YouSaid · the spoken record

LL Cool J

lines on the record: 41
first: 2023-08-23
most recent: 2023-08-23
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Chance, you know, that little moment. I've always believed in the magic of life, you know, good things can happen. Great things can happen. A very important quality, I think, for people. You got to believe that the magic can happen, that the good things can happen Live your life and believe that there is no magic, there is no power, there is no nothing happening that can help you. It's got to be a hopeless and desperate place to be I'm just thankful that I wasn't raised to live in that place. I was raised to believe that I could see that little glimmer of light and go after it and grab it.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Gotta be more to life than this. I'm thinking about my other friend. He's maybe three, four years older than me. All he does is sit around smoke weed all day. It's got to be more to life than this. From there, I just used to just try to figure out what else was going on, what it meant to rise above just what's going on. And I think sometimes there is luck and chance and blessings and things that happen in your life and you have to be able to take advantage of it. When you're on the battlefield of life and you're surrounded on all sides and the enemy is closing in and you see one open barn door with a little bit of light, you got to be able to go get in that door. You got to be able to go over there and grab that. You have to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, that little.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember one time we played hooky from school. I was about maybe 14, something like that. Sorry, mom. And we were in my friend's garage. They were smoking marijuana, smoking weed. That day I wasn't. I have smoked before, but I wasn't smoking that particular day. So I stood off in the corner, and these guys were sitting around in chairs. And it was daytime, but the garage was dark, and it was only little cracks of light coming in from different areas. It was pretty dark in there. But you could still see each other. And the guys were just sitting there smoking the weed. And I just stood over in the corner, and I was watching them smoke, and I watched them transform. Not to cast judgment on the weed because that is what it is, but just a moment. I was looking at the moment thinking about playing hooky, thinking about what they were doing. I was standing in the corner. I remember saying to myself, there's got to be more to life.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Freedom over the acceptance LL Cool Jay came from wishful thinking. I just wanted to be the ladies love cool James. You know what I mean? I had a friend who was Playboy Mikey D, and I just wanted to be the ladies love cool James, 16 years old, ladies love cool James. Yeah, I like that idea. It was just a great idea to me. This is a really fantastic idea, you know. The ladies love me, you know. And that's where it came from. I just, you know, ladies love cool James. And then I was on the phone with Rick, and Rick was like, oh, ladies love, maybe LL. I'm like, yeah, I'll just be LL. It'll fit on the record label, LL, because ladies love cool J's might not fit on us. We just made an LL cool J, you know. Wishful thinking”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That are not accepted and received on the same level. For me, I just never really let those rules stop me from experimenting. So if I want to do something bizarre or do something weird or do something that's musically different or not what you would think a young black man in the street would be into, I still did it. Sometimes I've done cultural albums like Mama said knock you out and like the Mr. Smith album and even my first album and then I do records that people absolutely hate like you know where I'm just experimenting and trying different things you know and it got me in trouble a lot of times and critically panned a lot of times and it undermined my appeal in certain areas of the hip-hop community but at the same time as an artist it gave me freedom so I was willing to sacrifice that like honestly I didn't care”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My grandma instills so much manners in me that sometimes there were things that I wanted to say and I would self-censor. And I think if there was one thing that I would do a little different, there are certain things that I would uncensor. But one of the tough things about being a rap artist is that you really get limited in terms of people giving you the freedom to experiment. Hip-hop doesn't give you the freedom to do a sergeant Pepper's lonely Hearts Club band record. It's like, look, it has to be young adolescent macho music or else it's of no value. If you're not talking about the angst of being a young black man and, you know, your relationship with the police and everything that that entails, it's not worthy. And so what that does is it puts you in a position where you're either pigeonholed into one direction or you do things that aren't.