LL Cool J is easily one of the most important rappers around because he’s been active since the early days of hip-hop’s commercial success. Read his thoughts on maturing in the game, what he says is his best work and the keys to his successful marriage.
THAT'S MY JAM: Speaking of the hip-hop community, I know a lot of people like to say, “Oh, LL, he always makes stuff for the ladies.” Will there be something for the fellas this time around on this album?
LL COOL J: Well there’s a lot of stuff for the fellas, you know what I’m saying? There definitely is and there’s definitely a balance. I think those statements are more prevalent with guys that are probably under 25 or 26 because they’ve been exposed to certain singles like “Luv U Better” and they don’t really know like a lot of my catalog or my history. Even younger than that, maybe even 23. So a lot of times, because they don’t know my history, they kind of assume that’s all I do because they base it on a single, so they don’t know about “Rock the Bells” and they don’t know about “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “I’m Bad” and just all those ― and “Going Back to Cali” and “Jack the Ripper” and “To Da Break of Dawn” and “Illegal Search” and “Jingling [Baby] ― like, all these different songs that I’ve done, you know what I’m saying? They think that “Hey Lover” and “Doin' It” and “Loungin’” are the ― and “Luv U Better” and the records I did with J.Lo ― are all I have to say as an artist.
OK.
But I take responsibility for that because those were the formulaic records that I was creating while I was making movies, TV and all the other things, so I didn’t educate them properly ― I don’t think ― on what I’m capable of doing beyond that. So this album definitely touches that, addresses all of that as well.
And additionally with that you’ve got a mixtape coming out, too.
Yeah, I have a mixtape that dropped about four or five days ago. It’s doing real well, it’s called Return of the G.O.A.T. It kind of addresses a lot of those issues. It definitely addresses the haters, all the different things that people say and I’m touchin’ ’em, you know what I’m sayin’? You gotta check it out.
OK. One of the things I heard about that mixtape is that you have a song called “Laptop Gangsters” and I was wondering if you could elaborate on your inspiration for that song.
Yeah, it’s very simple, it is what it is. You know, I even have a line in there that says “Laptop gangsters wanna see me gone/Need to get off the site and click back to the child porn” because you have a lot of these guys that go on ― they go on the Internet and leave comments, and just overly criticize and degrade everybody’s work without knowing where it’s emanating from or without really taking the time to understand what the artist is doing. People have a right to say what they want, but I also have a right to call them laptop gangsters, so we’re even.
Makes sense.
And that’s just the bottom line to it, you know what I’m saying? I’m being as blunt with some of the people that leave comments on the Internet as they are with me. I love it, it’s fine, they’re not going to stop and neither am I, so we can just take it to the top. I’ll see you at the top, baby.
Sounds good. Going along with that, you’ve had some pretty famous beefs over the time that you’ve been in the game. Do you currently have any that we don’t know about yet?
Nah, I don’t have any beefs.
OK. How do you maintain that?
Just make great music. I don’t have any beefs. My biggest beef is with myself and challenging myself to make something better and greater and touch the people, and show them that I’m capable of going to the next level musically. But nah, I don’t have any beefs.
Come back tomorrow for part three of "The Greatest of All Time."
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