LL Cool J Talks New Album, The Force!

LL Cool J stops by to talk about his new album, THE FORCE, out now!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One today.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
LL cool J about to walk through the door. Katie
Perry is going to be here in about an hour,
all you know, talking about new music. Yeah, they're still
cranking it out Llo cool J. In the words of
Llo cool J, being an artist is not a part
time job. It is not a hobby. It's full time.
Let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Bring him in over the door, bringing Llo cool J?
Where's the intro?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Scary Bay.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Fly from the Mercedes Men Lounge. God always smells good too.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Daniels, Already, what do you saying?

Speaker 4 (00:39):
He said he's been up all night. That's why he
smells good.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
You smell like last night? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's gonna
sound exciting. Well guess what you're not? You and I
have something in common. Yeah, there you go. That's the spirit.
Having you here is such an honor. I'm happy to
be here, man. You know what.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And I got fortieth year in hip hop?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, forty baby like Brady and Lebron but
in music is you know what I'm saying? You were
all night? Where are you?

Speaker 5 (01:05):
Huh? No?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
No, I really wasn't. You went to are you went
to our favorite restaurant car Mines the other night hanging
out with me. I definitely went there and had some
incredible shrimp parmesan. It's unbelievable. Is the only Italian seafood
dish I will allow cheese on. Yeah yet and that
works though, Baby, it works. It was. It was mean
and vicious.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
It was mean and vicious baby for how many days
many since I've been since until now.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know, it's so great. There's like a dozen three
dozen great things going on to having you here with us.
I go back to the eighties when deaf Jam God
from New York City deaf Jam. I mean we're talking
about run DMC BC Boys.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
I mean, just what a roster. Yeah, so so run
DMC was actually on Profile Records, but the BC Boys won.
Deaf Jam Public Enemy is On was on deaf Jam.
I was on deaf Jam. Slick Rick and it really
just I was the first artist on deaf Jam. So
you know, it started at a Rick Rooms dorm room
and why you dorm room five university plays and you know,
started in the dorm room. A Rod from the Beastie
Boys heard my my demo, played it for Rick. Rick

(02:07):
liked it, and we ended up forming the label deaf Jam,
and I was the flagship artist and it was Russell Simmons,
Rick Rubin and myself.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You have you know that. I mean you no zero idea,
but I mean I did you know it worked out well? Yeah?
Ain't know? How'd you know then it worked out well?

Speaker 4 (02:25):
First hit? Like did you not say to yourself, wait,
I think there's something here?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Now?

Speaker 5 (02:30):
You say that way before you make the music the
song that's like an after like that's the end, like
you say, I know there's something here. When you become
a huge fan, you know what I'm saying, and you
start writing your music and you start creating, you know, art,
and you know what that that wave of hip hop
first hit me, so you get right on it.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
So it's way you know what I'm saying. So everything
that you're seeing now.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
Today where you're like, oh, hip hop's so big and
so many people are doing so much, well, in my mind,
it was already that big, you know what I'm saying,
because I started I was like first generation fans. So
when hip hop first started, there was a boom around
the five you know, the five borough especially in the
Bronx obviously, but there was a boom around the Five boroughs.
I was getting those tapes because I was in Long Island,

(03:12):
you know what I'm saying. Even though I was I
was raised in Queens, I also was in Long Island
and the kids the next door to me were forced
to kids. So he had tapes coming in from the
Bronx and so I'm hearing all this stuff early, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
What I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So now we get the Long Island connections because I
tell you why. The Long Island Welcome Center rest stop.
Yeah on the Long Island Expressway between exits fifty one
and fifty two. Yeah, look, you have your own cool
J has his own brick in the Walk of Fame. Absolutely,
absolutely so. I was born in Bay Shore. I was
born in Bay Shore. I rest up on the l

(03:43):
ie Man. It's pretty sexy here, Yeah, pretty sexy.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, it's pretty sexy, baby, baby, take a tra take
a ride with me on the trailer on the side.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's pretty sexy. Okay, So do you have a
you have a start in the Hollywood Walking five?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
I do. Is it across from the Hustler Store?

