| I Need Love | |
| Cover: | I need Love.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | LL Cool J |
| Album: | Bigger and Deffer |
| B-Side: | My Rhyme Ain't Done |
| Released: | July 13, 1987 |
| Recorded: | 1987 |
| Genre: | Hip hop soul |
| Length: | 5:23 |
| Label: | |
| Producer: |
|
| Prev Title: | I'm Bad |
| Prev Year: | 1987 |
| Next Title: | Going Back to Cali |
| Next Year: | 1988 |
"I Need Love" is the second single from LL Cool J's second album, Bigger and Deffer. The single reached number 1 on the Hot Black Singles and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 while becoming one of the first rap songs to enjoy mainstream popularity in the UK, rising to number 8 in the UK Singles Chart. The single won a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1988 Soul Train Music Awards. The song was listed as number 13 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs.[1]
A-side
B-side
| Peak position | |
| US Billboard Hot Black Singles[2] | 1 |
|---|---|
| Position | ||
| Belgium (Ultratop Flanders)[3] | 63 | |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[4] | 33 | |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[5] | 29 | |
| UK Singles (OCC)[6] | 97 | |
| US Hot Crossover Singles (Billboard)[7] | 17 |
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.[8] This song, along with other songs on a cassette tape of several raw recordings by Jayson Dyall, was presented to LL Cool J by an associate, who met Dyall through a music classifieds ad in early 1986 and told him he could get LL to listen to his music. Dyall never received any acknowledgment from LL Cool J or Def Jam Records for originally writing the music for this song.