E-mail a friendLL Cool J
airdate April 11, 2006
Before segueing to acting, Grammy-winning hip-hop vet LL Cool J helped bring rap from the underground to the mainstream. However, he never forgot his roots. The Queens, NY native escaped an abusive upbringing and his own bullying attitude by falling in love with rap. By age 11, he was writing lyrics and, at 17, got his musical break. He's since had several platinum-selling albums and acting credits that include the sitcom In the House and the films Charlie's Angels and Rollerball. "Exit 13" is his new CD.
LL Cool J
Tavis: Pleased to welcome LL Cool J to this program. The acclaimed Grammy-winning hip-hop artist has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. (Laugh) Ain't mad at you, LL. Also a sought-after actor who was last seen, of course, in Queen Latifah's film 'Last Holiday.' His new CD is called "Todd Smith.' He first single from the new disc features Jennifer Lopez, and produced it is by Jermaine Dupri. Here now, some of the video for 'Control Myself.'
Tavis: I thought you said you weren't taking your shirt off no more, man?
LL Cool J: (Laugh) I don't know if I promised that. (Laugh) I don't know if I made that promise. I might have mentioned it.
Tavis: Put that up, Jonathan. I think you do this just to embarrass us, don't you? You do this just to embarrass those of us who ain't spending enough time in the gym.
LL Cool J: It could either be embarrassment or it could be motivation.
Tavis: (Laugh) I like that.
LL Cool J: It's according to how you look at it.
Tavis: Are you trying to dog me? (Laugh) You trying to get me to get my behind in the gym?
LL Cool J: No, I don't know what's under that shirt.
Tavis: Are you saying get to the gym, Tavis?
LL Cool J: You look like you're in shape to me, Tavis. (Laugh) I don't know what's under the shirt, but you look good to me, man.
Tavis: Always good to see you. How you been, man?
LL Cool J: Good to see you. Oh, I'm great, man.
Tavis: Every time I see your name, every time I see your face, every time we run into each other, get a chance to talk and break bread, whatever the case is, I am always, I mean always amazed at how you have stayed in this hip-hop game for 20 years. 'Cause that's, like, impossible. Rappers come and go so fast. And sometimes, it ain't got nothing to do with their talent. It's just that the game changes so quickly. But yet, you've been in it, and at or near the top of it, for two consecutive decades. What's your secret?
LL Cool J: It's a spiritual thing. God blesses those he chooses to bless. And you just have to operate in faith. You have to consistently root for people. You have to constantly be able to watch people succeed and be happy for them. You have to continue to love what you do and make decisions based on love and based on your spirit, as opposed to money.
I try to make decisions from a perspective of confidence and abundance, as opposed to lack, which makes me more patient. If you understand what I'm saying. 'Cause a lot of times, people just jump into anything because they think things might come to an end, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So you gotta kind of be patient and be confident and have faith. Man upstairs.
Tavis: I respect the faith answer, and believe me, I understand that firsthand. Beyond that, though, it seems to me that in a game like this, where the music and what the audience wants changes like the speed of light or the speed of sound, creatively, how do you navigate that?
LL Cool J: Well, what it is is, all right, that's the God part. What's my part in the thing?
Tavis: There we go.
LL Cool J: My part is...
Tavis: You did it in the right order, though. There you go.
LL Cool J: My part in the process is consistently loving what you do, paying attention. Not thinking you know everything. Keeping the spirit of humility. Not being afraid to try new things. Not being afraid to put yourself in a position where you may be embarrassed. Really loving what you do, and, like, working hard. Like, not being lazy.
A lot of times, it's laziness, and also not allowing success to poison your attitude towards people. When you win, not getting so full of yourself that no one wants to see you win again.
Tavis: Are you amazed that you've remained relevant for 20 years? When you see all the folk who, again, huge talent, but folk who've come and gone, folk who ain't selling records like they used to? Are you amazed, or did you, in the spirit of humility, did you expect this, given the game plan you knew you were putting together?
