Episode 334 "LL COOL J"

Borrow with me here you know, BT know how it goes, shout out O, C T no real color what we see whole game read the butler bo something.

Oh you can't stand on the uncle see.

I already know you can't bother with me because what the squad of me they get at.

They called me.

Love Love Ballerler.

I go by the name of Ferrari Simming.

I know by the name you know BT, and.

I'm Jojo Alonzo E L cool Jay.

And the building.

Welcome to the ball Alert Show. Glad to be here, Babby, thanks for having me listen.

We was having a great conversation off camera, and we was talking about a lot of stuff that we wouldn't expect legends to be hip hop because I did not believe when you said that you manage all.

Your pages, yea, all your well, why do you manage your own platforms?

Well, I mean the real reason is because, first of all, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm a nerd, you know what I mean, Like, so I'm interested in shit like that, you know what I mean. The second part is that I want to be able to know what's going on and I want people to hear from me directly if I want to do it. And thirdly, like you know, when you start respectfully like a bunch of social media companies and all that, they don't necessarily get

Like ll what's up? Dog? You know? This is the goat I was if you you know what I mean.

Like, now, are you monetizing your pages?

Huh?

Are you monetizing your pages?

I don't really mind.

Well, I mean that's a yes, no or no, right, because I mean my life I monetized, dog, Like I'm pretty monetized. So the short answer is, do I focus on the monetization of the pages themselves?

No, I don't do.

I have like little merch shops on some of the page of course, But do I like go out of my way to you know, no, I do not. But but I'm not any for that per se. But that's not but you know what, that's not a bad idea for me to focus Like.

That's actually good, Like I probably need to do that.

I'm just a radar personality. But I get a nice check from Facebook. I'm pretty sure he had a lot of monthly Facebook.

Pretty nice. You know. You know, you know, money is enough money right there?

You go lone of times, all of them, every single one of them, especially TikTok Yo.

She came alive when we started talking about that.

Monitors, I need to get as much money as you can get, no, because social media is paying.

Listen, you know I'm gay for it.

I'm so, I really wanted to ask you. I just want to start with your name. Where did the name come from?

Well?

You know, you know, I was sixteen, you know, I was in a crew and like all the dudes had names that kind of like applied to going after females, you know what I'm saying. So it would be like the super Lover this one and a man playboy Mikey, and so I made the LLL was Ladies love Cool James, you know what I'm saying, Like that was you know

So and I know you were one of the very first people to get a record deal at a very young age and a time where like it was so hard to get deals and be in the music industry. You're at the piet I say, the pioneer, so.

I make it even So, I was the first artist on deaf Jam, right, So we started the label that death Jam was a production company and they it was they. Rick Rubin one of the found the founder of the logo and the actual label. He it was on a street The name of the label was street Wise Party Time and it was death Jam Productions. I bought a song by this artist back then. His name was Tela rock still Is and I ended up sending in a demo, and you know, we ended up starting the label deaf Jam,

Thank you for saying that, because I didn't know that it was independent at first.

I thought, oh, yeah, no, it was completely Yeah.

See when I when I started, there were no there was no hip hop industry, you know what I'm saying.

So you basically created the genre.

No, I definitely was a fan of the genre from the beginning. So I became a fan of eight years old, right, you know, but before they made rap records, before they were records, it was all on tapes and on mixtapes and like what we would call blend tapes today. You would catch him at the parks and stuff like that, right, So I, you know, I became a fan of eight. When I was eleven or twelve, I started writing, right, and then when I was fourteen, I started trying to.

Make a demo, and then at age sixteen we started Death Jam.

But there was labels like sugar Hill, and there were labels like Enjoy, and they were labels like Tommy Boy, which were early but they but death Jam was the first label that that that in the modern era, because you know, it's kind of like art. There's there's modern postmodern, there's contemporary, right, Well, death jam ushered in a modern era for the time, you know what I'm saying, Like all those.

Other labels were we were.

Like pre you know what I'm saying, Like they were like they were contemporaries, and then all of a sudden, death jam are ushered in the modern era.

You date, so you.