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was hilarious. It was just like an adventure. It was like the craziest thing. So you just come up with stuff. You start thinking of things and you get creative. You do. I remember being a little kid and just telling everybody, all right, relax, everybody. Now let's just think about thinking, you know, like real ridiculous stuff, you know, coming up, you know. Imagine your whole life of frames on the wall of your mind and you're walking through a gallery like that was always a place that was interesting to me. You have the ultimate freedom in your mind. You could think about whatever you want to think about. It's just up to you to think about it. And so the thing that writing did for me was it allowed me to be whoever I wanted to be and say whatever I wanted to say. And there were no rules. There were no one could tell me what to do or what not to do. You know, it's interesting. The only conflict that I ever had with writing”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. You know what I mean? And so. I've had a lot of failures, and that's okay. I just keep going. And I still know that LL CoolJ is a pro player. You know what I'm saying? A top-level champion pro player, and I just keep moving forward. When you're an only child, there's not a lot to do. I mean, you're throwing a football to yourself, you know, you're like, you're throwing a football to yourself. I'm like, I'm dressing up in all black like a ninja. I'm sneaking around my own house all alone in between furniture. Nobody knows I'm there.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mother found it. And she was like, Todd, you got the rejection letter? What are you thinking? I said, I'm just not going to do it no more. You know, I can't take it. I don't have the right equipment to do it. And she's just like, well, what do you need? What do you mean? I was like, oh, I need turntables and a mixer. drum machine and I'm explaining and I'm just like I'm done with it. I was going to literally just quit it just so happened around that time she was getting her tax return was due She took that money and she actually bought me the drum machine that I needed to make a better demo and the rest is history so whether it's an album that flops or a show that people didn't like or something I did that people didn't enjoy you got to believe you can't allow yourself to get frustrated by failure I think it was Winston Churchill who said success is the ability”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Greatest play is lose sometimes. Jordan lost many games, Kobe lost many games, but that does not mean that you're not a pro. It doesn't mean you can't play. It doesn't mean that you're not great. There was a point when I was around 14 years old for two years I sent out demo tapes at the time when I was trying to become a recording artist, trying to make a record. I really wanted to make music. I really wanted to be a pro. And I was sending tapes to every rap label at the time or any label that handled dance music or rap music or contemporary black music, all of those different labels. And most of them, there was no response from a few that were basically rejection letters. And when I turned around 16, I finally just quit. I remember getting the paper and this last rejection letter had came from, I think it was either Sugar Hill or one of those labels and I like crumbled it up and threw it in the corner up on a shelf in the attic.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Adopted by these people. Okay, which was like the biggest shock in the world because I have no other connections to the family besides through my mother. So it was like as big of a shock for me as it was for my mom. I mean, they really just took my mother. And really shaped and molded her into a really spectacular and special person. And they did the same for me.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Attention is like oxygen, you know, and sunshine and rain. It gives life to human beings. My grandfather used to sit me down and he was a World War II vet and he would talk to me about the military and we'd watch different documentaries on TV and he'd talk to me about what it was like. We would sit there and we would have contests to see who could eat the quickest because he would tell me that when he was in the army, you know, as soon as they got to the mess hall, it was time for child. Woof. He got it down as quick as he could because he didn't know when they were going to pull him out of there and make him go do something. So he used to give me a lot of attention. And my grandparents were really amazing and righteous people, great people for me to have in my life, especially because, and I didn't know it at the time, but my mother was adopted. Okay. So growing up, my entire childhood and my entire life, my mother nor I knew that she was actually...”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like my son, he'll go and he'll do some work. He's working because he's going to be a real person. Because I'm not going to raise spoiled kids that just don't know what the real world is like who think they don't have to do anything to contribute. And they're just, you know, because that's almost like stealing someone's soul. All people having this life, once you have a certain amount of money, it's about creativity. And if you take that hunger and you take that creative drive and you take that from kids, you rob them of a chance to really live. That's why I let my kids do the things they do.