LL COOL J and the force of hip-hop (pt.2).
Image: Chris Parsons.
LL COOL J is the first rap artist to have recorded ten consecutive platinum-plus selling albums and his musical significance has been recognized through such tributes as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In the second part of our interview, he talks about his fourteenth studio album, The FORCE (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy).
Although The FORCE will be released in a very different musical and commercial landscape from the one he occupied when starting out, LL COOL J was determined that it would preserve the craft and values of the original hip-hop. “To create a real record that is innovative, fresh and true to hip-hop culture, you need the four pillars”, he says, referencing the foundational hip-hop elements of DJing, rapping, graffiti and breakdancing. “A record like mine, you have to have the four pillars because you're not going to have a song like ‘Basquiat Energy’, you're not going to have songs like ‘Murdergram Deux’ because the MC aspect isn't important to you. There's certain things that you gotta have in order to make an album like The FORCE.”
It was originally slated for release in 2015 but instead LL COOL J announced his retirement from music to focus on acting and, although he was soon persuaded to return to the studio, he decided to take more time developing the record. Concerned that the material wasn’t yet good enough, he committed to a period of study. “When you're vulnerable to self-doubt, how do you respond? My decision was take yourself back to rap school, go read some literature, go learn how to write again. The game has changed a little bit? Get to work on your songwriting.” He recognized that his art needed to take precedence over his ego, asking himself, “‘Are you too cool to get better? Are you willing to admit you need to be better? Is that possible? Yes, it is, so go to work!’ So I went, worked on it, worked on it some more, worked on it some more. And then I got to a place where I was like, ‘Wow, now this thing is bouncing and it's dancing, it's not falling asleep after the first four lines. This thing is going. Now I’ve got so much work we can edit, I can pull verses out, I can add stuff’ and it felt better.”
The album features some big names – Nas, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Saweetie, Snoop Dogg – but the most significant figure in its development was the producer, A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, whom LL describes as “very mercurial, very detail-oriented. He's a very musical guy – he plays various instruments. He combines samples in music in a way that is just brilliant, and it really is owed to his understanding of music theory and composition, and his love of hip-hop.” While keeping overall control of the project, LL was willing to learn from Q-Tip’s expertise. “When I go into a studio with a producer, I approach it like I've never recorded before. I don't walk into a studio knowing everything. I walk into the studio saying, ‘So, what do you think?’”
“Personally, I don’t want to listen to a record that sounds like I started off where I left off. I want to feel like some time has elapsed. I want it to be like the last time you saw me I was a caveman, and now I’m a spaceman”
That open attitude resulted in a collaboration which magnified both their talents. “Us working together like that, it was like 1+1=3. When we're in the studio together he'll tell me, ‘Yo, big bro, that verse sucks,’ or he’ll say, ‘Yeah, that’s hot,’ or he’ll say, ‘Yeah it’s great, but that line is dogshit. These three bars? Why did you deliver it like that? You sound like you're in 1984, you're rhyming behind the snare.’” By taking those criticisms on board, LL says he was able to take his musicianship to another level. “It's like brush strokes in painting: you learn different brush strokes, and you learn how certain types of material on certain brushes affect those strokes, and then how certain colours are affected by certain materials with certain strokes. You learn to make the finer distinctions. In hip-hop, you realize that this is truly a craft.”
Just as each of his earlier albums tested the boundaries of the genre, it was important for LL that The FORCE did something dramatically different. “Personally, I don't want to listen to a record that sounds like I started off where I left off. I want to feel like some time has elapsed. I want it to be like the last time you saw me I was a caveman, and now I'm a spaceman. Now I've got a fucking colony on Mars, and we talk about wormholes – last time you saw me, I was a Neanderthal! That’s how I want my stuff to be. I want to push the envelope sonically right now. That's why when you listen to this album, it's like, ‘Well, shit, this doesn't sound like what he’s done before, and it doesn't sound like what people are doing now.’”
To achieve that, LL needed to be aware of what contemporary musicians were doing without trying to compete with or emulate them. “I go out of my way to pay attention. It doesn't mean I'm going to do what they do, but I pay attention. For me, it's never been about keeping up, it's about what's next in my mind. I don't approach my art from a place of remaining relevant because when you do that, you end up being a follower; you're not going to be Basquiat if all of a sudden you're only concerned with what Kehinde Wiley is doing, respectfully. You’ve got to continue to lead as an artist. Leadership does not necessarily mean you're better, it doesn't mean that you're cooler, it just means that you’re being true to what you do, you’re creating some new shit. I'm a futurist: when I used to say on my records back in the day, ‘Uncle L, future of the funk’, I really meant that. So now when I make these records, I’m looking to move the culture forward.”
Image: Lauren Enriquez.
One of the tracks on the new album that showcases this innovation is “Black Code Suite”, featuring kora virtuoso Sona Jobarteh in order to trace a line from traditional Gambian music through jazz to hip-hop. “Working with Sona doing this thing, it felt so magical – making music with no limitations, with no rules. We tie the relationship between the inner city in America and the motherland of Africa.” He wanted its message to be an essentially hopeful and positive one – “This was about the modern experiences that we've had in that community, and how it all ties back to our roots: that one love, that one connection, that one vibe, then having the kora come in on top of that, making it a suite where we go from the sound of Miles Davis all the way to Africa and to our roots. But then at the same time, it's inclusive: it's not about excluding others, it's about others coming in, reading it, understanding it, like the equivalent of walking in the pyramids and reading what's on the hieroglyphs.” For LL, it was a chance to think about his culture in ways that weren’t available to him in his early life. “I didn't really grow up in a household that talked a lot about race, or talked a lot about colour, or even talked a lot about social issues. I had a more traditional upbringing. My grandfather came from Barbados, and so it was a different mindset in terms of how we spoke about the African American experience in the house. It wasn't like the way Tupac grew up; it was different.”
While writing and recording The FORCE, LL COOL J was therefore also exploring his own history to then share those discoveries with listeners. “Now, after I've lived a while and after I've experienced all these different things, to really drill down on that felt very liberating and interesting to me. As you mature, you want to dig into your roots, so I created a record where people could be a fly on the wall and get a look at this experience from an inspired place.” The result is an album that is full of deeper meanings for anyone who cares to look for them. “Even the simpler songs have layers, songs like ‘Passion’ [the second single to be released from the album], if you get into the layering of the lyrics.” This musical and lyrical sophistication is the product of several years of study and hard work, which LL COOL J knows may seem surprising at this stage of his career. “There's going to be those moments like, ‘Why am I doing this, am I crazy?!’ You're in the Hall of Fame, you're world-renowned, you're respected. But the artist in me won't allow me to just rest on my laurels creatively, because I didn't get into this purely for recognition, only for money. I got into it because I really, really, really enjoy it.”
In 2023 US audiences were treated to LL COOL J’s first headline tour for 30 years, which also celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with guest stars including Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Method Man & Redman and Rakim, but it’s been a long time since fans in the UK have had a chance to see him perform live. A key member of the historic Def Jam Tour that electrified the hip-hop scene in Europe in 1987, LL COOL J hopes to return here next year. “I know it's been a million years since I played in the UK, but I plan on coming there in ’25. I definitely am looking forward to that. So I would ask the UK fans to get ready – I'm coming.”
The FORCE (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy) is released on 6th September.
Author: Rachel Goodyear