Said, like at eight years old is when you when you got the love of music?

So who inspired you? Who were you listening to?

So there was there was there was a Treacherous Three, There was the Feelers four.

There was a Foursome Seeds.

There was a Cold Crush you know, which is like JDL, Almighty KG, Grand Master CAZ. There was you know, there was you know the Fourth MC's, you know Mercury and all you know, all of them from Staten Island. There was a fantastic Romantic five, Whip a Whip. There was

Fan of the very I was that.

Fan at the very beginning, you know what I'm saying, And also got the.

Like record very young.

So because of that, like my chronological contemporaries would be like Jay and Pack and Biggie. Chronologically from an age standpoint, it's.

Like Jay and Pack and Big and all them.

But from a rap standpoint, I'm like ten fifteen years earlier, you know what I'm saying in terms of hip hop, because I started so young, you.

You know what I'm saying. Like I was like, but I just wasn't a kiddie rapper.

I started very young, but I didn't come out as a kiddy rapper, So nobody ever saw me as that.

We'll be right back with more of a Buller Alert show.

How do you feel about hip hop in today's age?

I think I don't. I don't have any issues with it. I think that you know, see anything, The key is that anything that you do is going to evolve and change, right, So the question becomes, here's the difference.

Here's the difference with hip hop.

You know, it's funny, it's a big word, but it's the democratization has taken place.

So what does that mean?

Basically, what it means is that now everybody can play in the NBA. Right, It's like like today in the NBA, Steph and Kad and you know and and you know and everybody you could think of that you love. They they are in a world. They're in a like a like a walled garden. And you can't play in the NBA just because you want to play, right, okay, even if you bounce the ball. See well, in hip hop,

That story Soldier bore character stream, you.

Know, not the.

Gotcha he liked that ship. Look at him. I'm going he don't wower y'all. No, I was really just thinking like that, what son?

But you know what, the reason why I use him as an example was because he was that. He's the first he was And I just talked about it earlier to SOLDI, I love you bro about with Jady no my man, Ray. But the thing is, because of the way YouTube happened and the way it emerged, it was there was no real gatekeepers involved with his success.

That's why his story couldn't have happened.

He's you know, you know, he made a great song and you know with that first song and it went from there and all that. But that was the thing. So it's like, those are the differences in hip hop. The other differences in hip hop is that now you know the current society, the mindset is much more layered, right, It's a more layered way of thinking. So you know when we when we were first started, you make a song, you make a rhyme, you make a record, that was it.

That's it.

Now, Like I was saying earlier to somebody, a girl would make a song, then you make a rhyme that she's thinking about a video, and then she's thinking about a brand, and then she's thinking about monetization of pages and thinking about and she's thinking about her she's thinking about all of the ways to create an ecosystem around themselves that goes beyond just the craft. So that's the difference, you know what I'm saying, That's like the major difference.

Like it's no structure, basically what you're saying with the new generation.

Now there is structure.

I just think it's a it's a much more it's a it's a much more savvy way.

Of approaching the art form.

What happens though, is now the one the one thing, the one thing that you got to remember, you know what I'm saying is that because of that, sometimes sometimes not always, sometimes they don't focus on the craft as much because they're so focused on being It's like they're so focused on being a star that they maybe not bouncing the ball as much.

You feel me, they're not playing with the rock as much.

So you know, you know, you know, it's a little harder to get a Kyrie because you know, Kyrie would be like over here worrying about his T shirt line instead of bouncing the ball.

What do you think?

So we did speak about how it's a we know that hip hop is changing, it's evolving as an artist, do you feel that you have to do that as well? Like you need to involve evolve, like of what you think the people may want to hear at this day and age. And I bring that up because I know, you know, passion is out and it gave me nostalgia vibes.

You know, it took me back to like real hip hop.

Yeah, so so here's my thing with that, right, you can't fake create, you know what I'm saying, like not If you want to last, you gotta do what you love. Now what does that mean? That means you got to really pay attention. You got to understand the mindset.

Of the word.

You can't make music that reaches the people if you don't understand the people.

