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LL Cool J Information
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'James Todd Smith' (born January 14, 1968) is an American hip hop artist better known by his stage name, 'LL Cool J' ("Ladies Love Cool James"). He is best known for romantic ballads like "I Need Love" as well as hardcore rap like "I Can't Live Without My Radio". He has also appeared in several films.
Early Years of Abuse
LL Cool J was born in Westchester County and grew up in the working-class section of Hollis, Queens, New York, the only child of Ondrea Smith and her husband, James. Todd sang in the church choir, played football and was even in the Boy Scouts.
Unfortunately, LL's parents had a troublesome, often violent, relationship. As a result, his mother left his father when LL was four and they moved in with her parents in St. Albans, Queens. The relationship turned bloody, when late one night in 1972, his father shot his mother after she returned home from work. According to LL Cool J, who recanted the event in the song "Father" from his Phenomenon album, the elder James was seeking revenge after being abandoned by his family. LL's father shot his mother as she ran into her parents' house for safety. She was hit in the legs and back. LL's grandfather was also shot in the stomach. Both survived the attack. Unfortunately, LL, who was only a toddler at the time, would experience more hardships in the years to come.
LL's mother later began dating a man who would also bring pain into the young rapper's life. The man, who LL named Roscoe in his autobiography, would routinely beat him, often while his mother was at work. He was often stripped naked and beaten for the crimes of being hungry, watching TV, or looking at Roscoe the wrong way. These beatings had a profound affect on young LL. This is the time, he remembers that he began compulsively wearing hats.
LL found that hip-hop music and rapping were ways of escaping his problems. He grew up in a musical family. His grandfather played tenor sax, his mother played accordion and his grandmother sung in the choir. By age 9, LL was rhyming. By age 13 he'd already made his first studio recording.
Building the Def Jam Empire
LL Cool J signed to Def Jam in 1984 and released the underground hit "I Need a Beat" (see 1984 in music). The song was the first hit record for Def Jam, and its success persuaded him to drop out of school to record Radio (1985 in music).
The album was released to critical acclaim, as LL Cool J was one of the first rappers to use conventional song structure to make pop-oriented rap. "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock the Bells" were successful and helped the album go platinum. In 1987, he released Bigger and Deffer (see 1987 in music). The ballad "I Need Love" was one of the first pop-rap songs to be a hit. Critics scoffed at his new direction, though, and by the release of Walking with a Panther (1989 in music), he was booed at a Harlem rally for slain teenager Usef Hawkins.
Don't Call It a Comeback
Around the late 1980s, hip-hop began experiencing a shift in concsiousness away from the music's early themes of partying and braggadocia, to more socially aware issues such as drug abuse, race and racism, and economic empowerment. LL Cool J, as a result, experienced a drop in popularity due to the view that his music was behind the times, materialistic and narcissistic.
Eager to regain his audience, LL released Mama Said Knock You Out, easily the hardest record he had made, which re-established his reputation in the hip hop community. It spawned three hit singles, "The Boomin' System," "Around the Way Girl," and the hard-hitting title track, which received special notice after LL Cool J's dynamic performance of it during an episode of MTV Unplugged. The album inlcuded themes of police misconduct, spirituality along with back-to-basics hip-hop party rocking. Mama Said... eventually went on to sell over 2 million copies. It marked the first of many self-reinventions LL Cool J would undergo to adapt to the hip-hop's often changing atmosphere.
After acting in The Hard Way and Toys, he released 14 Shots to the Dome to muted sales and mixed reviews, despite producing the small hit "Back Seat of My Jeep". He starred in In the House, an NBC sitcom, before releasing Mr. Smith (1995 in music), which went on to sell over 2 million copies. Its singles, "Doin' It" and "Loungin", were two of the biggest songs in 1996 and both songs' music videos were hugely successful on MTV. Another of the album's singles, "Hey Lover", featured Boyz II Men and eventually became one the first rap music videos to air on American VH1. The song also earned LL a Grammy.
In 1996, LL also helped to launch a clothing line named FUBU; the name is an acronym for "For Us, By Us", meaning that the clothes were made for and marketed to black people by a black person.
Life After "Mr. Smith"
After the double platinum status of "Mr. Smith", LL's albums have not been able to regain the same levels of monetary success. In 2000 (2000 in music), he released the album G.O.A.T., which stood for "Greatest of All Time." The critically acclaimed album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200, giving him his first chart-topper on that chart. Nonetheless, the album failed to do the numbers of LL's previous releases.
