LL COOL J on reaction to his desire to record new album: “They looked at me like I was a hydra”

LL COOL J has spoken about the reaction he got when he revealed his intention to record a new album.

• READ MORE: LL COOL J on his first album in 11 years, ‘THE FORCE’: “I want to do the Blackest shit in the world”

In an interview with Variety published yesterday (September 13), the veteran rapper – real name James Todd Smith – talked about how people reacted to his desire to work on ‘The FORCE’, which was eventually released on September 6. It marks his first studio album in eleven years.

“When I told people, ‘Yo, I wanna do a culturally relevant album’ in the midst of all these [younger artists], people looked at me like I had nine heads,” Smith told the publication.

“They looked at me like I was a hydra – a hydra! – looking at me crazy like that, not because of any ill will, but just ‘How can you do that?’”

The rapper, who turned 56 this year, followed through with the project, which was mainly produced by A Tribe Called Quest‘s Q-Tip. Smith felt his ability to record such an album at his age would challenge ageism in hip-hop.

“It’s like breaking the four-minute mile,” he says. “Nobody thought it could be broken until Roger Bannister did it, and then a lot of people started breaking it. Now you’ll see, when [‘The FORCE’] has success, you’re [seeing] people believing that they can make it happen, and it’s gonna extend the life of hip-hop in general.”

He adds that “if somebody doesn’t do it” to show how “a guy who’s been out for a long time can make a new record and be relevant”, then “it never happens”.

Last month, Smith previewed ‘The FORCE’ track ‘Murdergram Deux’, which sees his first-ever collaboration with Eminem. Q-Tip shared with Variety that it was a surreal moment to be in the studio with a rapper he and Eminem idolised as kids. “This is like a fucking dream, isn’t it, Tip?” he recalls Eminem telling him.

NME spoke with Smith about ‘The FORCE’, an album that he felt “artistic pressure” from himself to undertake. “[I] want to create something that I love, something that I can really embrace, something that I thought was amazing, something that I felt like, like was meaningful to me, something that I could love as a fan,” he said.

He also bristled at the common sentiment that “hip-hop is a young man’s game”, saying: “The genre just turned 50-years-old. So, what are we going to call it in 100 years? How is that mindset even sustainable?

“You haven’t had an opportunity to see artists continue to grow. Ultimately, the music determines that. We can talk all we want, but how’s that music sounding, b?”

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