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LL Cool J

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LL Cool J
File:LL Cool J new.jpg
Background information
Years active1985-present

James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968) is an American hip hop artist better known by his stage name, LL Cool J ("Ladies Love Cool James"). He is best known for romantic ballads like "I Need Love" as well as hardcore rap like "I Can't Live Without My Radio". He has also appeared in several films. He is seen as a sex symbol, and a ladies man, because of his "flirtatious" lip-licking, and his muscular body. LL Cool J represents an important figure within the hip hop community, and is currently one of the few hip-hop stars of his era to sustain a successful recording career for more than a decade.

Early years of abuse

LL Cool J was born in Westchester County and grew up in the working-class section of Hollis, Queens, New York, the only child of Ondrea Smith and her husband, James. Todd sang in the church choir, played football and was even in the Boy Scouts.

Unfortunately, LL's parents had a troublesome, often violent, relationship. As a result, his mother left his father when LL was four and they moved in with her parents in St. Albans, Queens. The relationship turned bloody, when late one night in 1972, his father shot his mother after she returned home from work. According to LL Cool J, who recounted the event in the song "Father" from his Phenomenon album, the elder James was seeking revenge after being abandoned by his family. LL's father shot his mother as she ran into her parents' house for safety. She was hit in the legs and back. LL's grandfather was also shot in the stomach. Both survived the attack. Unfortunately, LL, who was only a toddler at the time, would experience more hardships in the years to come.

LL's mother later began dating a man who would also bring pain into the young rapper's life. The man, who LL named Roscoe in his autobiography, would routinely beat him, often while his mother was at work. He was often stripped naked and beaten for the crimes of being hungry, watching TV, or looking at Roscoe the wrong way. These beatings had a profound affect on young LL. This is the time, he remembers that he began compulsively wearing hats.

LL found that hip-hop music and rapping were ways of escaping his problems. He grew up in a musical family. His grandfather played tenor sax, his mother played accordion and his grandmother (Ellen Griffin) sung in the choir. By age 9, LL was rhyming. By age 13 he'd already made his first studio recording.

Building the Def Jam empire

File:LLCoolJRadio.jpg
Radio.

LL Cool J signed to Def Jam in 1984 and released the underground hit "I Need a Beat" (see 1984 in music). The song was the first hit record for Def Jam, and its success persuaded him to drop out of school to record Radio (1985 in music).

The album was released to critical acclaim, as LL Cool J was one of the first rappers to use conventional song structure to make pop-oriented rap. "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock the Bells" were successful and helped the album go platinum. In 1987, he released Bigger and Deffer. The ballad "I Need Love" was one of the first pop-rap songs to be a hit. Critics scoffed at his new direction, though, and by the release of Walking With a Panther (1989), he was booed at a Harlem rally for slain teenager Usef Hawkins.

Don't call it a comeback

Around the late 1980s, hip-hop began experiencing a shift in concsiousness away from the music's early themes of partying and braggadocia, to more socially aware issues such as drug abuse, race and racism, and economic empowerment. LL Cool J, as a result, experienced a drop in popularity due to the view that his music was behind the times, materialistic and narcissistic.

Eager to regain his audience, LL released Mama Said Knock You Out, easily the hardest record he had made, which re-established his reputation in the hip hop community. It spawned three hit singles, "The Boomin' System," "Around the Way Girl," and the hard-hitting title track, which received special notice after LL Cool J's dynamic performance of it during an episode of MTV Unplugged. The album included themes of police misconduct, spirituality along with back-to-basics hip-hop party rocking. Mama Said... eventually went on to sell over 2 million copies. It marked the first of many self-reinventions LL Cool J would undergo to adapt to the hip-hop's often changing atmosphere.

After acting in The Hard Way and Toys, he released 14 Shots To The Dome to muted sales and mixed reviews, despite producing the small hit "Back Seat of My Jeep". He starred in In the House, an NBC sitcom, before releasing Mr. Smith (1995), which went on to sell over 2 million copies. Its singles, "Doin' It" and "Loungin", were two of the biggest songs in 1996 and both songs' music videos were hugely successful on MTV. Another of the album's singles, "Hey Lover", featured Boyz II Men and eventually became one the first rap music videos to air on American VH1. The song also earned LL a Grammy.

In 1996, LL also helped to launch a clothing line named FUBU; the name is an acronym for "For Us, By Us", meaning that the clothes were made for and marketed to black people by a black person.

Life after "Mr. Smith"

After the double platinum status of "Mr. Smith", LL's albums have not been able to regain the same levels of monetary success. In 2000 (2000 in music), he released the album G.O.A.T., which stood for "Greatest of All Time." The critically acclaimed album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200, giving him his first chart-topper on that chart. Nonetheless, the album failed to do the numbers of LL's previous releases.

His next album 10 from 2002, which denoted LL's 10th studio album, did not fair much better. Although it included the popular singles "Paradise" (featuring Amerie), "Luv U Better", and the hit 2003 Jennifer Lopez duet, "All I Have", the album also failed to reach platinum status.

His latest album, The DEFinition, released in 2004, is perhaps LL's most complete and cohesive album of his post-"Mr. Smith" offerings. His biggest hit from the album is the song "Headsprung". Other hits include "Hush".