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She's coming out of a room on her way to a soccer game, and I just grabbed her. You know, you can do anything you put your mind to, right? You know you're beautiful. You know you're special, right? Like I've been telling my kids that all their lives, always been trying to really teach them to believe in themselves and to not be limited. I don't want you living your life limited. I don't want you to have any hang-ups about being black. I don't want you to let people set the bar for you because I'm your father, especially for my son.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I never put myself on that pedestal. I'm not even setting myself up for that. But at the same time, I've always been stand up and I've always taken care of my family. After my experiences coming up, I've been a little uncomfortable with really putting a lot of pressure on my kids. But I am a stickler for excellence. And I'm not going to spoil you. You got to prove you're worthy of whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. I'm okay. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with helping your kids get in position and stuff like that, but I want my kids to deserve and earn it too. Is this a real world? They're real people. And I'm a blue-collar guy at the end of the day. And I want them to understand that. I just try to lead by example, encourage them, make sure that they know that they can do anything that they put their mind to. Like the one thing I like to do is I'll corner my kids or while they were growing up. I might catch my daughter.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You absolutely got to be there for your kids. There were times when Simone and I weren't together for a year or two and had other relationships and things like that. But you got to be there for your children. You got to make sure that you set that example. And just be a stand-up guy. It's not about being perfect. It's just about being a stand-up guy that takes care of his family. I never claimed to be perfect.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm pretty much a loner. Not because I'm antisocial, but because I like to think I need room to think. And she is like, my house is like Madison Square Garden. You know what I'm saying? She's got it popping. So it's just like it's a nice balance. I can go in my room alone and shut in and kind of get into my zone. And she's like got downstairs. It sounds like Ice Cube's concert or something. But it keeps me balanced. It keeps me a little more grounded, you know? Know because I could turn into a bit of a nutty professor if she wasn't there to help me kind of stay grounded and connected to people. You know what I mean?”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So his action plus that action equals that car and that life. A lot of times you hear somebody say, oh, and nothing out here for us, ain't nothing out here for us. But you got to take that 20,000 foot view. You got to rise above what's going on in the hood and kind of try to figure out what else is happening in the world. And that goes for everybody. I'm just talking about the inner city because that's where I'm from. It could be for you, for kids out there in the Appalachians. It could be for kids down up in some of them hills of Carolina, you know, whether you're in a trailer park or wherever you're at. It's just something real magical about having the ability to rise above. What I love about Samoa, Simone is very outspoken. I'm more of a diplomat and she's not so diplomatic, you know? So it's that part is funny. And I, you know,”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It wasn't about like when you're young, you don't process whether this is the way to go about getting it or not. That's not even in the equation. It's just one plus one equals two like we learned in school.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Primarily, I was raised in Queens, but I also spent a lot of time during my formative years in North Bablin, Long Island. So I was kind of shuffled back and forth between Queens and Long Island my entire life. Gunshots, ringing out in the neighborhood, the most determined, the most enterprising, the ones that are the most ambitious, the ones that are the most dedicated to succeeding the majority of them seem to be the ones that get seduced by drugs, selling drugs, hustling because you want to make it. So what happens is your best and your brightest end up sitting in prison because they're the ones who at a young age are ambitious enough to want to take their lives to the next level. When I was a young kid, I was fascinated by drug dealing. I saw the cars. I saw the money. I saw the jury. That's what I wanted.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't say people, by the way. I said another word, but I'll just say people for the sake of this interview. But it's true. You know, those grudges, you know, that lack of forgiveness, that's like, you know, a wasp stinging you over and over and over again under your coat. You just hold it for no reason. You got to let it go. I think there are a lot of people right now that are sitting in prison who really could make the world a better place and they're sitting there with life in prison for something stupid that they did when they were maybe 22 or 25 or 27 or 19. And I think we have to take a hard look at that, this whole idea of incarcerating people forever for everything because people do change. And I think we have to get to the place as a country where we believe that that's... Change is possible.