LL Cool J mixed his first demos on gear his jazz-playing grandfather bought him
At 16, James Todd Smith was making demo tapes in his grandparents' Queens house on turntables and a mixer his saxophonist grandfather had paid $2,000 for. He mailed them around New York, and a fledgling label called Def Jam answered. His first single sold over 100,000 copies and helped put the label on the map.
Smith was born on Long Island on January 14, 1968, and his childhood was hard: his father shot his mother and grandfather, nearly killing both, and a later boyfriend of his mother abused him. From 1972 he was raised in his grandparents' home in St. Albans, Queens. He started rapping at 10, inspired by the Treacherous Three, and said that in his neighbourhood kids grew up speaking rap the way others grew up speaking Spanish. His mother spent a tax refund on a drum machine, and his father, reconciled, offered early guidance.
He first called himself J-Ski but dropped it because such names were linked with cocaine culture. A friend coined LL Cool J, short for Ladies Love Cool James. Def Jam, founded by Rick Rubin while he was an NYU student and Russell Simmons, signed him, and I Need a Beat came out in 1984. Its success, alongside the Beastie Boys, helped Def Jam win a distribution deal with Columbia. His first concert took place in a school lunchroom with tables pushed together; when girls queued for autographs afterward, he decided this was his career.
Radio, his 1985 debut, began a long run that included Mama Said Knock You Out in 1990. He was one of the first rappers to cross over to mass commercial success, moving between hard-edged tracks like Rock the Bells and romantic hits such as I Need Love. Exit 13 in 2008 closed his Def Jam contract, though he returned to the label for The FORCE in 2024.
Acting became a second career, from Deep Blue Sea and Any Given Sunday to fourteen years as Special Agent Sam Hanna on NCIS: Los Angeles, a role he carried into two sister shows. He has won two Grammys, became the first rapper to receive Kennedy Center Honors in 2017 and was inducted as a rock and roll hall of famer in 2021.
Source: LL Cool J
