Hip-hop wouldn’t have been the same if LL Cool J hadn’t blown up. At the peak of his powers, he was unstoppable in his ability to blend tough bravado with a soft spot for the ladies. Had he not fallen in love with the culture or felt too discouraged to keep going, we might not have seen Def Jam become the juggernaut it did in hip-hop.
In fact, LL nearly gave up his dreams before he was even able to give them his demo. At 10 years old, he started rapping, trying to emulate groups like The Treacherous Three at the time. By 16, he was recording numerous demo tapes and sending them to every label he could find the address for.
The lack of responses was bothering LL Cool J, causing him to wonder if rapping was truly his calling. But in a 1986 interview, he reflected on his mom being his biggest believer and supporting him financially by purchasing a much-needed drum machine.
“I went to the record store and bought all the rap albums and looked at all the record company addresses. I sent tapes to all of them, and all of them turned me down. So I told my mother I was going to quit,” the New York legend told Record Mirror. “And she said don’t quit, because you never [know] when you’re going to get a break.”
LL Cool J Almost Quit Before He Could Connect With Rick Rubin and Change Hip-hop Forever
“So to keep me going, she went out and bought me this $300 rhythm machine. I could play beats on it, so I went into the basement of a friend of mine,” LL Cool J continued.
“His name is Finesse Frank ― and I made a demo of ‘I Need A Beat’, just buggin’ out. I sent it in to Rick Rubin, he called me back and about three days later I was in the studio making a record. [‘I Need A Beat’, which now turns up on the Radio album.] That was definitely not the Rick Rubin that you know of now.”
Afterwards, LL Cool J became Def Jam’s first rapper and put out his debut album Radio in 1985 accordingly. Critics quickly became enamored with his presence on records like “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” and “Rock The Bells”. From there, he would go on to have a music career that would span 50 years.
(Photo by John Nordell/Getty Images)
The post How a Teenage LL Cool J Helped Turn Def Jam Into a Hip-Hop Empire appeared first on VICE.
