I Need A Beat introduced the world to LL COOL J and his energetic delivery, prolific pen, and the beats and rhymes formula that would dictate his next few releases. Rick Rubin always desired to re-create the sound of the early park jams that happened before rap records, and he wasn't a fan of the full band production on rap records prior to 1983. On the credits of "I Need A Beat", it reads "reduced by Rick Rubin". That wasn't a typo, his aim was to reduce the records by leaving out the guitars, horns, kazoos and keyboards contained in early rap recordings.
When asked what his favorite era of his career is, LL doesn't hesitate to reply that he loves them all. He then ponders a moment and says, "my very first song, 'I Need A Beat'. Being a kid and finding T La Rock's 'It's Yours' on Def Jam productions and sending my demo off to Rick, Ad Rock passing that tape off to Rick, and making that first Def Jam 001 on the label, it's the most exhilarating feeling in the world to have a dream and feel it come true.