LL Cool J: No, I'm pretty amazed. No, I'm amazed. I couldn't sit here and tell you, Tavis, I'm not smart enough to orchestrate the career that I put together. You know what I'm saying? People, I call it a blessing, some people call it luck. Whatever you wanna call it, at the end of the day, I'm just very blessed, man. I've worked hard, but I didn't expect it like this. I don't, this is, like, (laugh) this is otherworldly. I just wanted to hear my record on the radio in '85 or '84.
Tavis: Well, take me back. Radio, '85.
LL Cool J: Yeah, '85.
Tavis: Take me back to what it felt like then to hear that first track on the radio.
LL Cool J: I was standing, I remember the first time I actually heard my song on the radio; I remember standing outside a game room. Well, the very first time I heard my song was on the radio. A guy named DJ Red Alert in New York played it. And he actually used it as a music bed, and was talking over it with other people, and just used my song as a music bed.
And I remember my friends saying to me man, they even talking over your song, (laugh) this is great. Yo. Like, a music bed. Oh, man, yo, they talking over your song. And then the first time I heard it on the radio, I was out at a game room on Farmer's Boulevard in St. Alban's, New York, in Queens.
And I remember it had rained the night, maybe the night before or earlier that day, so the street was real shiny. And I remember the moon hitting the street, and I remember, like, I was outside the game room, but I could hear the radio inside, and my song was on the countdown. And this guy came out and tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey, man, that's you.
And I just remember staring at the street, saying to myself yeah, this is what I wanna do with my life. Like, this is where I wanna be. So it was an incredible, incredible experience.
Tavis: What happens, I'm just curious about this now. What happens 20 years later, when you are in your car, walking through an airport, in a hotel, wherever you may be, your barber.
LL Cool J: Right; and you hear your song?
Tavis: And you hear your song now?
LL Cool J: (Laugh) Now it's according to what the song is. If it's a current song, it's amazing that I can still have a song on the radio now. And I'm, like, I feel incredibly blessed. Like, wow, this is some journey. If it's an older song, most of the time, it takes me back to that time period and the mindset that I was in. I guess like most people.
Tavis: Yeah, I guess.
Levy: But the mindset that I was in when I created the music. So, but I'm still very grateful. Very, very grateful for what's going on in my career and just very thankful, man. It's pretty magical. It's a blessing.
Tavis: I wanna talk a moment about how you've expanded that career beyond the music. Before I do that, though, the obligatory question. What's LL's view of how the game has changed over the last 20 years?
LL Cool J: I think that...
Tavis: At least you still around to critique it. Yeah. (Laugh)
LL Cool J: (Laugh) Yeah, yeah. Could be a lot worse.
Tavis: Yeah, could be different.
LL Cool J: I hate them; they ain't nothing; they ain't doing nothing now, and never did. (Laugh) They didn't do, I did that in '85.
Tavis: Exactly, yeah. (Laugh)
LL Cool J: Yeah, man, that's ugly. Jesus. (Laugh) God almighty. (unintelligible) He ain't got no teeth; I ain't got no teeth. (Laugh) You right, you right. Yeah. No, looking at the game now, I guess it's kind of like, the one thing that's, the only thing that I would say, if I had to be critical, because let's go straight to the criticism.
I can give you a lot of positives, but the one critique, being as that's the word you used, the criticism I would give is that there's room for more love in the music. And there's room for better treatment of women in the music. Like it's interesting, I made songs about women my whole career, and love and relationships, and I did that before I had daughters.
So it's not like my daughters caused that. But as a guy who has three daughters in addition to a son, but three daughters, when I look at the way the girls are treated in the video, it's not that I don't wanna see somebody look sexy. Please. It's not like I don't think a woman can be in a bikini, that's ridiculous.