His next album 10 from 2002 (2002 in music), which denoted LL's 10th studio album, did not fair much better. Although it included the popular singles "Paradise" (featuring Amerie), "Luv U Better", and the hit2003 Jennifer Lopez duet, "All I Have", the album also failed to reach platinum status.
His latest album, The DEFinition, released in 2004, is perhaps LL's most complete and cohesive album of his post-"Mr. Smith" offerings. His biggest hit from the album is the song "Headsprung". Other hits include "Hush".
LL Trivia
* LL Cool J's infamous lip-liking, although seen as flirtatious, is actually a nervous habit he picked up when he was younger.
* The song Nitro interpolated some parts from (not just) Knee Deep by funk musician George Clinton.
* The song I'm That Type of Guy interpolated some movie quotes from The Wizard of Oz.
Discography
Albums
* 1985 Radio #46 US, US Sales: 1,000,000 (Platinum)
* 1987 Bigger and Deffer #3 US, US Sales: 2,000,000 (2x Platinum)
* 1989 Walking with a Panther #6 US, US Sales: 1,000,000 (Platinum)
* 1990 Mama Said Knock You Out #16 US, US Sales: 2,000,000 (2x Platinum)
* 1993 14 Shots to the Dome #5 US, US Sales: 500,000 (Gold)
* 1995 Mr. Smith #20 US, US Sales: 2,000,000 (2x Platinum)
* 1996 All World: Greatest Hits #29 US, #23 UK, US Sales: 1,000,000 (Platinum)
* 1997 Phenomenon #7 US, #37 UK, US Sales: 1,000,000 (Platinum)
* 2000 G.O.A.T. feat. James T. Smith: The Greatest of All Time" #1 US, #29 UK, US Sales: 500,000 (Gold)
* 2002 10 #2 US, #26 UK, US Sales: 500,000 (Gold)
* 2004 The DEFinition #4 US, US Sales: 500,000 (Gold)
Total Album Sales: 12 million
Hit singles
* from Bigger and Deffer
** 1987 "I Need Love" #14 US, #8 UK
* from Walkin with a Panther
** 1988 "Going Back to Cali" #31 US, #37 UK (double-A-side with Jack the Ripper in the UK)
** 1989 "I'm That Type of Guy" #15 US
* from Mama Said Knock You Out
** 1990 "Around the Way Girl" #9 US, #36 UK (1991 re-issue)
** 1991 "Mama Said Knock You Out" #17 US
* from 14 Shots to the Dome
** 1993 "How I'm Comin'" #37 UK
* from Mr. Smith
** 1995 "Hey Lover" (feat. Boyz II Men) #3 US, #17 UK (1996 release in the UK)
** 1996 "Doin' It" (guest vocals by LeShaun) #9 US, #15 UK
** 1996 "Loungin'" #3 US, #7 UK
* from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America soundtrack
** 1997 "Ain't Nobody" #1 UK
* from Space Jam soundtrack
** 1997 "Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem)" (B Real / Busta Rhymes / Coolio / LL Cool J / Method Man) #8 UK
* from Phenomenon
** 1997 "Phenomenon" #9 UK
** 1998 "4,3,2,1," f/Redman, Method Man, Canibus, & DMX
** 1998 "Father" #18 US, #10 UK
* from Bulworth soundtrack
** 1998 "Zoom" (Dr. Dre & LL Cool J) #15 UK
* from G.O.A.T.
** 2000 "Imagine That"
* from 10
** 2002 "Luv U Better" #4 US, #7 UK
** 2003 "Paradise" (feat. Amerie) #36 US, #18 UK
** 2003 "All I Have" (Jennifer Lopez feat. LL Cool J) #1 US, #2 UK
* from The DEFinition
** 2004 "Headsprung" #16 US, #25 UK
** 2005 "Hush" (feat. 7 Aurelius) #26 US, #3 UK
Partial filmography
* Edison (2005)
* Mindhunters (2004)
* S.W.A.T. (2003)
* Rollerball (2002)
* Kingdom Come (2001)
* Charlie's Angels (2000)
* Any Given Sunday (1999)
* In Too Deep (1999)
* Deep Blue Sea (1999)
* Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
* B*A*P*S (1997)
* In the House (1995)
* Toys (1992)
* Wildcats (1986)
* Krush Groove (1985)
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