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She did that. That's why kids needed father so bad, especially in the inner city, because she saw what I was becoming attracted to. She saw my friends, who I was starting to hang with, who I was starting to be around, and she let my father come back into my life. He definitely grabbed me and shielded me from a lot of what probably would have taken place had I not, you know, had him there. He ended up having a wonderful life marrying another woman who he got along with very well and having two great sons. It just shows you that people make mistakes, but they can change. Forgiveness. A powerful thing. I have a lyric in one of my songs, Il Bomb. I said, I learned you can't eat if you hold beef with people underneath.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“After they broke up, things got a little. My father, you know, in a fit of rage, lost his temper and, you know, shot my mother and shot my grandfather. They both lived. And my father actually escaped prosecution and everything. And then many, many years later, when my mother had the opportunity to press charges, she decided not to. She's a really evolved soul in that regard. That's just how amazing she is and how special she is. She allowed my father to come back into my life. And he came back into my life and helped me in a lot of ways. Wasn't all good, but it wasn't all bad. And I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity. I would have never had the chance to really hang out with him and get to know my dad if my mother didn't forgive him and let him back into my life.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My mother and father had a very volatile relationship. It got physical. They just couldn't make it work. I was very young at this time, mind you, four or five years old, but I kind of remember just the overall energy and the ruckus and the stuff that was going. They broke up.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is what I had prepared my whole life for. You know, I was 16 years old, and since I was a young boy, my grandfather had always said to me, what are you going to do when you're 16? What are you going to do when you're 16? If you're acting like this now, what are you going to do when you're 16? And that kind of, that made that number a big deal in my mind. It made turn in 16 very significant to me. It meant something. So when I met Rick at 16, I just was ready to, you know, take full advantage of the moment. You know, nothing was going to stop me.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I was eight years old, my big head, my head was like an 11 year old's head when I was eight years old. So I'm like trying to pull my turtleneck on. You know, you just can't get up. He said, huh? It was just like, I learned you can't get frustrated. You just got to take your time, get the turtleneck off. Music is my passion. So I kept holding my skill as a rapper and worked on it more and more and more. And then Rick was like, okay, we went in the studio, real studio, not his dorm. We made a song called I Need a Beat. Played that for Russell and Def Jam, the label was born. So I was the flagship artist on Def Jam proper. And after me, then, you know, all of the public enemies and Beastie Boys joined. It turned out to be the epicenter of what would ultimately usher in the modern era of hip-hop and make room for all of the people that everybody's so familiar with now. It just felt like...”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Vulcan on the phone, you know, some Vic Vulcan call, so I, you know, I said, Oh, I'm going crazy. I call him back. Yeah, we got it. I call him back. Greg, you got the tape. Yeah, I like it. We're going to the studio. When he came down the elevator, I was like, oh man, I thought you were black. He looked at me and said, cool. So he went upstairs. We make this demo call catch this break. Rick has the drum machine. We do the demo real quick in his room. We go across town. We play it for Russell Simmons. Because Russell at the time was managing like Curtis Blow, his brother run from DMC and a few other people. Played for Russell, Russell's like, ah, it's the same old thing. Treacherous 3A, same old, same old. And it didn't work out. And it was a little disappointing. But at the same time, I knew that it just wasn't right. I learned that you don't give up. You can't let yourself get frustrated like a little kid trying to take a turtleneck off. You know, I always had a big head.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was in a rap group right at the time when I met Rick. But the people, the guys I were with just didn't believe me. There was a record store in Jamaica Avenue called Record Explosion. And I bought a record by Teela Rock called It's Yours. And on that record, it had Rick Rubin's number to his dorm room. And I still remember it was two on two four two zero eight six. Nothing weird, but that was the number. I sent the tape in. I called Rick every day. Rick, you get the tape. Ricky get the tape. Nope, didn't get it yet. I call him back. Rick, you get the tape? Nope. Didn't get it yet. Ricky, get the tape. Nope. And I'm bugging them and bugging them. And I guess one thing somehow add rock of the BC Boys had heard my tape when it came to the dorm. He listened to it. He let Rick hear it. And one day I walked in the house. My grandmother said, you know, she never heard her name. She couldn't mess up. By the time Rick Rubin called, it was Vic Vulcan. You know what I mean? Like, you know, it's not Rick Rubin as Vic.