Speaker 5 (03:59):
Absolutely? Absolutely, absolutely, Now you know you made it. It's
just it's just over the threshold of the ustling stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah. Now, but it's it feels real good man.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
You know, the energy, the new album, the new record,
Working on new music after all these years is an
amazing feeling, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
We got to talk about this new album. Yeah, we
got to talk about that, play some of it. Yeah, Yeah,
that'll be great. That's great.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, No, hearing you talk about being part of deaf Jam,
even I guess before the creation of deaf Jam is
like hearing when people talk about, oh, Apple started in
my This is crazy, And I don't think people are
going to have that opportunity anymore to do something like that.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
But that's not true.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
There's always an opportunity to build something great. Dreams don't
have deadlines, you know what I'm saying. So there's always
gonna be there's always gonna be a new opportunity to
do something great, you know. But my life is full
of a lot of first like you know, like I
coined like the term goat that everybody like I coined
that in two thousand My album was called Goat and
you know, and I didn't.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Now had I known men? Now that's a hat I
have known men. I didn't trademark that. That is a
had to.

Speaker 5 (04:59):
I know, I gotta give you that one, you know
what I mean, We're gonna swap that out for the
death jail idea. And so to see that goat in
the popular culture, the way it's going and kind of
spread into other areas and just become like synonymous with
excellence is an amazing thing to see, you know what
I mean, one of them.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So Froggy's in Jacksonville. Froggy.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
His goat is, of course Tom Brady, Tom Brady. Had
you known him back then, Tom Brady would be involved
with the word goat. He should have to pay ll
every time somebody calls him the goat. But absolutely ll.
Let me ask you who is the goat? Is it Jordan,
is it Brady?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Or is it you? I think you can.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
I think it's subjective, and I think you can have
goats in many fields. And I think you can have
people that are on top of their game in many
many fields. You know what I'm saying. I mean, that's
the real answer. And in art, we know it's subjective,
you know what I'm saying. We know that people have
to decide who they love. But at the end of
the day, icon the term you know, what I'm saying,
and I just want to I just want to be
clear about that, you know, whether you think I am
or not, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Trying to trademark this, is it even possible anymore?

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Good life up, good luck? I mean, you can probably
get something, but you.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Know you'll be retired like twenty times over.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
No.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
No, because I do what I love. I don't if
I want to.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
If I was doing it for money, I would have
retired a long time ago, saying I'm doing it because
I love it.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
So what is next?

Speaker 6 (06:13):
Then?

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Because you've I feel like you've done everything.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
This record, this record is next.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
This the Force frequency is a real creative energy working
on music, showing people that you could continue to do
things you know, because you love them and because you're
passionate and you can you know, you can hit the
you can have cultural impact without you know, sacrificing your
artistic integrity, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Like that's the beauty of it. Look at this on
the Force. It's not only LLL Cool Jay. Look at this.
Look at this list.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I see Snoop Dogg on there, Yeah Nos yeah, Muster Rhymes,
Fat Joe, yeah, Eminem Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Are you with them and you're with them tomorrow night? Yeah? Yeah,
we at the VMA's. We're both performing at the VMA's.
Well here's are you're opening the VMA's that. Uh, why
don't we just see what happens?

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
No no no, no no no, you don't hit me
with the Oh yeah, I just said, let's see what happens.
She hit me with the yeah type of gas on it.
You know what I'm saying. I was up there lying, lying.
I just saw it right to the goat, transparent, transparent, yeah,
oh yeah, yeah. Hey what is it about?

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Of course from long line, but when you come to
New York City? What is it about the energy of
this city that's so different than any other place on.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Earth for you because you're meeting so many different cultures
and so many different types of people. Like this is
a place where it doesn't matter where you're from. You
could be the mane Erect the Herald Club at the
Ft this morning, and you still gotta walk next to
you know what I'm saying, people that are living everyday
lives and blue collar people.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So you know, New York is full of all kinds.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
But I think the thing about New York is that
you know, like like during the pandemic, I got the
opportunity to travel around the city anonymously.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
I don't get to do that a lot.

