LL Cool J has declared he's challenging ageism in hip hop.
The rapper wanted his new album The FORCE, his first release in a decade, to be "culturally relevant".
"When I told people, 'Yo, I wanna do a culturally relevant album' in the midst of all these (younger artists), people looked at me like I had nine heads," LL told Billboard.
"They looked at me like I was a hydra - a hydra! - looking at me crazy like that, not because of any ill will, but just 'How can you do that?'"
After working with fellow hip hop veteran Q-Tip to write and produce The FORCE, 56, LL said he was confident he'd achieved his goal.
"It's like breaking the 4-minute mile," the Mama Said Knock You Out rapper explained. "Nobody thought it could be broken until Roger Bannister did it, and then a lot of people started breaking it."
He went on to point out that someone needed to challenge the status quo and he was happy to be that person.
"Now you'll see, when The FORCE has success, you'll see people believing that they can make it happen, and it's gonna extend the life of hip-hop in general," he explained.
"But if somebody doesn't do it, if I don't do Rock the Bells and festivals and show that guys without records in the marketplace still can be relevant, and then if I don't tell you that a guy who's been out for a long time can make a new record and be relevant - if nobody does it, it never happens."
