LL Cool J Reveals Tracklist for ‘The FORCE,’ Says He Had to Learn ‘How to Rap Again’ For First Album in 11 Years

It has been a long time since LL Cool J grabbed the mic. How long? One of the most beloved MCs of all-time has been away for the game for such an extended period that some newer fans might only know him as the host of the Grammy Awards (2012-2016) and that jacked guy from Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: Hawai’i.

He is, of course, a Grammy- and Billboard Music Award-winning rap legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree who has merely taken a powder from his MC duties to pursue some other interests for the past decade-plus.

That pause will end on September 6, however, when LL drops his 14th studio album, THE FORCE (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy), via Def Jam Recordings/Virgin Music Group. In an interview with the Associated Press, LL said that while he’s always “tinkered around” in the studio, over the past few years he felt more inspired before hitting a wall with the producer he was working with on new music.

“I just felt like the tracks that this producer was giving me were better than the songs that I was writing,” he said. When late A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg appeared to him in a dream, LL said he got an inspirational message from beyond. “He told me, ‘Yo, man, that new music you’re working on is great, man.’ But he had a look on his face like a Cheshire cat, like he was lying to me.”

That wake-up call led to LL tapping fellow ATCQ rapper Q-Tip, who produced the entire album and made all the beats. Inspired again, LL said that it had been so long that he needed to brush up on his mic technique. The process required, “going back to the drawing board and learning how to rap again … making sure I was really inspired by the things I was saying. That’s why there isn’t a lot of fluff on this album. The LeBrons, the Stephs, the Jordans and the Kobes, they all go back to the drawing board, they always try to make themselves better. I wasn’t trying to do trendy, and I wasn’t trying to recapture anything I did before.”

The rapper also released the track list for the anticipated 14-track album on Friday morning (July 12). Among the guests joining him on the collection are: Snoop Dogg (“Spirit of Cyrus”), Rick Ross and Fat Joe (“Saturday Night Special”), Sona Jobarteh (“Black Code Suite”), Saweetie (“Proclivities”), Busta Rhymes (“Huey in Da Chair”), Nas (“Praise Him”), Eminem (“Murdergram Deux”) and Mad Squablz, J-S.A.N.D. and Don Pablito (“The Vow”).

According to a press release, the album covers a number of relevant topics, touching on “themes like racial injustice, law enforcement abuses, isolation and observations brought on by the pandemic, legacy, and musings on LL’s place in the canon, while remaining vital, fun, and some of LL’s most urgent lyrical work.”

After previously dropping the album’s first single, the Ross and Joe collab “Saturday Night Special,” Friday also saw the release of the bubbling single “Passion.”

Check out the full track list for THE FORCE here and watch the “Passion” video below.