Speaker 5 (07:54):
So I had, you know, the sorry, I had a
mask on, I had, you know what I'm saying, my
hoodie on and I'm running and I went to like
the projects, and I was on the subway on but
different subway cars going all over the city. I was
on different public you know, transportation and doing things. And
you you'll be surprised at how quickly you forget what's
going on in the real world, and how you can

(08:15):
be in a bubble even when you don't know it
because you're jumping in your uber because you're going to
do your lunch, because you just jumping in your car
going to get your coffee, you know what I'm saying.
So you you like getting that opportunity, you realize how
real the city is and how much fabric, how much
energy is in the actual streets of the city, you
know what I'm saying. So, and that is why the
song thirty Decembers on the record. So it's like all

(08:36):
of those kinds of things are the things that make
it exciting to being New York man. I mean, it's
New York baby. There's two sides to New York City.
There's a side where it's bigger than you, It's bigger
than all of us. It's the other side is the
other side of this is if you conquer it here,
How big does that make you? Like?

Speaker 1 (08:52):
How important? How important is that?

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Well?

Speaker 1 (08:55):
You know, yeah, it's well.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
Listen, making your dream come true as an art form,
right like being able to you know, take a kernel
of a dream and turn it into a reality is
not something that is easy to do. But if you
can do it here, you know, in a lot of ways,
it's even more opportunity because you find different types of people.
So it's in a way you can kind of find
your niche in this city if you believe in it.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
You just can't.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
You just have to be comfortable in your own skin
in terms of what you're looking to do. You can't
be swayed by what other people say you're supposed to
be doing.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (09:30):
I get goosebumps listening to because I always come in
here saying like because I'm from New York, I'm from
the Bronx, and I say.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
It doesn't matter how long I've been here.

Speaker 7 (09:38):
Still walking around the city, I think this place is insane,
and I always think the same thing, like all different
people from all over the place, is what makes this
place tick.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
And I love the fact that even when they look
at you like you're dirt.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
You know what I'm meaning. Look at this dirt standing
next to me, and we're discusting dirtund.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Now that we are back to being masked free again,
will you ride the subway?

Speaker 5 (10:06):
It's possible. Really, yeah, Me and you we're gonna we're
gonna jump on the subway. It just rapp.

Speaker 8 (10:13):
And you go.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Do you know what I just saw? Your security guys
are going. Now, here's a list of things we're not
doing on it. Do you have any cash dollars? I'll
tell you why.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
See discover here straight Nate. Nate hit a microphone, so
he needs money, but he needs a refund from a concert.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Refu refund. Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Back in nineteen nineteen ninety ninety, I took a girl
to his very first concert LL Cool J's.

Speaker 6 (10:43):
It's outside and I had front row because I worked
at a radio station at the time. I'm like, oh
my god, I'm gonna got front row l cool Jay's
right there, and then you hit the stage, the crowd surge,
everybody's like and then everybody started singing. I didn't hear
a word that you said because everybody behind me was
singing and I couldn't hear you, and your ribs were
breaking on the fence, breaking.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I could not experience.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
So you, guys, so you've got some excitement in your
life once congratulation, did you take it?

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Bet? It?

Speaker 5 (11:13):
Did? You?

Speaker 1 (11:14):
At least let the girl stand in front of you.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
So she's doing in front of you, against the fence,
and you're against her, and he's on the stage, he's
doing the pushing for it.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
You're welcome. If anything, that was so fun?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Okay, COJ is here. We gotta talk about the force
the album all right? So, I mean it is your
fortieth year in hip hop, and it was that, of
course that was on your mind when you went into
the studio with your thoughts, with your spirit and with
all these people with you.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
What is this?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
What is It's the dumbest question in the radio, but
I'm going to ask the question, what's this album all about?

Speaker 1 (11:57):
For you?

Speaker 7 (11:58):
So?

Speaker 5 (11:58):
So the album is basically it's it's a cookout, but
everybody's invited. It's like the blackest album in the world.
But the thing is you're all invited and you can
all come and experience the force in a way that
you could be a fly on the wall. And I
talk about all the fun though it's not preachy.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's not. There's all different moods on it.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
There's aggressive songs, there's dangerous songs, there's sexy songs, song
called proclivities. There's a lot of different styles of music
on it and vibes, but there's you know, there's everything
from Murder Graham Toro, Like it's really an album that
is just about cultural impact and you know, like like
I give you an example, like thirty Decembers, I said,
I came up off the street, took some pissy steps

(12:37):
up to the belly of the beasts, which way I go,
kind of confusing. The machines that are not working, they
ain't no tokens or nothing. This thing that changed over
a sudden. It's like I died and came back. Different
places and faces on their phones and computers. No one
is reading the papers. So there's all kinds of just
different types of songs that deal with different layers of
of you know, life.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know what I'm saying. We're talking about proclivities that yeah, okay,
well proclivities.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Is you know, we all have it at your job
about a quarter past five, trick you into alley.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Wait, slap it on your bis talking. What do you
slapping on your thigh? You tell me what do you think?

