LL Cool J, worthy of becoming both a beloved hip-hop/rap artist and a great Hollywood performer, has indeed scored such a rare accomplishment that only a few other stars might follow in the American entertainment industry. He has accomplished the daunting challenge of flourishing all careers in an outstanding manner during his long career, making tunes that have also been mega hits and at the same time taking part in well-known films that have played major parts in improving his popularity in the show industry. Fortunately, the reality that he had once endured a bleak time in his younger years did not cause him slip into a pessimistic way of living, evoking him instead to materialize his dream to be everything he later became of.
Founded James Todd Smith as the only child of James and Ondrea Smith on January 14, 1968 in St. Albans, Queens, New York, little LL was never conscious of how it feels to have a comfortable childhood since throughout his early life he had already been compelled to experience some suffering. He had lived in a miserable condition since childhood because of the abuse that always happened in the relationship between his parents, which later unexpectedly culminated in the brutal shooting of his father at his mother and grandparents in 197Since surviving, things got worse, Ondrea started dating a young physical therapist called Roscoe whom she encountered while being examined in the hospital and it turned out that this guy emotionally and physically harassed LL regularly while the mother left home to work.
LL eventually fell in love with this music genre, seeking solace in the form of rap and hip-hop songs to relieve his sufferings, so he began rhyming at the age of 9 when his grandparents purchased him a package of DJ instruments. Afterwards, in his attempt to build a raping profession, he made his own demo tape in the intention of landing a record contract, supposedly it was at this period that he coined the name of LL Cool J which stands for Ladies Love Cool James. The talented youth was able to catch the interest of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, who had just formed a production business named Def Jam at the point, untiringly submitting his works to several music labels. Impressed with his natural ability, Rubin then agreed to sign him in 1984 under this budding label, then supported the 16-year-old boy to write the company’s first song, I Need a Rhythm, his album, and launched it the same year.
