"I Need Love" is the second single from LL Cool J's second album, Bigger and Deffer. It reached #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 while becoming one of the first rap songs to enjoy mainstream popularity in the UK, reaching #8 in the UK Singles Chart. The single won a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap – Single in 1987. The song ranked #13 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs. Number 60 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. The drums were played with a Roland TR-808 and the keyboard tone was played with a Yamaha DX7 using the Fulltines patch.

A-side

B-side

The music, both melody and beats were lifted from an instrumental by Brooklyn songwriter Jayson Dyall entitled "Zoraida's Heartbeat" which was written and recorded in 1984. This song, along with other songs on a cassette tape of several raw recordings by Jayson Dyall was presented to LL Cool J by one of Cool J's associates, who met Jayson through a music classifieds ad in early 1986 and told him he can get LL to listen to his music. Jayson Dyall never received any acknowledgment from LL Cool J or Def-Jam Records for originally writing the music for this song.

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