LL Cool J Reveals He Has an Unreleased Collaborative Album With 50 Cent: ‘It Didn’t Work’

Hip-hop has been a collaborative culture since its inception, and from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne to Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss, collaborative albums have become their own phenomenon within rap music. And LL Cool J almost added one to the collection. The rapper revealed on the Wednesday (Aug. 9) episode of The Breakfast Club that he once wrote a collaborative album with 50 Cent.

“I tried to do a more collaborative writing album. I did a whole album with 50 Cent. And we were writing together on this album,” LL Cool J recounted. “And when it was done, I listened to it. I’m like, ‘It sounds good. I like the music, it sounds cool, but it ain’t me.’ So, I ain’t put it out.”

“It was nothing against 50, I love 50,” he clarified. “I just wanted to try something different. Maybe we collaborate, write together … It didn’t work.”

When one of the radio show’s co-hosts brought up “Paradise,” LL’s 2002 Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit (No. 36), the Grammy-winner explained, “50 wrote the chorus on ‘Paradise’ for Amerie, which she sung. He didn’t write my rhymes … when that happened, I didn’t even know 50 was involved. That was The Trackmasters, they got that done.”

As one of the most celebrated and decorated rappers of his era, LL’s artistry has always been as important to him as his persona. “The collaborative thing, when it comes to my verses, that doesn’t work for me,” he said.

The “Mama Said Knock You Out” rapper also mused about the apprehension that comes with continuing to rap while aging, and said that he “loves” to be underestimated because “it makes the jabs that much stiffer.”

Watch his interview with The Breakfast Club above.