During his recent appearance on DJ Whoo Kid’s show, LL Cool J not only rapped his “Murdergram Deux” verse but also talked about how this joint with Eminem came together.
LL says the vision for the song was there from the start, and Eminem was the first rapper he thought of when he heard the beat.
Me and Q-Tip were in the studio. Shout out to the Abstract. We were going through beats for my latest record, The Force. When I heard that beat, I was like, damn, Em would sound crazy on this. I sent it to Em right away. I texted him. I sent it to him. He got back to me. He was like, yeah, I like it. Let’s get it. And so, we went out to the studio. We actually went to Dre’s studio and recorded it. He would go in the booth, then I would go in the booth, and then he would go in the booth, and then I would go in the booth. We went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and knocked it out. The rest is history.
LL Cool J remains one of the most iconic names in hip hop. However, his musical taste runs well beyond hip hop. Asked what he listens to in his free time, LL rattles off a diverse list of artists, with Eminem the only rapper he names.
I listen to everything, from Rolling Stones to U2 to Bob Marley to Arctic Monkeys to Marshall Mathers to Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis to Coltrane to Sarah Vaughan to Nina Simone, you name it. You know, anything. Dizzy, Elton John, I listen to everything.
This is by no means a representative list of all genres, and it leans heavily toward rock and jazz classics. Yet it shows that LL Cool J is open to all sorts of musical influences, and maybe that is what helps his records stay fresh and interesting to listeners across generations.