LL Cool J on the state of Hip-Hop and staying inspired for his new album, 'The FORCE'

As he prepares to drop his 14th studio album -- 2024’s The FORCE -- we can’t exactly say that Hip-Hop icon LL Cool J is "back" necessarily, because his influence has been felt strongly throughout pop culture over the past 40 years. Although, a "re-emergence" could fit the bill.

LISTEN NOW: LL Cool J talks with V-103's Greg Street

“I mean… I walked away from it well over a decade,” LL tells Audacy’s Greg Street during his visit to V-103 in Atlanta. “You could, in a lot of ways, say two because the last experimental album I did was a small independent kind of experimental thing. So, I haven't had a major release in at least a decade and a half or so. Two decades. It feels good to be able to touch the people with some new music and show them what's possible.”

Looking back as one of Hip-Hop’s solo pioneers, LL Cool J says he saw the success of other frontmen in music such as The Rolling Stones ’ Mick Jagger , Bruce Springsteen , and U2 ’s Bono as a guide. “It just shows me what's possible and it just shows you that we can take it to the next level,” he explains. “I think the thing about Hip-Hop is, people think about 50 years of Hip-Hop and we're just conditioned to think that that's a long time and the genre is old. But you realize 50 is not that old when you have somebody transition at 50. Then you say, ‘Oh, wait a minute, that's not that old.’ So, Hip-Hop is really not quite as old as the narrative would paint it.”

Listen to Hip-Hop Made: 50 Years of Hip-Hop and more on the free Audacy app

To him that means artists are afforded room to evolve and take things to even greater heights. “We're just so used to, as a culture, we're almost trained that if an artist has a run 10 years, 12 years, 15 years and they stop, they’re finished. Or if they go away for X amount of time, they can't return. A lot of that is because we're just now realizing the importance of the craft. A lot of artists don't pay attention to the craft or don't continue to care about the world as the world evolves. They get locked in mentally and crystallized, and locked into one time period.”

His role, he believes now, is to “show people what's possible in that regard… That's the main reason, my main motivation and inspiration is to just show people that we could continue. So when kids start doing their music they see that, ‘Oh, I could do it for like 40 years, I could do it for 50 years. I could do this my whole life.’ It’s possible, and I’m just showing them that.”

Adding to its validity, taking the genre out of the clubs and into packed arenas also helped up Hip-Hop’s game. “We can tour and we can tour with our day one fans,” LL explains, “but we also have the ability, the same way James Cameron could come with a new movie or Spielberg can come with a new movie, is the same way we could come with new contributions to Hip-Hop that are impactful. Not just like a C+ or a D-, C- project, but an actual A+ project that impacts the culture. I feel like a lot of that has to do with… you can't relate to people that you can't relate to.”

“In other words,” he adds, “if you don't understand what people are going through, how are you gonna write songs that they connect with? The reason why people understood what I was doing when I was a kid is because we were all experiencing a lot of the similar things.”

As artists get older, he says, they can forget about where they came from, “the danger in life” and all too familiar life-changing events. Then LL says, “The only thing they wanna do is rap about money on every single song, every day, all day long. While sometimes that can be fun because we like that, we also, as we evolve as human beings, we gotta talk about something else, baby. You gotta bring something else to the table, besides money talk. It doesn't mean you have to eliminate it. You shouldn't. My album has sprinkles of that, but there are other subjects.”

“There's a reason why we love Bob Marley , ” he tells us. “There's a reason why Prince is Prince… even [ Michael Jackson ]. There's a reason why their songs are timeless, because you can't become successful and then only sing about success. It’s bananas!”

To this day, seeing young kids singing Michael Jackson songs word for word is not surprising to him. “I love it. It's not crazy at all. I understand it because, you know, most people experience listening to their parents’ music while their mother cleans up. A lot of people, especially in the Black community and in most communities, your parents, your mother, your father, whatever -- people in the house you're gonna grow up. That seems to me to be pretty normal. The thing is, can you continue?”

“Mike is a perfect example,” he says of Jackson’s longevity. “He started at eight years old. He made hits his whole life, whole life. So why should Hip-Hop be any different?”

“The other little pet peeve that I've been telling people is that there's nothing wrong with being a Rap artist or an emcee. Yes, I do other things. I can name a plethora, a myriad, you name the word of things that I do other than this. But I'm OK with you calling me a rapper. I don't need to validate my existence by you calling me a ‘businessman,’ or by this one saying he's an ‘entrepreneur.’ This is what I do. And that's OK. That's enough because if you impact the culture, you could change the world with that.”

“We gotta take pride in our art forms,” LL implores. “We can't get in this thing where this is only a bridge, or stepping stone, or something else. If you're committed to it, it's not a hustle. It's a hustle for some, but in that case, being a nurse is a hustle for some, and doing hair is a hustle for some. But you know what, there's a difference between the girl or the woman or the guy, the person that does hair that loves it and the person that does it as a hustle. There's a difference in the woman that cooks or the man that cooks because he loves it and the person who just wants to open a restaurant, there's a difference. When you do it because you love it -- you get better results.”

Excellence in your craft, like a surgeon, athlete, dentist, or lawyer he says, should define your success, whatever road you choose. “Really focusing on that craft and being amazing as a guitar player, saxophone player, whatever it is you do, drummer. That's where the money comes from.

Back in the early 80s, “When I got into it,” LL says, “I wanted to express myself, I wanted my voice to be heard. That was the real main thing. I accomplished that. Now, dreams don't have deadlines, but you do have to set new goals. Now it's like, ‘OK, let me show you what's possible. Let me show you the flip side of it -- let me show you I could still play the guitar so to speak, that I still can handle the rap.' When you listen to the song and you say, ‘Oh, he can still rap,’ it's funny to me, but I do understand it. Like, Prince didn't forget how to play instruments because he was in Paisley Park for two years chilling… it doesn't work that way, but it can. If you don't stay curious and stay excellent in what you do.”

Listen to Greg Street's full interview with LL Cool J above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite stars and artists right here on Audacy.

Pre-order or pre-save LL Cool J’s THE FORCE (frequencies of real creative energy) now and take a look at the official track listing with appearances below.

1. Spirit of Cyrus (Featuring Snoop Dogg )
2. The FORCE
3. Saturday Night Special (Featuring Rick Ross and Fat Joe )
4. Black Code Suite (Featuring Sona Jobarteh )
5. Passion
6. Proclivities (Featuring Saweetie )
7. Post Modern
8. 30 Decembers
9. Runnit Back
10. Huey In Da Chair (Featuring Busta Rhymes )
11. Basquiat Energy
12. Praise Him (Featuring Nas )
13. Murdergram Deux (Featuring Eminem )
14. The Vow (Featuring Mad Squablz , J-S.A.N.D. , and Don Pablito )