As music powers Kamala, LL Cool J talks voting, new album, Eminem, and fashion tips

hey it's John Legend it's your man LL Co J it's your girl Tiana you checking out the beat with Ari Mel with my man man we love what you doing Tangers behind me and this is theat LL Cool J you see here is our special guest tonight as he drops the force his 14th album featuring Eminem Nos and other rap icons yeah absolutely and you're blown up yeah yeah yeah isn't that interesting I ain't turn my phone off how you like that or maybe someone saw you and said hello I'm at you on TV exactly um thanks for being here thanks for having me um this isn't unique to me I'm one of the many millions of people who grew up on you so it's exciting to be here starting with this album um why are you doing this now because I love it you know what I'm saying and um I wanted to show people what was possible because you know hip-hop um it just turned 51 but being 50 51 years old a lot of people say oh well you know it's been around a long time and old school blah blah blah blah but if someone transitions at 51 you say oh that guy was really young or that woman was really young that person was young so it's um what we haven't seen in hip-hop is artists that can go away for over a decade and come back and reemerge and have real cultural impact and creative impact on the culture at a high level and I wanted to show people that that was possible um you know because we just haven't seen that you know there's a difference between some critical Acclaim and true cultural impact and I just want to show people that we could take it to that next level at any point you know that's really the reason and I love it I love doing that right it's natural to you still let's take a listen to the new album okay let's do [Music] it co put your trust in them let me explain the greedy killer do you remember first time you heard the legend and the career end with the rilling stop to his Fender I'm on another drun off the power to make a coward surrender as I Dev contenders talking whoever your head you were telling me when you hear a beat or approach a song it's got to be organic yeah um is that the same process you've used from the first album and how did that work for this one yeah the majority of the better records are that way yeah you know sometimes you can get into that contri thing and I have slid down that road a little bit here and there but when it really works when it organic it's natural like that last song you heard that's murder Graham de from from the uh Force album and that song I got Eminem on on that song Because when qtip created the beat and then started playing it for me it spoke to me and said yo I was like yo em would sound great on this so I sent M you know I text him a little snippet of the beat said what do you think he said yo I love it so Dr Dre gave us the keys to his Studio we went to LA and um recorded it and murder Graham was born but it's all because it wasn't stunt casting like doing a record with nas wasn't because oh I want to get it was it made sense for the song and everybody I have on these songs makes sense for the song and that's what it's about you know what I'm saying did mem know you could rap that fast um no he didn't know I could rap at all he had no idea R he had no idea no you know what look let's let's call it what it is right most people um don't expect an artist especially in hip-hop to be able to rhyme at a certain level after a certain amount of time it is kind of like Tom Brady and Tampa or Lebron and 21 people look at it with a certain amount of awe me personally I just think that you know dreams don't have deadlines man and when you are when you really love something and you pay attention um it can work but here's the one thing I did do I didn't rest on my Laurels like the style that I use on I'm bad and Mama Said Knock You Out is not the style that I used on this so I had to go back to school I had to go back and read I'm reading Hemingway and I'm reading you know the Raven and I'm reading you know all of these various toll story and I'm you know all of all of this great literature and reading the Masters and listening to Bob Dylan and listening to Bob Marley so I could become a better writer so you have to work on your game you know what I'm saying no matter where you're at so it's the equivalent of you know how to ride a bike yes but do you know how to pop wheelies can you put the bike on top of a mailbox you know what I'm saying yeah and so we just heard some of the new we also pulled the old school which is what you were just talking about and people remember people remember you in the ring they remember you at the Apple uh the ladies remember it um some let's take a look let's do [Music] it I am up here with the one the only L [Music] coolers L Cool J man you what the H how you doing miss my name is l I'm for Queens I heard about your man he like thece you withen you got so big so young so fast um then did you ever have a time where you said wow I'm like defined by that image or did you enjoy that did you ever pull back and slow down because a lot came at you you know that's an interesting that's a good question I think that um you know I'm an artist first celebrity second mhm um I'm famous but I'm famous as a consequence of the art that I love me Loving Hip Hop me love MC and I didn't get in this to be famous for being famous so so you're not like an influencer model well only on the weekends and only from the knees down okay you know what I mean but but yeah I um I just really you know I never allowed the music to Define my spirit you know what I'm saying like you have to look at the end of the day you have to be human you can't write songs for people if you can't relate to people people and if you you know you're running around feeling like you're love a boy love a man and you know that's in your mind see it's I've always tried my best to keep the arrogance and the Cockiness and even the extra level all that on the song you know but then as a human you got to check your ego yeah you know what I'm saying like even in murdergram with M you know on the wall that I wrote I had them right fade from sh Kings did the uh the graffiti he wrote Death to the ego so you know like I I keep I always remind myself of those things so I'm not like in love with the idea of L coj I'm in love with art well that's what Kendrick said to Drake in one of the diss tracks which line he said you got to do that ego death oh yeah yeah yeah and it's true yeah because if you don't kill that you can never get to your pure self because ultimately the only way to win is to be vulnerable and vulnerability is the true strength right it's like as a lawyer walking into a courtroom if you're not willing to lose the case you can't win the case 100 well it's funny you mentioned that we watching the you know everybody was watching the debate yeah uh and yeah you go into a debate everybody wants to win um but you can't be so careful so afraid of a gaff that's right that you're not actually also doing what you're supposed to do which is present your ideas and see what people think of them 100% that's like you know taking a last shot in a basketball game right you know you want the