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because the guys that were in my rap group didn't believe me when I told me, Oh, we got this opportunity with Rick Rubin. We could go down there and make a record, this and that. They didn't believe me. So I made it by myself.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She gives them, reads them the riot act. Okay, okay, okay. But yeah, Phil Pot used to take me to the parties. And, you know, that's my man. You know what I'm saying? I love Jay. And it's funny because I remember when I was working trying to get the record deal and I finally got in contact with Rick Rubin. I used to tell Jay, Philpot, yo, yo, I got this guy, Rick Rubin, gonna go down and, you know, he wants me to make a record and this and that. And they used to always think I was lying. It was the craziest thing. Phil Paul was like, yo, man, don't have me going down here and you lying because they used to think I exaggerated. One of the main reasons why I ended up a solo rapper artist.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was too young. My grandmother didn't want me to be in the neighborhood out in public. She was very protective. I had thugs for friends and I was a mama's boy. It was the oddest thing you ever wanted. I mean, my grandmother was so embarrassing. Like, I'm driving you to school, you know what I'm saying? Like, she would drive me to school to keep you out of trouble. She would do stuff. Like, it would just be crazy. But I remember one time, you know, so funny. She had eye surgery. So she had like a gauze over her eye. She drove me to school. She had an eye patch. Yo, there was killing me. Like I got destroyed for like months because my grandmother dropped me off with an eyepatch in school. But what happened with Jay Philpot, my man cut creator, Phil Pot used to come by and he wanted me to wrap at a block party because he liked my skills, but I told him, yo, you got to ask my grandma, man. Because I was like 13, 14. He was like, all right, so he go in there.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Trade's amazing characters and work with cool people. When I did NCIS Los Angeles, when I started it, I thought it last couple of years and I'd be done with it. I didn't have any intention on diving into this show that was going to go into syndication. And now we're at the time we're filming this, we're in our eighth season. I had no idea that would happen. It's about sticking with it and seeing it through. I have to complete it, whatever that means, whether it's when my contract is up. I no longer do it or whatever. I don't know. But I like to see things through and complete them. So that's why I'm there. Sticking with it.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You learn discipline. Those are things you don't really learn in the music business. You may have them innately. You might naturally be a disciplined worker or naturally be a person who's on top of it, but the music industry doesn't necessarily breed discipline. It's not as structured as television and you have a little more freedom. But TV is a lot of fun. You know, I get to live this fantasy life on”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those movies and Into the Dragon, and I kind of could relate to him just because he was different. So Bruce Lee kind of inspired me to want to be in movies and do action and do the things that I do. Being on set and recording music are two very distinct different things. The difference being on set is that the world doesn't revolve around me, especially on like my TV shows. So, you know, you have maybe 200, 250 people whose lives depend on what's going on. You can't just say, you know what, I need an hour and a half. I'm just going to chill for like an hour and a half and I'll be back. Whereas in music, I might say, yo, yeah, I'll be there around 8.30 and I might show up at 10 and it's not a problem. You know what I'm saying? Television is like totally different. Like you got to be there on time. So you learn humility. You learn teamwork. Like one saying I always say teamwork makes the dream work.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I played football growing up, and that was like another dream. I had I wanted to be a professional football player. And, you know, I was starting to excel at it. And my grandmother's so funny. So when I moved from Long Island to Queens, she says, football's too violent. And, you know, really, I think what it is, is she just didn't want to drive me all the way across town to the Springfield Rifles. That was the football team in Queens, but she just didn't like the idea of me being out there in Springfield in the park, and it was dangerous. So she tells me that's too violent, but then she puts me in karate. Okay. All right. So, you know, I guess she wanted me to be able to defend myself. So I got into karate and I fell in love with martial arts. Bruce Lee, interestingly enough, is the person that made me want to get into acting. Because at that time, Bruce Lee was the only person with any kind of color. It was just primarily all white people on every show, everywhere, in movies, especially in Bruce was different. He would get tanned.