LL Cool J breaks down his plan to end ageism in hip-hop

In genres like rock and jazz, older artists are given the chance to thrive, but not hip-hop acts, because they're often subjected to ageism, which LL Cool J wants to change. He recently sat down with Billboard and discussed his new album The FORCE, produced by A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip, and explained how he plans to inspire older rappers to keep going.

For those who haven't heard it yet, The FORCE shows a 56-year-old Cool J delivering high quality lyrics and a rapid fire flow, while sounding just as hungry as he did in the '80s.

“When I told people, 'Yo, I wanna do a culturally relevant album in the middle of all these younger artists,' people looked at me like I had nine heads,” he said. “They looked at me like I was a hydra – a hydra! – looking at me crazy like that, not because they had any ill will, but just 'How can you do that?'"

Cool J then brought up late English runner Roger Bannister, the first to run the 4-minute mile, to show that it takes just one person to make a permanent shift.

“Nobody thought it could be broken until Roger Bannister did it, and then a lot of people started breaking it,” the rap legend explained. " Now you’ll see, when 'The FORCE' has success, you’ll see people believing that they can make it happen, and it’s gonna extend the life of hip-hop in general.”

"But if somebody doesn’t do it, if I don’t do Rock the Bells and festivals and show that guys without records in the marketplace still can be relevant, and if I don’t tell you that a guy who’s been out for a long time can make a new record and be relevant – if nobody does it, it never happens," he added.

Cool J's new album comes on the heels of other rap veterans putting out solid, well-received material, including Pete Rock and Common's The Auditorium Vol. 1, as well as Eminem's The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) LP. Plus, the biggest rap song of 2024 so far could be called Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us," and he's 37 years old.