If you don't know that people are still smelling pissy elevators.

And you know, and you don't know that people are you know, sleeping on the floor to avoid gunshots, and if you don't understand danger and if you only living in your star bubble, you know, you're gonna be boring, you're gonna be leading with your wallet, and ultimately that shit is gonna be goofy, you know what I mean. Like that's where it's gonna end up right now in terms of like what people are gonna want to hear.

The way I look at it is like this.

If I was sixteen, if I was nineteen, if I was twenty two, I don't really care about your resume.

That shit don't matter to me. I respect it.

But if you want to impress me when I press play, I gotta like that shit. Like that's ultimately where like all that other shit is cool, it's great.

Oh yeah, yeah, go yeah, yeah, yeah, man, you're the man. You did this. Yeah cool?

Press play Transparent, Press play transparent.

Moment I'm getting on my way up here, I'm talking to my sixteen year old, I'm like, yeah, I interview l today. She's like, oh yeah, I love him as an actor, Like yeah right, he was like what. I was like yes, and I start educating her the music. But listen, salute to you for the fourteenth album. Could we get some snaps on that, please. I don't know nobody that got fourteen.

Artists that have way more mistakes.

But I don't know about fortunate, but a lot of people that got fourteen albums still not here.

Yeah yeah, yeah, you're still here. Yeah yeah.

You know what, man, you gotta love it, baby, you gotta love that ship new song with Rick Ross and uh J. Yeah yeah, Saturday Night Special and then the Passion Joint. The album is chocked full of all concert joints.

I gotta joint.

Tell your conscious on the dress? Hold, huh you on point? Everything was on point because I'm analyzing. I'm over here, like this is gonna fit what we're talking about right now?

Yeah it fits, like, yeah, they expect me to have skinny jeans over my bains and my cam showing.

I already know what it is. You know what it is, bro, You know what it is. Listen.

No, I'm just saying.

I already know it. You know you know what they you know what I'm saying, Like, because but you know why that happens. Let me tell you what it is.

First of all, you know what really happens. People just forget about the world. Man, They just forget that the world exists, and it becomes so self absorbed that they don't change.

They don't adapt. They don't. And the other thing is, see, were you never like that?

No, but but there are moments when you are more closed than other moments. You got to be self aware. He keeps you grounded or you gotta have I mean, the short answer is you can't be an arrogant asshole. I mean, that's the short answer. You gotta have faith in God. You got actual staff? Is he is he an asshole?

You know? Paid good?

I was like, I'll answer no, but I'll answer I would say nine of the time I'm not.

And you know.

What brings that tempercent out people asking me that question.

Yeah, you know what I mean, like, you know, you just got to be like listen, you just gotta pay attention.

You know what I'm saying, You just got to pay attention to care.

And also what I was going to say is, you know, as you mature in your life, right, you still got to be willing to learn from everybody.

Some people and I learned this just from me, Like I've.

Had dudes like that I looked at as for quote unquote big homies. Right, but maybe in my life I may have done some things and you know, surpassed some of the things that they did or took it to another level. But they because they are older than me, they think they can't learn from me. That's a big mistake. So when I you know, if I hear you know, somebody from a different generation two three generations from me talking about yo yo.

You should check this shit out. I checked this shit out.

I actually pay attention, like it doesn't bother me, Like, I don't have an issue with learning from you know people, So I think that that's kind of where that that disconnect happens a lot of times, you know what I'm saying, Because a lot of dudes, like and even some females, they don't like to learn from people that are younger than them.

That's fact.

They don't like that shit like and I don't really know why that is, but that's like.

They be stuck in their waist because it's like a lot of family members too that you would be younger, but you might be more experienced, Like you traveled the world, You've seen different type of kol tracts, and then you try to go back home to the neighborhood.

Look, I need to learn that. Look, so I got a little dad's stomach. Oh here you go.

He's been waiting to ask you this, even.

To watch board. You know what I'm saying, I need some tips, big dog, Like is it? Do you? Are you still working now? Because I saw you eat that donut? Are you gonna go work out today because you ate that piece of that donut?

