Awesome Music: His best albums are generally considered to be Radio, Bigger & Deffer, Mama Said Knock You Out, and Mr. Smith.
Critical Dissonance: Walking With A Panther was roasted by the hardcore hip hop community(though it was eventually Vindicated by History), but was certified Platinum in 1990, and also had a Gold-certified single ("I'm That Type Of Guy") to boot.
Don't Shoot the Message: "Accidental Racist" provoked considerable backlash at the clumsy handling of a complex topic — namely, the lingering effects and divides from America's nasty history of slavery and racial segregation. While it is a very serious message which could work well, neither Brad Paisley or LL Cool J did a good job addressing it.
First Installment Wins: Radio is probably his most critically acclaimed album. Second is, obviously, Mama.
Memetic Badass: If the comments left on YouTube for the video to "Mama Said Knock You Out" are to believed. Those comments came after a burglar broke into LL's house and wound up with a broken nose and jaw.
Memetic Mutation: He and Jennifer Lopez recreating the "zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz" bridge from Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" on their "Control Myself" collaboration led to a big YTMND fad called "Zaza" in which characters (usually Zack the Black Ranger from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers) dance to this hook in various Photoshopped situations.
Nightmare Fuel: "Father". Over an eerie sample of George Michael's "Father Figure", LL describes the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and later, his mother's boyfriend in unflinching detail. The third verse reveals that when he was just four years old, after he and his mother had fled to her parents' house, his father got drunk, found them, and blasted both his mother and his grandfather with a shotgun (fortunately, they survived).
