AT THE AGE OF 16, LL Cool J broke out with "My Radio"; it was loud, arrogant, "raw as sushi," and captured the very shape and mode of the b-boy experience. Then he sang "I Need Love," a slow and sentimental love song that became a huge hit and drew boos from b-boys all over the world. He had sold out, and b-boys openly expressed their dissatisfaction. Two years later, LL Cool J redeemed himself with the mean and merciless "Jack the Ripper," but soon after that he produced yet another hit love song. It was clear that LL Cool J couldn't help himself: He was going to be both raw as sushi and as sentimental as a sweetheart.

These days, LL Cool J is no longer a dilemma for b-boys or b-girls, as he is not considered a legitimate rapper. He is now in the league of Will Smith and Queen Latifah, who are fundamentally big corporations with their hands in all aspects of the entertainment industry. But in his latest movie, In Too Deep, LL Cool J manages to tap into that soft/hard dichotomy which distinguished his early music career.

In In Too Deep, LL Cool J plays a drug lord who at one moment is extremely violent, and another extremely sensitive. It is a spectacular performance: LL Cool J is able to make the transitions quickly and smoothly. If he loves you, he does so without limit; if he hates you, it is with the fury of the Old Testament God. Indeed, his name in the movie is God. What is fascinating is that we never once find it odd or funny that his cronies address him as such, because, really, isn't this how gods express themselves, with total passion?

LL Cool J plays God so effectively that he destroys the primary function of the role, which is supposed to be a character who is so evil, so loathsome, that the audience delights in his inevitable demise by the film's end. But how can we hate a god? Gods are ultimately moral, perhaps only because it is from their extremes that we construct a clear moral order. Sadly, In Too Deep is structurally too weak to support LL Cool J's emotional breadth. One hopes that, in the future, better directors will just give in to Him, and let the will of God order the very meaning, substance, plot of their world.