ILLUSTRATION BY Mark SummersLL Cool J hosts ‘The
Influence of Hip-
Hop’ on SiriusXM.What are the most im-
portant rules you live by?
I treat people the way I want
to be treated. And I don’t
let anybody come between
me and what I’m trying to
accomplish. You know, put
your oxygen mask on first,
then help the person next
to you.
can’t change. It taught me
how not to let rough times
ruin my hopes and dreams
for the future. I think I’ve in-
stilled that in my kids.
Your song “I Need Love”
was one of the first rap bal-
lads. Where did you get the
nerve to write something
like that?
The majority of men don’t
want to be that vulnera-
ble, but at the same time,
it’s what I was feeling at
the time. Many people
feel like they need love —
now, whether or not they
wish to be vulnerable is a
whole ’nother conver-
sation, but I was will-
ing to go there.
You titled your
2000 album G.O.A.T.
and now everyone
uses that acronym
for Greatest of All
Time. How do you
know when to call
yourself that?
You got to believe
in yourself and speak
it into existence. Every-
body ain’t going to agree. Mu-
hammad Ali said he was the
Greatest of All Time. Peo-
ple like to pretend they don’t
know that my G.O.A.T. album
is when that term was intro-
duced, but at the end of the
day, I stamped myself with
that and turned around and
made that the title of excel-
lence for our entire country.
While it’s debatable wheth-
er or not people believe I am
the G.O.A.T., they are so im-
pacted by that term that they
call Michael Phelps, Michael
Jordan, LeBron James, and
Biggie the G.O.A.T., all be-
cause I made that album.
I look at that as a
victory. KORY GROWI learned that not everybody’s
going to get what you’re say-
ing. You know, fuck it — I’m
not apologizing for it; I be-
lieve in what I said. If some-
body is crazy enough to think
I was suggesting we do some
tap-dance, Amos ’n’ Andy shit,
then that’s on them.
You’re from Queens
and Long Island. What’s the
most New York thing about
you?
You can’t get past that New
York hustle. It’s that idea of
turning an idea into some-
thing you can actually
touch. The other thing is,
I have enough belief in
myself as a black man
to not be overly sen-
sitive to everything
that’s said on a racial
side. In New York,
people are always
making some kind
of politically incor-
rect joke. If you
grow up in that
type of environ-
ment, you’re not as
sensitive to some of
that. In New York, peo-
ple just talk crazy.
You had a rough
childhood. You wrote in
your memoir that your fa-
ther shot your mother and
grandfather. They survived,
and your mom started a re-
lationship with another man
who beat you. What did
those experiences teach
you about fatherhood?
They taught me that
your kids should
always feel safe
and that you
can do any-
thing you put
your mind to.
Without chal-
lenges, youWhat do you wish some-
one had told you about the
music business before you
got into it?
I don’t know if I would’ve be-
lieved anybody giving me ad-
vice. I got into the music in-
dustry at 16 years old. That’s
different from somebody who
gets into it in their late twen-
ties. I had people telling me a
thousand things, but I didn’t
listen to none of that shit.
Your first big check was
for $50,000. What was the
first expensive thing you
bought?
I got my mother a car, and
I got some sneakers, a gold
chain, and a VCR in my
room. I bought my mother
a house, I think, with the
second check.
You’re famous for your
battle raps. What did taking
on Kool Moe Dee and Cani-
bus teach you?
Sometimes you’ve got to de-
fend your ground and some-
times it’s a waste of time, so
you’ve got to pick your bat-
tles wisely.
What did you learn from
the backlash to “Accidental
Racist,” your 2013 collabo-
ration with Brad Paisley?
The hip-hop icon on success, ‘Accidental
Racist,’ and calling yourself the G.O.A.T.
LL Cool J
98 | Rolling Stone | August 2019