LL's 12th studio album, Todd Smith, is expected for March 21, 2006. It will include collaborations with Juelz Santana, Teairra Mari and Freeway. The first single will be the Jermaine Dupri produced "Control Myself", another song with singer Jennifer Lopez. LL and J.Lo made the video for "Control Myself" on January 2nd 2006 at Sony Studios, New York.

Trivia

  • LL Cool J's infamous lip-licking, although seen as flirtatious, is actually a nervous habit he picked up when he was younger.
  • He was a paperboy before his rap career.
  • LL has lyrically battled Jay-Z and Jaz-O whilst at an industrial party early on in his career.
  • LL Cool J is the author of two books, with the children orientated book called “And The Winner Is...” and his autobiography co-written with Karen Hunter, “I Make My Own Rules”.
  • LL is also a producer, producing tracks for himself and for other artists such as MC Lyte.
  • LL writes for other rappers for an example he wrote Run DMC's hit "Can You Rock it Like This"
  • LL performed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the song "I Make My Own Rules" for the Private Parts OST, but his name was not credited due to Def Jam threatining legal actions if Warner Bros. had placed his name in the credits. LL quoted "It was something that I wanted to do because I think that as an artist I should explore all different avenues of music, and I think that [Def Jam] was afraid that me doing a rock record might tamper with [the image I have] from some of the other music like 'Hey Lover' and 'Doin' It'."

Aliases

  • James Todd Smith (Actual Name)
  • LL Cool J (Ladies Love Cool James)
  • LL
  • L
  • Uncle L
  • Mr. Smith
  • John Mickens (based on the movie character John "Goldie" Mickens from the film The Mack.

Discography

Albums

Total Album Sales: 12 million

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US R&B/Hip-Hop US Rap UK Singles Chart
1987 "I Need Love" #14 #1 - #8 Bigger And Deffer
1988 "Going Back to Cali" #31 #12 - #37 Walkin' With A Panther
1989 "I'm That Type of Guy" #15 #7 #1 - Walkin' With A Panther
1990 "Around The Way Girl"
(featuring The Flex) 		#9 #5 #1 #36 Mama Said Knock You Out
1991 "Mama Said Knock You Out" #17 #12 #1 - Mama Said Knock You Out
1993 "How I'm Comin'" - - - #37 14 Shots To The Dome
1995 "Hey Lover"
(featuring Boyz II Men) 		#3 #3 #1 #17 Mr. Smith
1996 "Doin' It"
(featuring LeShaun) 		#9 #7 #2 #15 Mr. Smith
1996 "Loungin" #3 #4 #1 #7 Mr. Smith
1997 "Ain't Nobody" #46 #27 #4 #1 Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (OST)
1997 "Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem)"
(with B Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio & Method Man) 		- - - #8 Space Jam (OST)
1997 "Phenomenon" #55 #16 #14 #9 Phenomenon
1998 "4,3,2,1"
(featuring Redman, Method Man & DMX) 		#75 #24 #10 - Phenomenon
1998 "Father" #18 #12 #1 #10 Phenomenon
1998 "Zoom"
(with Dr Dre) 		- - - #15 Bulworth (OST)
2000 "Imagine That"
(featuring LeShaun) 		#98 #46 #16 #10 G.O.A.T.
2001 "Fatty Girl"
(featuring Keith Murray & Ludacris) 		#87 #32 #6 - FUBU - The Good Life Comp.
2002 "Luv U Better"
(featuring Marc Dorsey) 		#4 #1 #2 #7 10
2003 "Paradise"
(featuring Amerie) 		#36 #14 #10 #18 10
2003 "All I Have"
(with Jennifer Lopez) 		#1 #1 - #2 10 / This Is Me ... Then
2004 "Headsprung" #16 #7 #4 #25 The DEFinition
2005 "Hush"
(featuring 7 Aurelius) 		#26 #14 #11 #3 The DEFinition
2006 "Control Myself"
(featuring Jennifer Lopez) 		- - - - Todd Smith (March 21st)
2006 "We're Gonna Make It"
(featuring Mary Mary) 		- - - - Soundtrack to sequel of Diary of a Mad Black Woman

Music videos

  • Strictly Business OST:
    • Strictly Business
  • Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (OST):
    • Ain't Nobody
  • The Day:
  • The Best of Capone-N-Noreaga: Thugged da F*@# Out:
  • The Rapsody Overture:
    • Dear Mallika (Though this song is performed by LL, he does not appear in the video)
  • Bulworth (OST):
  • G.O.A.T.:
    • Imagine That
    • You And Me
  • Deep Blue Sea OST:
    • Deepest Bluest (Shark's Fin)
  • Any Given Sunday OST:
    • Shut Em Down
  • Yeeeah Baby:
    • It's So Hard (LL making a cameo in the video for Big Pun's song)
  • Unleash the Dragon:
    • Thong Song (Sisqo with LL making a cameo in the video)
  • Miss E. So Addictive:
    • Get Ur Freak On (Missy Elliot with LL making a cameo in the video with his son)
  • Engel und Ratten:
    • Blink Blink (with Spax)
  • The DEFinition:
    • Hush
    • Headsprung

Partial filmography

Awards

Grammy Awards

Soul Train Music Awards

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

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