The audacious cowl of LL Cool J’s Walking With A Panther immediately elevated the 1989 album to iconic standing. Flagrantly throwing off the standard success symbols of automobiles, money, and fashions, for his third studio undertaking on Def Jam, the Hollis, Queens-raised James Todd Smith determined as an alternative to pose in his signature bucket hat alongside an attitude-laden panther rocking a heavyweight gold chain. It’s a picture that’s now etched within the annals of golden-era hip-hop iconography.
Musically, Walking With A Panther performs out in a trend that’s change into LL’s calling card: The majority of tracks are powered by the MC’s supremely cocksure brags – full with the versatile boast “I’m so bad I can suck on my own dick,” which he drops on the funky guitar-infused “Clap Your Hands” – whereas a choice of rap ballads function LL switching right into a hushed model of supply (right here represented by “You’re My Heart,” “One Shot At Love” and “Two Different Worlds”). The undertaking can be notable for LL himself taking cost of manufacturing duties, together with choose behind-the-boards assists from The Bomb Squad on a few cuts, plus Rick Rubin commandeering the tremendous robust, stripped-down “Going Back To Cali.” Walking With A Panther was a industrial success upon its launch, topping the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart – and it’s a feat that was undoubtedly aided by the album’s daring and attention-grabbing cowl.
Listen to LL Cool J’s Walking With a Panther now.
The {photograph} used to introduce Walking With A Panther to the world was taken by Ricardo Betancourt, who moved to New York City in 1980 and started taking pictures album covers three years later. According to Betancourt, he snagged the gig after Def Jam head honcho Russell Simmons was struck by the work he’d produced for crossover Latin music star Ruben Blades’s Y Seis Del Solar album. When Simmons referred to as Betancourt, he admitted they’d tried to shoot a canopy for Walking With A Panther in Los Angeles, however weren’t satisfied by the picture.
“The problem they had was the panther they used in LA was sedated, and they thought she looked too much like a stuffed animal,” says Betancourt from his dwelling in Barcelona, the place he lives now. “I remember Russell asked me, “Can you get a live panther?” I stated, “Of course, we can get anything!” So we really obtained two panthers for the shoot: A younger, nine-month-old panther, and an older panther who was extra aggressive.”
Preparing for the shoot
After scouting a cobblestoned alleyway located near the West Side Highway and twelfth Street in Manhattan, Betancourt started to prepare the logistics of the duvet shoot: A 15-feet excessive fence was required to safe the situation, together with two policemen packing “high-powered guns” as a part of the insurance coverage necessities. During the analysis section, Betancourt was warned the panthers could be high quality as soon as they’d sniffed and checked out the world, however the one factor that would doubtlessly set them off could be a bout of lightning.
Betancourt remembers LL Cool J displaying as much as the shoot in his Mercedes Benz convertible, with instances of champagne he wished within the shot, and three ladies (one in all whom was Russell Simmons’s girlfriend on the time). Betancourt used these props throughout a warm-up session, however felt the picture was “too loaded.” Gradually, he subtracted the Benz, the champagne, and the ladies from the set “so we could concentrate more on the interaction of the animal and get the big similarity on eye contact between LL and the panther.” (An picture that includes the three ladies clutching bottles of champagne finally made its method to the report’s again cowl.)
Betancourt selected to arm himself with a Hasselblad digital camera and a 35mm wide-angle lens as a result of he wished to comply with Hungarian struggle photojournalist Robert Capa’s maxim that in the event you come away from a shoot with out a sturdy picture, it’s since you weren’t shut sufficient. Proximity to the panther could be key. Although Betancourt says, “I wasn’t worried about working with the panthers – to be honest, I was more worried about the policemen with the guns ’cause if the panther goes crazy and jumps on somebody, they’re going to have to shoot her, and I didn’t know if those policemen had any experience doing that.”
The panthers come onto the set
When the 2 panthers had been introduced onto the set, Betancourt remembers the youthful wild cat rapidly rising as the duvet star: “Her temperament was better. There was something very wild in the behavior of the older panther, but the younger panther was more playful – even though she scratched my assistant at the time and ripped his jeans in a playful way!” Heeding the recommendation about panthers not being notably enamored with lightning, Betancourt made certain to get the massive cats used to his strobe lights and flashes in order that they wouldn’t really feel provoked after they popped off.
While Betancourt and LL Cool J set about capturing photographs for the album cowl, they had been flanked by a few panther trainers restraining the wild cats with two leather-based leashes. These harnesses had been digitally erased from the pictures in post-production, making it seem as if LL was casually hanging proper subsequent to a fearsome massive cat. Betancourt remembers being cautious in regards to the thought to put one in all LL’s signature heavy gold rope chains across the neck of the panther, but it surely transpired a pretend gold chain had been sourced for the picture. The panther tolerated the jewellery with out challenge.
The {photograph} that emerged because the Walking With A Panther cowl is lit in a method that makes the brick buildings and cobblestone avenue surrounding LL appear to glisten. This impact took place after it began to drizzle with rain in the course of the shoot. ”The cobblestones obtained shiny and look higher after they’re moist,” says Betancourt, including that whereas the panthers weren’t happy with the water, no less than lightning – and potential chaos – by no means broke out.
The legacy of the album cowl
Looking again on his time with LL Cool J, Betancourt remembers the rapper was a breeze to work with. “He projected a very shy, kinda relaxed guy image, and everyone I talk to after said his temperament was always very cool,” he says. “LL has a self-preservation thing inside of him, like he’s not a guy to go and destroy himself with drugs. I think that comes from when he used to live with his grandmother in Queens, and I think she had kinda a leash on him.”
Digging into the core enchantment of the placing picture Betancourt, LL, and the panther made collectively, the photographer says it’s all in regards to the eyes: “Both LL and the panther have this connection, it’s directed into the lens, and that intensity makes the picture. We were close enough to get the image.” Reflecting on the album cowl’s influence and legacy, he provides, “When LL makes eye contact, and the panther makes eye contact, it’s double the power. That’s why that image has so much power 30 years later.”
Listen to LL Cool J’s Walking With a Panther now.
Editor’s word: This article was initially revealed in 2019.