But sometimes, it's the way they're treated and the way they're constantly portrayed that can get a little, I think, it can be a little disappointing. A little disappointing. I think that a woman has the right to look at this music and look at the videos and be inspired to be something more than just one thing. And I think that's the only thing that I see as a problem.
That, and just there's room for more love. I think a little less anger, a little more love; I think the music would be a lot healthier. I think it's just a little one-sided now.
Tavis: But you're not hating on the "Around the Way Girl,' though.
LL Cool J: No, no. No, no, no, no. "Around the Way Girl,' but see, "Around the Way Girl' was about the girl next door, lifting her up. And I want a girl with extensions in her hair, bamboo earrings, like, I was...
Tavis: At least two pair.
LL Cool J: Yeah, I was describing a young lady. I'm not, like, trying to come down on anybody, don't get me wrong. Like, I don't wanna come down on anybody. I'm just saying that if you're really honest with yourself, and if you really look at hip-hop today, there is definitely room for women to be more than strippers in video.
Like, come on, like, let's just call it what it is, and not try to sugarcoat it. That's the truth. Now, that doesn't mean I'm judging young ladies who do that for a living, because you don't know why people do what they do, so you can't judge. But what I'm saying is in a video where a rap artist has the choice of how he wants to portray the women...
Tavis: He can do better, yeah.
LL Cool J: Yeah. And if you did the stripper video once, don't do it nine times. (Laugh) Do it once and then something else eight times. Or do it four and a half and four and a half, whatever you gotta do. (Laugh) Just mix it up.
Tavis: You are mixing it up in a variety of ways. You have gotten serious about this acting thing, really serious about it.
LL Cool J: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it because it gives me an outlet that's different from music. It gives me a chance to be creative in a different way. In the bible, they have a parable of the talents. And one of the keys to that parable was that you have to use everything you have, not just one thing.
Tavis: If you don't use it, you lose it.
LL Cool J: Exactly. And not only do you lose it, but you suffer because of the loss. You get cast out. So my thing is, if acting is something I have the ability to do, I wanna do more and more, and become more and more successful in it. Yes, I'm more accomplished in music, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try wholeheartedly to take my acting career to the next dimension. So that's what I'm doing.
Tavis: Let me wrap our conversation, LL, by going back to the beginning. I wanna close where we began, 'cause you just said something that just got my attention. When you spit out a biblical reference, and you know the text, you didn't just reference it. You know the text; you know the story; the parable; these didactive narratives.
Jesus used in the New Testament and the four gospels, at least, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So you know your stuff. Matter of fact, I ran into you at church one time, in Queens.
LL Cool J: Yeah, Allen AME.
Tavis: With, with Floyd Flake,our friend. Okay. So last time I saw you, matter of fact, was at that church. I wanna go back to that to close our conversation because it is so uncommon, I think, for folk to see rap artists and god-fearing in one place. You follow? It's almost oxymoronic to see a rapper who is god-fearing.
A rapper who knows the Bible. A rapper who's giving you a biblical admonition; a rapper who pays his tithes. I read something you said once that you don't, I'm paraphrasing. Matter of fact, I wrote it down, 'cause I wanted to get it just right. Quote, you don't do good and then give. You give, and then do good.
LL Cool J: Yeah, exactly.
Tavis: How does all this exist in one person? Rapper; God-fearing brother. Paying his tithes, no less.
LL Cool J: It's the grace of God. It's the grace of God. He gave me a platform to say Jesus on. He gave me a platform to say I believe in God on. And if your cup runneth over, it has to be full first. So, my cup is full, and now it's running over.
Tavis: The Right Reverend Doctor (laugh) LL Cool J. But out with a new CD, bam. And the first CD, the first single, 'Control Myself,' featuring J Lo. He does it all. I love you, man.
LL Cool J: My man. Love you too, brother.
Tavis: Nice to see you.
LL Cool J: Much love. Congratulations.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
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