Not because I hate the doughnut. I'm gonna work out because I want to. But yeah, I like to eat. I like to You know, I'm not gonna be bored.

It's just not going nowhere though, you.

Know, we would really have to look at it. You know, you're tweaky in it off the little.

Crazy good sandwiches, hot sauce, potato salad with and what's your diet like right now? Right now, just at this particular time when you're asking me, I haven't been eating no meat and chicken. That's been eating really like fish and shrimp and stuff like that.

You know what I'm saying.

But it varies, No, but it ferries though it varies, man like steak when you eat a lot of red meat.

What were you talking about?

But when you eat a lot of red meat, people talking about when you eat a lot of red meat, you can't get the interview about you can get bloated. You know what I'm saying, You could get bloated with the red meat because he has a lot of creatine in it. So you'll find when you eat a lot of steak, you start getting And now I'm a really.

This is horrify you gotta get I put it the nice way. Clean yourself out.

It's self cleaned out, and then you'll find what all that should go down?

And you you happen a lot of people because there's a lot of people that's gonna be watching his interview.

They got that too bad shot fire. You forgot that too, you know what I'm saying.

People trying to you know, it's the summertime, people trying to slim up, and you know you gotta be look this.

Week, will be able to take your shirt off at the pool.

So you want to have stamming in your whole life, like like like you know I have, you know, like I've never felt old.

I just put it like that, you know what I mean.

You want to have stamming in your whole life, like you know, like when you you know you want to be able to you know, yeah, you won't be able to reach the rim.

I don't have no problem.

So you got to take just the workout. What's the workout plan? What does it look like?

You going to.

Minimum four or five times a week? And I work mostly on stamina. I don't I lift, but I don't lift super duper heavy relative to my size. Relatively speaking, I don't go super heavy. I do shoulders, I do chests. I make sure that I elevate my heart rate.

You know.

I do the stand, the step, the steps, I think, I do sprints on a treadmill, I do the elliptical. It depends on my I listen to my body. If my elbow feels funny, okay, I'll leave that alone. If something you know feeling right, I'm moving to something else. I just always exercise. And you want stammina. Stammina is key in life. Stammin is key, man.

I always wanted to ask you this too, What do you enjoy more? Do you enjoy movies and television because you're a natural at that, not more than music?

Music?

On first love, music put me in position to do all that stuff. I love it and I'm grateful I could do it. And you should never limit yourself. And if you have more than one talent. You should use them all, you know what I'm saying. But music's my first is it?

N Cisdore?

I did it? I did it for fifteen years? Wow? Yeah.

Did you have a lot of friends that were peers of yours in the music business that the more they see you evolve and you know, they kind of was stuck on the music. Did you give like a lot of jealousy, like frenemies when people was like, man, he like doing like he's still going.

We're trying to figure it out. You're laughing because well.

I'm laughing because you know, the music industry in general and entertainment is full of coopetition. Because that's what you're talking about in front of me. It's not as much front of me as it is coopetition. So yeah, you deal with some of that. But you know, my job is to show people as possible. I'm just showing dudes and showing.

People that, yo, you could keep going at a high level.

It's like you see bron playing in the twenty first year. I'm doing that in music years. You know, I'm just showing people what's possible, you know what i mean. Like that's the fun thing about it, you know, just showing them what's possible. And if you do catch a little bit of that hate and all that, I mean, whatever, like you know what we're gonna do. Well, you know, go home and you know, practice a violent and sob

Hating? Oh? How's that working out for you? You know what I mean?

Do you still feel like that hip hop needs to have a retirement plan? I say, you know that was going viral or where you were talking about there needs to be some type of retirement plan for hip hop artists.

Well, first of all, I mean that's a two sided question. First of all, artists can't You can't retire from art. I don't even know what that means. Okay, And you know hip hop and being what I do in creating, that's it becomes a source of income. But it's not a job, it's a life in it. You know, when you're an artist, you're an artist, that's what you are. You paint, you sculpt, you direct, you write films like you are what you are like, So there is no retirement from that.

That's a lifelong commitment.

