Musician, actor, philanthropist, label head and multi-generational crush object, LL Cool J is one of America’s most versatile and enduring pop-cultural figures. As he prepares to release The Force, his first album in more than a decade, he will be answering your questions.
Born the considerably more prosaic James Smith, LL Cool J – that’s “Ladies Love Cool James”, remember – broke through in the early years of hip-hop and signed to the nascent Def Jam in 1984. Built from heavy drums, scratches and little more, debut single I Need a Beat showed he was an instant authority on the mic; his platinum-selling debut album Radio helped to demonstrate the huge commercial potential of hip-hop alongside the likes of Run-DMC and Beastie Boys, who he went on tour with.
He had the range to cross over into R&B-laced tracks – and secure legions of screaming fans – with the likes of I Need Love, his UK breakthrough in 1987, while continuing with bombastic b-boy bangers such as Mama Said Knock You Out and Going Back to Cali. He kept pace with rap’s evolutionary leaps in the 1990s and earned his first US No 1 with the album GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in 2000, also notching a chart-topping single with Jennifer Lopez two years later.
His clout was aided by a parallel acting career which went way beyond mere dabbling, particularly in a string of turn of the century hits, whether offering blockbuster support in Charlie’s Angels, Any Given Sunday and SWATn, fighting Jason in Halloween H20 and genetically modified hyper-intelligent sharks in Deep Blue Sea, or trading barbs in romcoms such as Last Holiday and Deliver Us From Eva. Beginning in 2009, he then settled into a main role on the long-running TV series NCIS: Los Angeles.
Music has taken a back seat over the last decade, but The Force is an eye-catching comeback, produced entirely by A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip and featuring guest spots from Eminem, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and more. “It’s like a director going back to film school after he’s had blockbusters,” LL Cool J has said, or “Denzel going back to acting class”.
As he gears up to release it on 6 September, he will be answering your questions about anything in his varied career. Post them before 5pm BST on Wednesday 31 July, and we’ll publish the answers in the 6 September edition of our Film & Music section, as well as online.
