LL Cool J has shown flashes of brilliance in the last few years whenever he gripped the same microphone that birthed his legendary career back in 1985. After sips of nostalgia — delivering a blistering medley at the 2022 IHeart Music Awards and contributing to this year’s Hip-Hop 50 tribute at the Grammys — Uncle L looks to quench his thirst for performing with his upcoming F.O.R.C.E. Live arena tour this summer.
Announced earlier this week, the Queens lyricist will tackle 20-plus arenas alongside his majestic crew of superfriends, including The Roots, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Rakim, Common, MC Lyte, Big Boi, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Ice T, Juvenile, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Goodie Mob, Jadakiss, Rick Ross, Method Man and Redman. With this serving as his first arena tour in 30 years, LL tells Billboard that he’s already physically and mentally preparing for the two-month-long trek.
“I gotta get on that treadmill, baby, and just do it,” he says with a chuckle over Zoom. “I gotta give it up for the people. I gotta stay on that treadmill, watch that diet, be right, and be the best version of myself at this point of my life that I can be. That’s all I can do. I can’t do no more and don’t wanna do no less.”
Along with his star-studded tour, LL also looks to release his long-awaited album with Q-Tip later this year, after experiencing numerous delays. He also plans to bring back the second annual Rock the Bells Festival this August alongside Queen Latifah, De La Soul and more.
Billboard exclusively spoke to LL about his forthcoming F.O.R.C.E. Live tour, putting out his long-awaited album with Q-Tip, and what he hopes to achieve on the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
We’ve graduated from a festival last year to full-fledged arena tour. Why now?
Well, you know, so many people over the years have been requesting and asking me, “Yo. Are you get on the road? Are you gonna do another record? Are you really going to get into music full-fledged, give us a run and really go at it?” I said, you know what? With it being the 50th year of hip-hop and the Grammy celebration working with Quest and The Roots, it just felt like the natural next step was to take this thing on the road.
We’ll do about 20 cities, and the lineup will switch from city to city depending on where we’ll go. That’ll keep it fresh — and I really wanted to give people something creative. It’ll be one continuous set. Non-stop beats and rhymes. Kinda like Grammy-style, versus stopping and going. Once you come in, fasten your seatbelts. We’re off to the races.
The one name that stuck to me was Queen Latifah. She doesn’t come outside for just anybody.
I’m really honored to have her. I love working with her. Interestingly enough, even though we both come from music, we’ve only worked together in film and the Grammys together. So it’ll be dope to have her out there, spittin’, rhymin’ and just bringing that energy. This is going to be really a creative, exciting journey into hip-hop. Whether you were there since day one or you wanna experience that authentic feeling of day one golden era-type vibes, then this is the show for you. If you really wanna get to it and be about it, this is gonna be a lot of fun.
What can fans expect from you catalog-wise? Because you have both the pure-bred hip-hop songs, and of course, the hits.
I think it’s gonna be just about the art. There’ll be hits, and there’ll be just rhymes and beats happening. I’ll be digging in the crates. It won’t only be the top ten songs you’re familiar with. We’ll also be digging in the crates in a special way, and give those hip-hop heads what they really want, which is an opportunity to see me perform something like “Ill Bomb” or “You’ll Rock.”
We’ll get the hits in there, of course, because people want to enjoy those. But I’m not just gonna stick to that. I wanna mix it up and have some fun. And I think the whole overall show will be mixed up and blended in a really cool way.
Any surprises for your set on the guest side of things?
People should know that the names you see there aren’t the only names. There’ll be special guests. There’ll be other announcements coming. There’ll be other people added. The bill will get better and bigger and different. Just come. If you a hip-hop fan and you love the culture and you really wanna celebrate 50 years of hip-hop, come to that F.O.R.C.E. Live. Come check us out. Because myself, Quest, [Black] Thought, like all of us, we’re bringing it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s gonna be a lot of hip-hop. Lot of beats. Lot of surprises. Musical changes. I mean, the goal is to come out there and have fun. It’s not really about me, it’s about the culture.
The purpose of the tour is to elevate the culture and to show people what’s possible — because not many people have taken 30 years off from arena tours in hip-hop and say, “You know what, let’s do one now.” I wanna show people it’s possible to break creative grounds as an artist in hip-hop — and you could mature gracefully, have fun and embrace it. You don’t have to shy away from your artistic aspirations as your career progresses. You can still take things to the highest heights.
I was with Swizz Beatz the other day and he told me how he felt the music side of his career was incomplete. I say that to ask if one, your project with Q-Tip is actually coming — because you joked about how it wasn’t last year. Then, secondly, whether it drops or not, do you feel like the musical side of your career is complete?
To answer the first part of the question, yes, the project is coming this year. It’s definitely coming. I’ll be announcing the date soon. We have a firm date. The record has been turned in. It’s complete and it’s in the can.
In terms of incomplete, I think an artist will always be incomplete, because you’re gonna always have to follow that inspiration. And for an artist, that inspiration is gonna last a lifetime. So the only thing you can do as an artist is do as much out of you as you can, and do as many inspired pieces as you can. Whether it’s live piece like The F.O.R.C.E. that we’re coming with, or it’s this new record I’m doing with Tip, they’re inspired pieces. So as an artist, your work is never really done, you just create.
So I agree with Swizz. There’s a lot of room. Or, it’s the opposite. It’s always complete. You can look at it like that. At every stage it’s complete, and you just add to that completion. You open it up and complete it, because each piece of work adds to the body. So in a way, it’s always complete and incomplete. It’s like the ultimate artistic dichotomy.