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Way home, like, can't wait to play this. So they kept me out of trouble. They really, they were amazing people. The way they raised my mother and the lessons that they taught me, like my grandmother would tell me every day if a task is once begun, never leave it till it's done. Be thy labor, great or small, do it well or not at all. That was a mantra that I grew up listening to. My mother would tell me Todd, you're smart, you're a good-looking boy, you can do anything you put your mind to, believe in yourself. She would tell me that every day. I grew up believing all that. I grew up believing in it and without them. I could have been lost in the street and just been a completely different guy. What that would have been, I don't know. But it didn't have to be this.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He had all this really interesting music down there. Then a wave of rap music started coming in into the neighborhood through tapes. There was a cold crush four. There was a treacherous three. There was a crash crew. Fearless four, Sugar Hill, like all these different groups. I just started listening to more and more rap music and got fell in love with it. It was the first time that I heard young black men sounding so powerful and sounding so strong and sounding so in control and in charge. And my grandmother nurtured it because she wanted to keep me in the house and out of trouble. So, you know, I'd have the pajamas with the feet in the bottom and I'd give her the names of records. And she say, now, what's the name? Write it down. And I said, write the name. She said, okay. I'd be sitting there saying, okay, Grandma, the name of the record is birthday party by grandmaster flash and the furious five. I want you to go get it. She going to the record store and I'd be sitting in the car and she'd bring it out. And then she'd come back, is this the record? I said, yeah, now I'd be staring at the record on my...”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I don't get hurt. I'm all right. So I just leave his bike there. I just go home. Just go in the house. Like I'm just disgusted. You know, my friend's a little mad at me. I left his bike, but he went and got his mini bike. He's cool. So I go in the house. And my grandfather, he says, were you riding a motorcycle around here? It's like, oh, no, no, no. You know, no, no, no, no. So after that, my grandmother convinced my grandfather to buy me the DJ equipment to keep me off the motorcycles and to keep me off the mini bikes and to keep me out of trouble and out of the street. And so I got the equipment. I would go downstairs and I would DJ. And my grandfather also happened to be a jazz musician. And he played in a few bands when he was coming up. He had a lot of records downstairs already. So I would listen to Miles Davis and Jimmy Smith at the penthouse and like smothers brothers records. Mom always liked you best.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was always infatuated with motorcycles and mini bikes growing up. So love mini bikes, love motorcycles. So a friend of mine, he had a mini bike, and he had a shoelace around the throttle wrapped around the handlebar at a minibike because the actual throttle was broken in it. There were some leaks in the thing. So the thing was, you could ride it as much as you want and as fast as you want, but don't push the brakes on because it'll turn off. We have fun on the bike, but you can't stop. Okay, Smash Cut 2. I'm riding down first. I go down Dunkirk. I turn down Jordan. I get the Wood Street cars coming. Don't stop. Cars coming, don't stop. Cars coming”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“LL chased his dream of becoming a rapper. His first single, I need a beat, was an instant smash selling over a hundred thousand copies. LL's Megawatt Charisma soon turned heads in Hollywood, and a career in movies like any given Sunday and TV series like NCIS Los Angeles followed. For LL, ambition and drive are forever kept in balance by the love and devotion he has for family. Everybody has a story, and there is something to be learned from every experience. Use your life as a class. This is masterclass with LL Cooljay.”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hip hop legend Grammy Winner Movie Star TV star mister L You know his name stands for Ladies Love Cool James, right? Well before he was knocking us out LL went by his real name James Todd Smith and was known to his family and his friends as Todd. Growing up in New York LL overcame the temptations of the city through the love and guidance of his grandparent, who adopted his mother as an infant LL credits his grandparents and his mom for giving him structure and discipline and encouraging his creativity. Instead of getting lost in the streets, teenage LL got lost in his beats. Inspired by the founders of hip hop like Grandmaster Flash and the Sugar Hill Gang”
2023-08-23 · Oprah's Super Soul · Super Soul Special: Oprah’s Master Class: LL Cool J · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source