LL Cool J
LL Cool J
James Todd Smith, better known by his stage name LL Cool J, is an American rapper and actor from Queens, New York. He is known for such hip hop hits as "I Can't Live Without My Radio", "I'm Bad", "The Boomin' System", "Rock The Bells" and "Mama Said Knock You Out", as well as romantic ballads such as "Doin' It", "I Need Love", "Around the Way Girl" and "Hey Lover"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth14 January 1968
CityBay Shore, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The people who go get an LL album want to hear LL. They don't want to hear LL trying to sound like DMX or whoever else is out there. That's not what they want to hear from me, because if they want to hear that they can go get the real thing.
I'm not trying to be new school and I'm not old school - I'm classic. There's a lot of new cars and there's a lot of old cars, but I'm just classic in doing what I do.
What I don't do is try to like become whoever I'm rapping with. The people who go get an LL album want to hear LL.
I'm not trying to keep up or adapt. I'm allowing myself to grow, evolve and create new music.
Once you achieve one goal, you should be looking forward to trying to build onto the next thing, and not just getting comfortable with what you're doing.
I don't have an image that I'm trying to, like, portray. I'm just being me.
You have to always continue to strive no matter how hard things get, no matter how troubled you feel. No matter how tough things get, no matter how many times you lose, you keep trying to win.
What is more important than the name is that people know that I really like acting, I enjoy it and I want people to know that I am serious. The name thing: I will always be L.L. Cool J.
I just like to do different things. What is more important than the name is that people know that I really like acting, I enjoy it and I want people to know that I am serious.
Let me tell you something - compared to a TV-drama production schedule, touring is not strenuous.
I love my fans, I love my music - I have no reason to retire.
I think the stuff that plays on the radio, the majority of it is for teenagers, which is okay. That's what pop radio is about. And some of it is great, and some of it is not.
Art is about imagination. When you look at a picture from Salvador Dali, that's about imagination. When you look at Picasso, that's about imagination. Doing stuff from your heart.
What you do in your art - TV, music, film stuff - touches people. And they want to touch you. So that's a blessing. I'm okay with it.