-Welcome back, everybody. We're here with LL COOL J.
One of the things I read about this festival that is so cool
to me is not just that these people are going to be
performing but also how many of them
are bringing a culinary element.
-So it's actually a festival.
It's not just a concert. It's an immersive day.
It's an experience. Big boom boxes. Break dance.
All kinds of crazy stuff. We'll play "Salute the Sample,"
which is a game where you guess where the song sample came from.
-That's great. -But there's also a food court.
Bun B, curator. He came up to me with the idea
of curating this Trill Meal food court.
Him and a friend. And what happens is
you'll have like Nas' Sweet Chick restaurant out there.
E-40 will have Goon with the Spoon out there.
You'll have Mia X Whip Dem Pots.
Jadakiss and Styles P have Juice for Life.
You have Ghostface Killah's Killah Koffee out there.
So it's like, when you come,
you're going to be immersed into hip-hop.
So, even if you -- like, if you never really understood hip-hop
or if it was a world that you didn't really --
you know, you just want to kind of be a fly on the wall,
this is like that moment to be like holy [bleep]
[ Laughter ] "Yo, this is it.
This is the one." You know what I mean?
This is the Rock the Bells festival.
It's the real deal. -That's really great.
So, you were 16 years old when you signed.
-Yes.
-Was your first song, "I Need a Beat"?
-Yes. -Okay.
Do you remember the first rap --
Was that the first one you wrote?
-Oh, no. -Okay.
-I've been rhym-- I started -- I became a fan of rap
around 9 years old, of hip-hop, of emceeing,
and around 11 or 12, I started writing.
-Do you remember any of your early lyrics?
[ Laughter ]
-I mean, I got stuff so silly, like -- I mean,
the very first ever rhyme I wrote, like,
I must've been like 11 years old.
[ Rapping ] When you get off the wall and you bust your balls.
[ Skatting ]
I'm gonna rock you up, I gonna rock you down.
And I'mma do it just for you.
[ Laughter ]
♪ For those of you who don't know me ♪
♪ I be the famous rappin' Rapper T ♪
Stuff like that, you know what I mean?
-There you go. I think it holds up petty well.
[ Cheers and applause ] Holds up pretty well.
-It changed a lot.
-Giant decision, obviously, in a young rap career
is when you pick your rap name. -Without a doubt.
-LL COOL J, can't imagine you as anything else now.
Did you have a second option? -Absolutely.
-Do you have one that you're so happy you dodged?
-Uh... [ Laughs ] Yeah, yeah.
'Cause Deluxe kind of sounds like a Happy Meal of some sort.
[ Laughter ] Some sort of -- I don't know.
It's like some sort of food-assist thing
or a vacuum cleaner. I don't know.
So Deluxe wasn't going to work.
Jay Ski.
I didn't really understand the connotations of that back then.
The snow. -Oh, right, right, right.
-Jay Ski, so that didn't really work.
Because that wouldn't have scaled well.
And then -- [ Laughter ]
You know, the other names was just moments in time.
But, you know, I remember going through
the Jay Ski COOL J thing.
I had a big moment being a little 8-year--
well, maybe about 10 years old.
11? Well, maybe about 12 at that time.
-So, at 12 you decided LL COOL J.
-No, I decided on COOL J. -Oh, COOL J.
-COOL J. And then I was hanging with my man Mikey D.
We used to run around in Laurelton, Queens.
And, you know, his name was Playboy Mikey D.
And then he had another friend
that was Red Hot Lovers and this and that.
So I was like -- Mike was like,
"Yo, but you got to have something with the girls."
So, I'm like, "Yeah."
He's like, "How about something like Ladies Love?"
And I'm like, "Yeah, that's what it is.
Ladies Love COOL J."
So I just -- you know, it's like wishful thinking.
You know how you are. You know, 15, 16, Ladies Love COOL J.
It just felt so right, you know?
-Now, when you told ladies in those early years
what the LL stood for, did they think
it was a fair name to give yourself?
Ladies Love COOL J?
[ Laughter ]
Were they like, "What's the LL for?"
-That's a hit and miss, bro.
You know, that doesn't have to go over well.
It can, you know what I mean?
But it doesn't have to, right? -Yeah.
-That's kind of like a -- You know what I mean?
It's not a panacea. Let's put it like that.
You know what I mean? You're not going to cure it all with that.
-No. You've been married for a very long time.
You have four wonderful children.
-Yeah.
-How did you first meet your wife?
-I met her on Easter Day in Queens.
Just, you know, I was walking around the block
and she was with her cousin or something.
I was like, "Yo, you know, you should come around."
She said, "You come around."
"Eh. Give me your number," you know what I'm saying?
She gave me her number and you know.
-How many years now? -It's all cool.
I called up. She said, "Hello."
I said, "You know, you sound like a truck driver."
[ Laughter ] You know what I mean?
And then we just went from there.
[ Laughter ]
-That's how they all start. -Oh, yeah.
-One of the better pickup lines is,
"You sound like a truck driver."
[ Laughter ]
-It probably is. -It worked, it worked.
-It actually is pretty good. It actually is.
-This is thrilling as well with everything else going on.
You're working on new music.
-Yes, yes, I'm working on new music.
I actually just finished my new album.
-Oh, that's exciting. -Yeah, I finished a new album.
[ Cheer and applause ] Thank you, thank you,
thank you, yeah.
It was executive produced by Q-Tip.
-Oh, that's great. -He did the whole record.
Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest.
He produced the whole record from front to back.
And, you know, the question, a lot of times especially
with a guy that's been out as long as I have,
Hall of Fame, Grammys and all that, 1,000 years,
most people say, it's like, "Oh, you got a new album coming out?
Isn't that sweet? Let me hear the hits."
You know, it's kind of like,
"Poor baby, he's working on a new album."
[ Laughter ] Right?
But I'm you telling you, like,
we put something together that I think is pretty special.
I hope you like it when you hear it.
Most people always say, "Okay,
so you're working on a new album.
So either you're going to be stuck in a time warp,
taking it back, or you're going to be trying to
pretend you're 19 and look ridiculous."
Which one is it going to be? And it's actually neither one.
Actually, you know, Q-Tip helped me break some new ground.
And I think some of the topics and the messaging
that I'm talking about I think are relevant to the world.
And I think that it's proof that
hip-hop culture can grow and expand.
And I just want to show people what's possible musically.
And to be honest, that person that that inspired me
in a lot of ways was Santana in the fact that he came after
so long and did some really interesting music
many, many, years later, and I found that to be inspiring.
-Well, I can't wait. I think we're all very excited.
Hey, thanks so much for being here. What a delight.
-My man. Great to be here.
-LL COOL J, Rock the Bells. -Rock the Bells, baby.
-Takes place Saturday, Forest Hills Stadium.
For tickets go to rockthebells.com.
We'll be right back with Cristin Milioti.