This morning, LL Cool J joined Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie.
Hip-hop legend LL Cool J joined Capital XTRA Breakfast following the release of his new album The Force this morning, where he revealed the pressure he felt while making the new album, admitting that ‘everybody can’t wait to tell you it’s trash.’ The rapper also revealed that the inspiration for his new record came to him in a dream!
Key
LL Cool J – LLCJ
Robert Bruce – RB
Shayna Marie – SM
SM: “Did you feel any pressure when you were making this [album], bringing it back to everyone?”
LLCJ: “Well, there’s always got to be some pressure. I mean, we know what it is, man. You know, everybody can't wait to tell you it's trash. You know that come with the territory. ‘It's trash!’ You know, ‘It's trash!’ They can't wait to tell you that, man. My day one fans who have a different experience. But for those who are not as familiar with my music, they of course are going assume that I sound like I'm in 1994 with the wrong beat and all that. ‘And here he come with that,’ you know what I mean, and all ‘out of touch’ and all that. But you know what I’m saying, I’m really, really focused, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't play when it comes to art, when it comes to doing different stuff. So, for me, yes, the pressure was there, but the pressure makes diamonds, and it's fun.”
LL Cool J reveals that the inspiration for his new album The Force came to him from the late Phife Dawg talking to him in a dream
SM: “So what was the moment that you decided that you’re going to do with this one, this is what we’re going to do next?”
LLCJ: “I had a dream. I had a dream, this rap artist named Phife Dawg from the group A Tribe Called Quest – they just got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – he passed away. He came to me in a dream, and he was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be dope. This album could be crazy. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ And I was like… It was a weird dream, because I was working on another album at the time, but when he came to me, when I woke up, I just decided to call Q-Tip and put the other thing on hold. And I called Q-Tip, and from day one, as soon as he pressed the first beat, I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, this is it!’ As soon as his finger, ‘Ding!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that's it, right there,’ you know what I mean? ‘We in, baby!’ You know what I mean? It's just a dream. It's all a dream. You know what I'm saying? that's the beauty of it, right? All of this is a dream for all of us, you know what I'm saying? Like, you could be doing a lot of things, You know what I'm saying? So, it's all ultimately a dream in a movie that we all kind of are the main character of our own movie. You know what I mean?”
