-Our first guest tonight is a Grammy Award-winning
hip-hop legend and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
His Rock the Bells Festival will take place on Saturday,
August 6th, at Forest Hills Stadium
in Queens, New York.
Tickets are on sale now at rockthebells.com.
Please welcome to the show LL COOL J, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
I am thrilled to have you here.
-Yo, what's up?
Giulliana, that was great.
[ Laughter ] Very cool.
¿Cómo estás? ¿Todo bien?
-Todo bien. -Bueno, bueno.
-You're off to a very charming start.
[ Laughter ] -You like that?
-So wait, I -- you know, obviously, I grew up with you.
This is a huge deal to have you here.
But also, you've had this incredible second act
in your career as an actor, 14 seasons now of...
-Yeah, yeah. -..."NCIS: Los Angeles."
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you.
-For me, you know, it's impossible to believe
people wouldn't know you as a rapper first,
but do you get recognized more for the TV show now?
-Oh, I get recognized for both, but definitely,
there are a lots of people who only know me
from either television, from hosting,
from doing different things.
You know, quite frankly, that's the joy of, you know,
some of the things I'm doing.
It'll give people an opportunity to see me, you know,
when I'm embracing my first love.
You know what I'm saying? But, yeah, a lot of people
know me for a lot of different things,
and that's a blessing, right?
Like, I'm very thankful for that.
And it's been a lot of fun. You know what I'm saying?
But music is my first love.
And, you know, for those who don't know,
I guess we'll just have to kind of show them.
-Yeah. -You know what I'm saying?
[ Laughter ] -It was --
[ Cheers and applause ] I mean, this is --
This is an incredible bill you have for Rock the Bells.
What was the idea --
Did you think that this was an important thing to do?
-Yeah, the reason why I did this is because
I feel like hip-hop culture isn't disposable.
I feel like the same deference and love and respect
that the Beatles get and that Paul McCartney gets
and Bob Dylan, all those greats get, Madonna,
I feel like, you know, the Rakim and the Nas's
and the -- and the -- you know, the Run DMCs,
and those artists also deserve that kind of deference.
So, when we put this bill together, you know, myself,
Ice Cube, Rick Ross, you know, Dipset, Jadakiss,
I wanted -- what I wanted to do is say,
"Hey, these kings and queens deserve to be elevated.
We need to celebrate this culture,
and somebody has to do it."
You know, there's nothing wrong with,
you know, serving things in a brown bag.
That can be good.
But sometimes we want a silver platter.
-Yeah, exactly. -You know what I'm saying?
-Yeah. -And so that's what this is.
[ Cheers and applause ] -And this was --
This must have been quite an honor.
There's a statue of you in Corona Park now...
-Yeah. -...where you grew up.
I gotta say, it's an outstanding --
the front of it is -- is really something to see.
Were you -- -Yeah. Sherwin, the artist --
Sherwin, the artist, did it. It's -- it's astounding.
To me, like, this is more about the culture
than it is me, though. -Yeah.
-The reality is that, you know, I was blessed to be a part
of something bigger than me, which is hip-hop culture.
You know, and I was a generation one fan,
a generation 1.5 artist, right?
So, I was the first artist --
you know, first generation to grow up on hip-hop,
but then, as an artist, you know, I was, like, 1.5.
And, you know, it's -- what it's done is
changed the lives of people all over the world.
And it's been the underpinnings of American pop culture
for many years, for the last --
it's gonna be 50 years old next year.
So, hip hop has really been amazing to me.
And that's just a testament to how --
how deeply it's penetrated our culture.
You know what I'm saying?
So, I don't really take that to heart,
like -- [ Stately voice ] "I've got a statue."
[ Laughter ] You know what I mean?
It's like -- you know. -Yeah.
[ Both laugh ] -You know what I mean?
-It doesn't look like that kind of statue, I will say.
-Yeah. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.
-If you were on a horse or something.
[ Laughter ]
[ Imitating horse ] -You know.
-You know, what's amazing to me --
I will say -- so, "Mama Said Knock You Out"...
-Yeah. -...that's, like, only
five years after your first album.
-Yeah, something like that. -Yeah.
-It's something like that, yeah. Possibly the truth.
-It seems weird that even at, like, only five years,
you were already mad at people
that they were calling it a comeback.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
Well -- Well, you know what?
You hit on an important point.
You know, hip hop is such a young genre that,
for the most part, it's so young that a lot of people expect
artists to come and go and come and go and come and go.
"Oh, here today, gone tomorrow."
They're not used to Santana.
Like, we haven't had our Santana moment in hip hop yet.
-Yeah. -There are a lot of firsts
that haven't happened in hip hop yet.
So, that's just part of the kind of --
the growing pains of a young genre.
But that's when you require leadership, right?
When you have those holes, when you have that vacuum.
That's why I stepped in and said, "You know what?
It looks like it's getting a little off the rails,
and we're getting to a point
where we're about to be commoditized."
I love the younger generation. There's no problems with it.
I'm not one of those guys who doesn't appreciate new art.
I love all art from all generations.
I do think, though, there is room for the roots of a culture
to be celebrated and lifted up so that younger
and newer generations understand where it comes from
so that they can really embrace the craft in a great way.
You know what I'm saying? [ Cheers and applause ]
-Well, the other thing I will say -- So true.
I feel like the younger generation of artists,
you always -- you can hear the previous generation
in the songs, right?
I feel like there's a lot of students of the genre
who are making the music, but I sometimes think people
who listen to it don't realize, like, "Oh, that's from that,
and that's from that." -That's true, that's true.
-It must have been cool -- You were inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
That must've been a nice moment to be like, "Hey, look,
they're finally coming around that this is
a really important piece of music, as well."
-I mean, it was an amazing feeling.
I mean, I'm looking out in the crowd, and I'm --
I'm performing, I said, "Yo, that's Paul McCartney there
with his phone out." -[ Laughs ]
-You know what I mean? [ Laughter ]
And I'm -- I'm rocking like, "Look at Paul.
He got his phone out. This is crazy."
Like, I really was thinking that in my mind.
Like, I'm giving you some real insight right now.
"That's Paul McCartney with his phone out."
Like, I'm really bugging out off of that, right?
-Yeah. -It was amazing.
It's an amazing feeling. You know, I finally got in.
It was a beautiful feeling.
-Did you choose who got to induct you?
Was that a choice? -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I personally asked Dr. Dre to induct me.
He's one of my, you know, best friends in music.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Absolutely, absolutely.
And I asked J.Lo and Eminem to join me and perform.
And, you know, it was an amazing feeling
to just be up there and to be embraced by your peers
at that level, you know,
which is arguably one of the highest levels in music.
You know what I'm saying? -I was really --
It was something to see, and as a fan of the genre,
you know, I -- you know, you hope like,
"Oh, I hope it's now. The dam's gonna break,
and we're gonna see more and more artists
from your generation." -We will.
-Because I think you're right, too.
I have a lot more to ask about the festival.
We'll be right back with more from LL COOL J.