LL Cool J Artistfacts

January 14, 1968
While younger hip-hop fans inevitably now think of LL Cool J (né James Todd Smith) as an icon of the "old school," lumping him accordingly with pioneers like Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the rapper was, more accurately, a second-generation hip-hop star. LL emerged on Def Jam Records as a teenage phenomenon in the mid-1980s, a half-decade after the Sugarhill Gang had made rap a lucrative commodity with their hit, "Rapper's Delight."

When Smith released his smash debut album, Radio, in 1985, he showed that hip-hop had already lived long enough to influence a new wave of black urban adolescents, but not so long that its aesthetics weren't open to further innovation. LL's inaugural album, and its ensuing siblings, redefined the genre's sound over the back half of the 1980s, showcasing the MC's hard-edged rap style over a stripped-down, rhythmically aggressive musical background, but also revealing how rap might conform neatly within the polished conventions of American popular music more broadly. But that's not to say Smith dismissed his ancestors outright. In the lyrics to Radio's effective title song, "I Can't Live Without My Radio," for instance, LL merged the best of early rap's emphasis on braggadocio and music-fueled partying with the sociopolitical bent Grandmaster Five and the Furious Five had introduced on "The Message" in 1982.
Yet just as soon as Smith had established his celebrity as rap's toughest sounding teenager, he abruptly changed directions with "I Need Love," the biggest-selling single from his sophomore LP, 1987's Bigger and Deffer. "I Need Love" was, improbably, a rap ballad that paired a sensitive Smith lyric over a synthesized keyboard slow jam. Rising to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, the tune unearthed the potential for marrying rap with the softer side of contemporary rhythm and blues - a marriage that persists at the top of the pop charts still. Having crossed over to audiences beyond hip-hop loyals, LL continued with a string of hits in the late 80s, including "Going Back to Cali," "I'm That Type of Guy," and "Big Ole Butt." However, Smith's commercial success didn't always sit well with hip-hop fans who clung to the genre's underground ethos and inner city beginnings. In a show at Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre at the turn of the new decade, for instance, the venue's notoriously merciless crowd booed LL offstage. Undaunted, Smith returned with a triumphant, less glossy effort: 1990's raw LP, Mama Said Knock You Out, the title track to which announces, "Don't call it a comeback - I've been here for years." The album offered a series of sharp singles that have become LL standards, including "Around the Way Girl" and "Jingling Baby."
In the 1990s and 2000s, LL Cool J has become more visibile as an actor, first in films like Any Given Sunday and Rollerball, then on CBS's television crime drama, NCIS: Los Angeles, where he played Special Agent Sam Hanna from 2009–2023, the duration of the show's run.
LL Cool J was the first rapper to be recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors, which is America's highest achievement in the field of performing. At the age of 49, he became the youngest-ever recipient of the honor when he was presented with his award at Washington DC's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 3, 2017.
LL Cool J became an ambassador of classic hip-hop while still making new music and staying on the scene. In 2018 he launched the Rock The Bells Radio channel on SiriusXM, a showcase for hip-hop from the early years. He's been part of many celebrations of the genre, including the 2023 Grammy Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop special and the Def Jam 40th Anniversary celebration at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.
What's with the name? It stands for "Ladies Love Cool James." That was the name he started using when he was 16, but he soon shortened it to LL Cool J.
Many rappers claim to be the GOAT, but LL was the first to mark this territory, and he has a solid case. In 2000, he released the album G.O.A.T. with the song "The G.O.A.T.," where he declares himself The Greatest Of All Time. That acronym gradually entered the hip-hop lexicon, then moved into sports, and then permeated popular culture. The forebear is Muhammad Ali, the self proclaimed "Greatest," who influenced hip-hop by playfully big-upping himself at every opportunity and speaking in the kind of flows and rhythms that became part of the genre.

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