Speaker 5 (13:09):
The tickets to my concert here, that's why I slap
it on up die, you know, a little tiny ticket,
a little tiny tickets to the concert.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Concert ticket, Slap it on my Yeah, you know what
I'm saying. But I gotta you know, I don't want
to play. You don't want to play. I gotta do murder? Yeah, Graham,
do you do like is?

Speaker 6 (13:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:38):
You know yeah, yeah, the head Yeah, I gotta play that.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I gotta pay. I'm gonna play the whole thing beautiful
now but not yet. Okay, now yet, let's talk about.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
That.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
As Danielle was saying earlier, I mean, we've seen you act,
We've seen you host. You hosted the iHeart Radio Music
awardsor Festival one. It was he it was heat a
couple of wars ago, and then you get into the studio.
Where's your first love. My first love is creating music.
You know what I'm saying, My first love is making
hip hop. I mean I do the hosting and all

(14:09):
that because I love to be close to music. I
only took the only reason I took time off it
kind of I might. I kind of heard you say
something earlier. But you can't be a part time artist.
You have to be fully committed. So I had made
it an album a while ago, but you know, about
ten eleven years ago. But it was experimental.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
I was doing the show, I was doing NCIS, I
was doing all this other stuff, and it just did
it felt phoned in unintentionally, but it felt phoned in
to me. So my first love is hip hop. But
you got to have the time to do things correct,
to do it well, you know what I'm saying, to
really be aggressive and get it done.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
So give me the quote again. Being an artist is not.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
It oh make it dreams come true as an artful
or being an artist is not a part time jar time.
You can't be a part time artist. You got to
be all the way committed to it. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
I love that whatever you're doing in life, whatever you're
passionate about give it, give it your own what up frog?

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (14:58):
So with Ella Ella, with the you know Shibboozi had
a number one song and jelly roll bringing kind of
the hip hop influence in the country, and Beyonce has
been involved in country, Morgan Wallin and Little Dirk. Have
you thought of ever getting involved into the country world
at all? Yeah, let me tell you so.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Man.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
You know, I already had a far way into that
and it was like a complete and total disaster like that.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
I don't even want to get into it. I can't
even say it on that way.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
I can yo broke, yo bro Already I played myself terribly.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna back up. I'm gonna back
up off that. I'm not saying that could never ever,
I have no I'm cool with country some of the me.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I love it live.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
It's a great music live. I have no issues with it.
But for right now, I'm gonna do this hip hop. Yeah,
I think I'm gonna say focus on the hip hop.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Man.

Speaker 9 (15:41):
It's changed so much though, I mean country has changed
a lot in the last five years. The the hip
hop influence can be seen throughout country very deeply now,
much more than it was probably when you tried it
back in the day.

Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely true. But one thing that hasn't
changed is the fact that I'm gonna stay with this
hip hop.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's what has it say. But but I feel you though,
you know, I do feel you. I feel you. I
love Theonce's Cowboy hat. Yeah great, I like the hat
a lot. You know what I'm saying. He's not backing
out of the stage.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I have so many questions about what happened.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Was it the song? Was it the promotion?

Speaker 5 (16:18):
What was it?

Speaker 1 (16:19):
It was the song? It was the song? Yeah, okay, yeah,
it was a song. It was it was just not
you know, it was just not We just saw the
name of the song. Move We're moving on? Yeah, not
so much, not so much. Yeah, was waiting. I gotta

(16:44):
get out of here. Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
So you're you're doing MTV video music words tomorrow. What
what else are you gonna do while you're in New York?
Not ride the subways?

Speaker 5 (16:54):
Tell her?

