“The people who go get an LL album want to hear LL. They don't want to hear LL trying to sound like DMX or whoever else is out there. That's not what they want to hear from me, because if they want to hear that they can go get the real thing.”

American rapper and actor

LL Cool J, born James Todd Smith, is an American rapper and actor. He emerged in the early era of new-school hip-hop and became one of the first rappers to find broad commercial success. He is closely associated with the crossover of rap into mainstream popular culture, alongside acts such as Run-DMC. His career spans both music and acting, and his public image has long been shaped by that early breakthrough.