LL Cool J was supposed to do an album with Dr. Dre.
LL Cool J is making his return to music this year as he’s prepping the release of his fourteenth studio album, which will be his first in 10 years, following up on 2013’s “Authentic”. The album is reportedly produced by Q-Tip, but the legendary rapper first linked up with Dr. Dre for the project.
“So, the real story is that I did about 30 to 40 songs with Dr. Dre, and in doing those songs I felt like — the music was amazing what Dre was bringing to the table was super dope — but I felt like the writing, what I was bringing to these songs didn’t feel strong enough to me,” he explained on Way Up With Angela Yee. “I didn’t feel like I was expressing, I was getting out of me, what I was feeling. In my mind, I didn’t feel like it was written properly.”
LL then revealed that late Phife Dawg came in his dream, after which he reached out to his A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip for the production. “So, I took a pause. Me and Dre just kinda paused for a minute. And I ended up having a dream, and in this dream Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest came to me,” he added. “When he came in my dream he was like ‘Yo, that album you gonna do with Dre is gonna be dope.’ And I’m looking at him and he’s smirking a little bit.
He continued: “He had a funny look on his face. And then when I woke up, I just felt like Q-Tip was on my spirit. So I just called him. He picked up and I told him that I wanted to do an album. We went and did the record and the rest is history.”
The rapper recently made an appearance on 93.5 KDay radio, where he revealed that the upcoming project will feature Rick Ross, Nas, Fat Joe, Saweetie and Eminem.
Back in 2021, Dr. Dre also inducted LL Cool J into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. “Whenever I hear the first album Radio, it immediately transports me back to when I was just getting started as a DJ behind the turntables. I started off practicing mixing and scratching ‘Rock the Bells’ in my garage,” he said in his speech for LL. “And then I took that sh*t to the club and watched the club go crazy…. LL’s body of work contains some of the most diverse hip-hop has ever seen. He became rap’s first pop superstar while staying true to his roots representing Queens, New York.”