If you're really that I'm The other thing I want to say before answer is that, you know, I'm very comfortable with somebody looking at me and saying he's a rapper, he's an MC. You don't have to say nothing else about nothing else, And I'm good with that. I don't need to, like, like, I'm not gonna undermine a craft that has changed the world by sheepening it and saying like, oh, I have to do other things to validate my existence because this ain't enough.

That's bullshit.

This is enough. Hip hop is enough, you know what I'm saying. Like I started death Jam, you know, I came up with the term goat.

You know you have any stocks?

Do you have any ownership?

I'm going the piece of death Jam early on. But the thing is, it's, you know, there's two parts of that conversation too, right, like, yeah, I'm doing great, but that's not really the What it is is what we get caught up in sometimes is And that's the one thing about the new generation that's very interesting, and you got to be able to make the fine distinction. What Miles Davis did for music has nothing to do with his bank account. Don't make those things the same. That's

No, No, before I don't know, it might be.

How you driving, but I was really listen to you.

Yeah, but it's just like bottom line is it was like the true sides of it, the money and the and the music and the.

Oh you was talking about like you don't like how the new generation is uh is trying to kind of base people's success based on the money in there.

Yeah, that's a very that's a slippery slope. Right, that's a slippery slope, because that's not it doesn't matter how much money Prince had, bro say less.

That's a different skill set and it's important. I'm not bro.

Like you see her shirt right there, that shirt you have on right there, that paid him full shirt.

The real guys in that movie.

I hung with them every day from age seventeen to twenty. The real guys, like the real like like the real Alpo and the real rich Porter and not Rico Alpo and the real rich Porter and the real Az.

Those are my friends. So what I'm saying is, like, how accurate was that movie? Huh?

How accurate was that movie?

It was fairly accurate. Okay, it was fairly accurate.

It was on you know, some of it was accurate because you know, yeah, it was fairly fairly you know. It was some changes made to it that I'm sure a Z would feel he you know, but it was fair.

It was some parts of it that was it was real.

Like the impact on the culture in Harlem at the time was it was all that. It was probably even more impactful if you lived it seeing it, you know what I mean.

You know what I'm saying.

We'll be right by, stay tuned with more of the ball or Alert show. So we all of us in this room, we know that you are a legend, and I just want to know what do you want your legacy to be?

So, you know what's funny, nobody gets to correct their tombstone. You don't know what your legacy is gonna be. And why do we know that? Because if I put this bottle of water on the Internet and say it's a bottle of water, somebody's gonna.

Oh, it's actually a plastic thing without Oh, actually have some It couldn't be vodka, could like, they're going to beef about this, right, So I don't worry about legacy.

It's about being in the moment. It's about just planting the seeds. You know what I'm saying, Like, yo, listen, man, apple tree, keep growing apples to it's finished. Man, orange, keep growing oranges till it's finished. Like all that legacy. I don't know, you know what I'm saying, because everybody's gonna remember me for something different.

You know what I mean? What I want to do is, you know, I just want to do.

Dope shit and do cool shit my entire life and show people that it's possible in that dreams don't have deadlines and you could keep getting it and keep having fun. And that's the because see that's the thing that people like. That's the one thing we got to remember. Everybody's so focused on getting the money. And the money comes, it does, it really does if you're great at what you do, But are you having fun? Like are you having fun? Like like's I don't like, I don't ever hear it.

Care of people is fun, like.

Even being there for your mama, It is fun being there for different people. So it's like, so we can't get caught up in like just money, money, money leading with your wallet leading with you what it's like, Yeah, okay, we're gonna get that, okay, prime example, like with the music, right, listen, a rapper. He comes out, he's talking that money talk.

You love it.

Twelve years later he's still talking that money talk. Now you're looking at it like, dude, do you have anything else.

To talk about?

Like, my god, please just just could you put a black T shirt on and talk about taking fucking necklace off?

Talk anything? Please? Please? Bro?

Like yo, did anything happened recently that you care about a little bit?

Right?

So those are the So that's what we gotta remember, because you know what, all of usdden here we different generations.

