LL Cool J is currently on the promo run for his upcoming tour with Questlove and Black Thought as he made an appearance on The Breakfast Club. Among other things in the interview, LL revealed that he once scrapped an entire album he did with 50 Cent.
“I tried to do a more collaborative writing album. I did a whole album with 50 Cent,” LL revealed. “And we were writing together on this album. And when it was done I listened to it. I’m like, ‘It sounds good, I like the music. It sounds cool – but it ain’t me.’ So I didn’t put it out.”
“It wasn’t nothing against 50. I love 50. I just wanted to try something different; maybe we collaborate, write together. It didn’t work.”
He was then reminded of his 2002 hit “Paradise” which had 50 Cent writing credit. “‘Paradise’ is totally different,” says LL. “50 wrote the chorus on ‘Paradise’ for Amerie. Which she sung. He didn’t write my rhymes. People get that a little [confused.] That being said, when that happened, I didn’t even know 50 was involved. That was the Trackmasters. They got that done and they played with the chorus, I liked it, et cetera.”
“We’ve tried to work together and that’s my man. We real cool. But the collaborative thing, when it comes to my verses, that doesn’t work for me.”
Previously, LL revealed that he also scrapped an album with Dr. Dre. “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.”
