Kevin Hart sits down with hip-hop legend-turned-actor LL Cool J and discusses a myriad of topics including his long-standing entertainment career, the evolution of Rock The Bells, and hip-hop’s upcoming 50th anniversary.
LL Cool J also talks to host Kevin Hart about what drew him to music from the start, why he decided to start his Rock the Bells brand, and recalls what it was like when he started off in a group and then broke off to record his own record.
“I started writing rhymes at 11, 12 years old. I started writing my own rhymes. Why was I attracted to it? Because I had never heard young, black men sound powerful before. Every time I saw black men on TV, they were like being handcuffed and being put in a police car. Or it was a bad story. Or they were somebody that I couldn’t relate to that was way far away somewhere. But these guys were right there where I was from. And they were dreaming big… back then, it was a dream and that bragging and that macho stick your chest out pride was really about ‘I want to be somebody, I want to be heard, I don’t want to be invisible.’ To a certain extent, it was overcompensation for what wasn’t happening for us in the community… it made me feel like it was possible to make it. I was inspired. And that’s why I love it so much and why I still do it.”