But I bet you know Bob Marley, you god damn right, you just I'll just watched this movie on the planet.

You know, you see that and you know why you because he talked about something, because he has something to say. And guess what, love free. And you don't care what Bob Marley had in the bank. You might have died with a half a million, do you care?

No?

And that because that's not the metric for success. It is the metric for financial success, but it's not the metric for cultural success. Bob Marley did not have to be rich. He was rich, and what he did and what he created and what he put in the world, you know, what I'm saying, that shit matters be you know what I'm saying. Like I was talking to somebody earlier. That's why I said, like, you got these dudes, the first thing they want to do, they won't leave with

You, facts will it can't?

You know, a wallet can't you know, it could get you access to somebody who wants access to that wile we know what that is.

But that's a different conversation, is what it is.

Maybe you're comfortable with that, great, But I'm just saying it can't uncorner you, you know what I mean.

So that's that's kind of anything that I appreciate it.

Oh, some they did.

I watched it happen.

Commercial. Yeah, nobody, nobody was on that, and you took a chance for a gap commercial as well. So I talked about it. So he's talking about a long time ago I had. There was a Damon John who's on a Shark tank. Him and Keith and some other guys. They started a clothing line called Fooble Forced Bias. I'm one of the owners of foolble Was. We did that and it was a nineties I don't ninety something. So it did well, it blew up. But one of the things I did was I had to do with Gap commercial.

Know what I mean? Like, and now to think it was yo, you know what bottom line is, this is not gonna hurt them.

They got a trillion doledge and it's gonna help my homies and it's gonna help us.

And so I just made that decision. Listen. You know we read it in.

Mythology all the time, the Trojan Horse. You know, we know about this Troy. You know, I mean, it is what it is, you know what I'm saying. So like, listen, man, in life, you got to be aggressive.

Man, you know what I'm saying. You gotta go get that thing like.

Yeah, oh of course, oh yeah yeah for us bias on the load, yeah yeah, yeah, gotcha surprise surprise yeah yeah, yes, yes, I absolutely planned for yours.

Yeah, So it was planned for you to do the commercial and say I'm wearing our plan to do it. I didn't. I didn't tell them I was planning, So they didn't know that.

No, no, they didn't know what kind of hell it was either no.

They said, well, you know, you can't wear this hat because it's it's not a you know, it's not you don't know it's not you don't have a clearance.

I said, I don't worry about it. I own it. It's like, okay, that was that of the infamous, but.

You knew he was doing something big company but he was.

Of course, of course listen, of course, like I put like DMX, DMX's first record, well not his first record, but his first joint that you know, we put him out there.

That was on my four three two one song. I introduced DMX to the world, and you know, and.

When I shot you, I introduced Foxy Brown to the world and put you know, Damon John in the morning we started death jam, right and then you know, you introduced the term goat to the world, and you know, you you know, like and then we now I'm just telling you all the different things like and like you know, like Bill Clinton's inauguration, like I was the first rap orders that I wrapped up the inaugurations, and you know, like all of these different things, like all of that

You feel me, Yeah, all right.

So before we get out of here, we got something called a pep talk where you look at the camera and you give them some words of motivation. Okay, and now we have a time for lkj's pep talk.

I would say the pep talk would be you could do anything you put your mind to. That's these are facts. The keto is that you got to be open to receiving what it is you want to do, and you really gotta put yourself in a a in a space of gratitude and and go for it wholeheartedly. And you can't. And the other thing I would say is that in order to be a winner, you have to be comfortable with the idea that you might lose. You know what I'm saying, like like, you can't win if you're afraid to lose.

You date so and.

Before you do that, we have something for you.

Man, your abs are gonna be gone in there's some more cupcakes.

So this is from ninety six point one to be in Duncan. And we just wanted to give you this.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, just leave it right there. Oh you're going over it for me? Oh wow, Oh that's crazy.

And who.

Dunkey FLA's fired, Okay, it was a smart move. He showed it. The logo all over me, slick ship. I got something for you. Surprised did you make the donuts? Very cool? Thank you. I can't get enough of baller Alert.

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