Electrifying Show From LL Cool J

One usually doesn’t mention LL Cool J and monks in the same breath, but there they were on stage together at the start of the veteran rapper’s show at the House of Blues on Tuesday, with bowed heads shrouded by dark hoods.

Then a strobe light flashed and the four comely clerics ripped their robes off to reveal bare, shimmying midriffs, while LL Cool J stood center stage demanding that the capacity crowd throw its hands in the air.

This kind of audience-stoking shtick is nothing new in hip-hop, but it’s usually a decoy to distract you from a dearth of musical ideas. Not so with LL Cool J. At the House of Blues, LL struck a balance between polished production flash and urban grit--and electrified the crowd in the process.

Delivering his raps with muscle-flexing bravado while green lasers beamed overhead, LL bounded back and forth across various phases of his career, from the early B-boy classics “Rock the Bells” and “I Need a Beat” to the laid-back funk of “Boomin’ System” and “Around the Way Girl.”

Sex has always been a big topic with LL, and Tuesday’s show was no exception. But his charisma is such that he can perform a bump-and-grind routine and not come off as lecherous, then croon “I Need Love” and make it sound like a paean to innocence lost instead of the erotic come-on it really is. That’s the key to his enduring appeal: He’s both Casanova and homeboy next door--as well as hip-hop’s master showman.