When LL Cool J, on “I Need Love,” claims he “loves you more than a man who’s 10 feet tall”...does he think taller people are more capable of love? Or does he *really* love tall men? The odd (and possibly heightist) detail is typical of this foundational rap ballad, which fascinates because it never quite convinces. The truth-telling mission of rap and the artifice of pop pull in opposite directions, which makes these pop-rap hybrids all the more striking; the combination can be as powerful as “Juicy” or as fantastically silly as “Unbelievable.”