last shot or not yeah and if you want the last shot you know what comes with it if you miss and you know what comes with it if you win respect um we look at at at the Persona and the style that you have when I got to go to uh Dapper Dan's Harlem uh Brownstone D yeah he he has all the photos up and he said Ari with you I'm gonna do it different usually I tell people about the photos with you it's just going to be a quiz so we'll see who you know why do I have to take a test um but you're obviously up there we have these images of um some of that look and that time that's a younger well both of you are younger but that's a really young adaper Dan for viewers who remember he came on here he's a he's a dignified grandfather in a suit um what did it mean to link up with him and why was your style important to you because I think you could argue that was not everyone then not every male rapper for for sure and now all of that's become more important in Hip Hop yeah so really what it was was you know at 16 or 17 I was hanging out in Harlem and hanging out with a lot of the you know a lot of the more notorious guys out there and you know and watching how they dress and I wasn't there to do negatives I was there you know that was just a part of rights of Passage in life to see what people were doing and you would see how people dress you would see how people move you would see you know the jewelry you would see the things and these are things that I wanted and and part of that was like going to dab and getting that jacket and getting that leather made and doing that so what I ended up doing because I was hanging around with a lot of my friends I a lot of them dangerous a lot of them Hustlers a lot of them doing a lot of different things I would I brought that into hip-hop so I introduced the big jewelry and the and and the Dappa Dan clothing and the champagne and the models and all of the things that you know actually I got Pann for it during those days like people were not happy with me because of that because at that time it was like x-clan and you know KS and you know and PE who was who de to my heart near did to my heart and that was the focus back then it was much more about Consciousness and me I was just a kid celebrating the fact that I had a couple of dollars and had fun and had access to telephone numbers you know what I'm saying I was just happy to get access of so I'm running around got my champag my jewelry on and I'm feeling great and at that time it's funny because the the more conspicuous consumption celebration hip-hop has been on a run for so long people are more familiar with that you remind people there was a time where the the conscious energy was King did you feel that as attention you felt they were critical of you I felt you know what I just felt misunderstood you know what I'm saying I just felt like you don't get it you know I'm I'm happy yo bro my dream came true I hit you know Lotto not just Financial but spiritually with my dream coming true and you're mad at me that's how I felt like you know you're mad at me for wanting candles on my birthday cake you know you know what I'm saying that's how it felt at the time you know and look man you can't begrudge people people got to feel what they got to feel with me I think um at the end of the day you got to do what's in your spirit and do it brings you Joy you know what I'm saying and that style which you had Run DMC other artists had is something that other kids then grew up emulating 100% including a kid who works around here I know you know about this because you were there we had Willie G back in the lip sync battle days our colleague yeah uh dressing like you stepping out in the fit there yeah yeah that was cool that was a Vibe he won this battle um but I don't know that he won the war should he should he dress that fit every day should he rock that I I he needs to stay away from that you know what I'm saying let's you know let's let's not do that too much let's leave that right there on Li let's leave it on that episode special occasions only yeah you know Halloween maybe you know what I'm saying iy you know what I mean yeah I don't do that too much I love that you say Halloween cuz I I I'm not I'm only known for fashion missteps never fashion choices so I just keep it like blueit can't go wrong but I always feel like if I put something on and it looks costumey to me that's when I know not to wear like like Erica Badu sent this beautiful stuff over and and it's wonderful shout out sent you a red well I put it on and I was like I don't think I can go out I want you to wear red mink on this show I don't think I can go out in this yeah so cost you a red yeah costume is a good is a good signal um before I let you get out of here I I want to do a quick lightning round which we do with with some our favorite artists and I want to show a throwback everyone's talking about the election okay we have this is 24 years ago okay LL rocked the vote okay look let's see you can't get a call without registration so why should you be able to get a gun with that one I'm saying sometimes if you take a right away it just makes it more dangerous but what's the alternative the abuse of that freedom that's why you close the loopholes it's easier for a kid to get a gun at a gun show than get a bear at a bar the point is it's not that cut and dry so figure out where you stand get registered and vote it's the only way you're going to be heard I mean yeah you know I mean vote right you got to vote I don't the rest of it we can you know we can hack that apart we we can take a scalpel to the rest of it that debate yeah we can have that debate about the rest of it you know what I mean like I can definitely put a scalpel in there a little bit but in terms of the idea of voting I think people got to vote you got to vote I mean this is your country you say you love it vote yeah get involved uh lightning round this is in a word or a sense if you can do it uh your new album The Force it's great and it's it came from the heart and the soul and the force stands for frequencies of real Creative Energy Death Jam dope my label I was the first artist on it's great Q-tip brilliant brilliant brilliant producer musician help me craft I think is the best album of my career thus far Rick ruin dope gave me my break um you know I was 16 years old I met him he came downstairs in the dorm I said y I thought you was black he said cool we went upstairs and made a demo I was in I was working in a dorm room at the NYU dormatory Weinstein I think it was wi wi I don't know the hall but something Hall yeah uh Dre oh brilliant like you know and a deep friend good friend and uh just that's I call him Picasso you know what I'm saying you know he's we got unfinished business in in the studio he's a great artist man I love him love that uh final two failure means an opportunity to do better the next time success means you're doing something right but you may have to innovate As you move forward hello Cool J thanks for coming through my man appreciate you appreciate you fantastic again the new album uh is the force get it wherever you get your music or streaming yeah enjoy that baby enjoy that you know what I mean lock in lock in