being sampled at least 10 times.

Reception and legacy

I'm Bad made it onto several ''Billboard'' charts. It was LL's Hot 100 debut, reaching #84. It also hit #4 on the

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

, #2 on the

Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales The Dance Singles Sales was a record chart released weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine listing each week's best-selling Dance music, dance singles in the United States. Its previous names include Hot Dance/Disco 12-inch Singles ...

, #34 on the

Hot Dance Music/Club Play The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

, and #71 on the UK Singles Chart. "I'm Bad" was followed by the single " I Need Love" and " Go Cut Creator Go". The song was sampled in return in Deejay Punk-Roc's My Beatbox which appeared in '' Thrasher Presents Skate and Destroy'' as well as in Eminem’s "

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

" from the album of the same name.

Ice-T Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), known professionally as Ice-T (or Ice T), is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop music, hip hop and heavy metal music, heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground r ...

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (an abbreviation of ''disrespect'' or ''disparage'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feu ...

"The Syndicate" mimics the song's hook. The song was featured in the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

miniseries '' The Last Dance'', where it played in "Episode II" during

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

's historic playoff game against the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

in Game 2 of the first round of the

1986 NBA playoffs The 1986 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1985–86 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics defeating the Western Conference champion Houston Roc ...

in which he scored 63 points. The song was featured in the series

Everybody Hates Chris ''Everybody Hates Chris'' (stylized in all lowercase) is an American semi-autobiographical sitcom created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi that originally aired on UPN from 2005 to 2006, and then on The CW until 2009. The series is based loosely ...

, in the episode “Everybody Hates Caruso” in 2007.

Track listing

;The Bigger Side *"I'm Bad"- 4:39 ;The Deffer Side *"Get Down"- 3:23

References

1987 singles 1987 songs LL Cool J songs Def Jam Recordings singles Songs written by LL Cool J Hardcore hip-hop songs Song recordings produced by the L.A. Posse {{1980s-single-stub