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Look, I do the country music. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
I still got my house here, so you know, I
love New Yalk and I'm here and I'm doing a
lot of radio, doing promotion I'm you know, I'm running
around telling people about this album.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Straight up, that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
I'm running around New York telling people about You know
what I'm saying, I damn they got picking signs up.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
I ain't playing all right? You know what I'm saying.
Your man, he's running around New York talking about this album.
So okay, let's talk about us, who we've been listening to.
We've been listening to you for years.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Thank you. You know, before you got here, I played
I Need Love. Yeah. Yeah, we've been listening to you
for years. But you have new people's turning you on
for the very first.

Speaker 5 (17:28):
Time percent And that's the beauty of it, right like that,
that's the whole idea is like, you know, it's kind
of like sports, right like Tom and Brady in sports
is you get new fans, you introduce new people. That's
what I wanted to show was possible because seeing hip
hop a lot of times because the genre is relatively young.
See people, hip hop is fifty years old, now fifty one, right,

(17:50):
people think that, oh that's a long time. Until you
have somebody transition at fifty one. Then you say, you
know what, that's not so old, So the genre is
actually not that old. So it's like, you know, for me,
what used to doing this? We used to artists going
and leaving and never making any more impact. Ever again,
we just kind of used that. We've been kind of
it's been ingrained in us that you can't continue on.

(18:10):
But I was just just saying with the Stones at
their concert, you know what I'm saying, watching them, and
I'm like, you know, I'm looking at Mick do his thing.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
I'm you know, looking at Bruce Springsteen do his thing.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
I'm looking at different artists that go all the way
and do their thing, and it's like that can be
done in hip hop as well. You know what I'm saying.
It's just the matter. We're just not accustomed to it happening.
So that's that's my goal. That's why I'm doing this.
And you know what I'm saying, I'm showing people that
you can really do this at a high level, not
just putting you know, mediocre.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Albums out. You know what I'm saying, Like, I'm really,
you know what I'm saying, doing this.

Speaker 8 (18:42):
You know, so with with all the collapse you have
on this album, especially with all of the you know,
these legendary artists as well, right, and you all have
different styles, how do you all work together together in
the studio and see how the cadence is going to
go in the rhymes.

Speaker 5 (18:58):
So so, first of all, the and I picked everybody
all of the different features on this record is because
of the sound of the music. When going Q Tip
from a child Cold Quest who just got inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So he's an amazing guy.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
When he started working on these things, when I would
hear the sonics and I'm starting to write the song,
and I'm like, you know what, this would be a
good And every song is not a collaboration, by the way,
but the ones that are, it'd be like, this would
be a good song for Nasoh, this would be a
good song for eminem. Oh, this would be a good
song for Swedi or whoever else it is we're playing.
I mean, you know we're putting on So it's like
I I you know, I would do that. Listen to

(19:31):
the sonics. Then I would hit the artist or he
would hit the artist, depending on who has a relationship.
Then we would go in the studio like with me
and em you know what, we did was you know,
Tip made the beat. I'm like, oh, I love this.
I think this would be great for me and M.
So I text M. I send him the beat. He
listens to it. He's like, yo, I like it all right.
So I'm like, yo, let's get together. So we go
out to La We going to Doctor Dre studio. He

(19:52):
gives us the keys. We run up in there. You
know what I'm saying, we you know, and we recall
the record. So I go in the book, I go
in the room, I'm writing my rhyme. I record my thing.
I leave out of the room. He goes in, he
writes his part. He comes out of the room, and
we went back and forth like that would see each
other passing in the hallway. Then at the end when
we kind of do a back and forth thing, we
were in the room together doing that last part. And

(20:13):
So in terms of cadences, that's like a guitar player,
that would be like you You've given a guitar player
an opportunity to do a solo, so they choose the
cadence on the record.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
You know what I'm saying, Wow, that's the vibe. Wow.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
So the album the force is more than an album.
It's in an event. Yeah, I would like to call
it that.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
I do.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
I would too on that I would too, Elvis, all right,
I gotta play, Uh, I gotta play, Murdogram do. Let's
do it.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
Check it out from the forest And the one thing
I want to say about the song is the key
to this song. This is about us showing lyrical skill
and the art form of rapping. You know what I'm saying.
So it's it's it's really about showing people how we
can put words together, how we can emc and how
we can command the mic. You know what I'm saying
when you listen to it. So check it out.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Thank you for coming into Bay my baking, Happy to
be he the force is the event, it's the album.
And of course llll cool J.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Everyone