It takes a special kind of arrogance to call yourself the greatest of all time. In all the discussions I've had with fellow heads about the subject, not once did LL's name come up. And yet, not only is he claiming the title - he has titled his latest album the G.O.A.T. Foolishness, or a legitimate claim?

First off, no one is sleeping on LL's contributions to hip-hop. In terms of longevity, there are very few artists who have been around for as long as LL with as much consistent success. However, does this make him the greatest? No. First off, despite commercial success, has he actually released a good album since Mama Said Knock You Out? Not until this one. So the truth is that this album is not bad at all, but it's also not nearly the caliber it needs to be for someone claiming to be the best of all time, especially when his last four albums blew.

The production is fairly typical LL fare. There's nothing groundbreaking here, and very little banging. The beats are mostly smoothed out R&B style beats. The producers line-up is pretty varied with Adam F., DJ Scratch, Havoc of Mobb Deep, Vada Nobles and James "Bimmy" Antney working the boards for Uncle L this time around.

Much like the production, the lyrics are nothing special here. LL does his usual 600 lip licks per minute. In other words, there's nothing here you haven't heard a million times before, either on LL's albums or on any other generic R&B (Rap & Bullshit) artist's

There are a couple of really impressive tracks on the album though. Check the imaginative fantasies on "Imagine That," or watch him flip the sample used in Biggie's "Who Shot Ya" on "LL Cool J." "Queen's Is" puts Uncle L beside Prodigy over the usual menacing production from Havoc and "Ill Bomb" just has that boom.

All in all, this album is a far better offering than LL's last few. Still though, for someone claiming to be the Greatest of All Time, it's substandard. LL just ends up looking like a real goat on this one - walking around nibbling, but never really doing anything significant. Sorry L, but some titles can't be claimed, they must be earned.