The film and TV career of LL Cool J

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Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club,

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the show that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop

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with the magic of movies.

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Today, in celebration of the GOAT's new album, The FORCE,

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we are discussing the film and TV career

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of hip hop legend LL Cool J.

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We're three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.

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I'm DynoWright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan,

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and there are a few more succinct lyrics in all of hip hop than LL Cool J is hard as hell.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan,

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and I just got back from a discussion with Daveed Diggs at Lafayette College, and he did not disappoint.

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Nice.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan,

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and someone in my family has a recording of teenage me, lip syncing Mama Said Knock You Out.

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Skinny, bird chested and all.

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You

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Ha!

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flexing for the camera.

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Okay, okay.

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All right.

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that.

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I don't know who has it, but somebody gotta have it.

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I remember we videotaped it and we watched it afterwards.

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And I don't know where it's at now.

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We got a quest now, we gotta find that.

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In this episode, we are doing a deep dive on LL Cool J's lengthy acting career.

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Here are three takeaways on LL Cool J.

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Number one, he has a more broad TV and film resume than you may realize.

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Number two, he is too popular with audiences to die.

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Therefore, you don't see that in his work.

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And number three, he has become an ambassador for hip hop as well as a mentor figure

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in both music and the entertainment industry at large.

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Right, well, LL Cool J, the GOAT, self -proclaimed GOAT, and he lives up to it.

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Man, he's done so much in TV and film, more so than you may realize.

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Some of the early work he's done, and we discussed this on our podcasts,

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his film debut was in Krush Groove, where he performed I Can't Live Without My Radio, where he was all of

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like, what, 17 or 18 years old?

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like 17.

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That's crazy.

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And I didn't realize this until we researched it again.

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And Boogie, you knew this, but he wrote the theme song for Wildcats, the Football Rap.

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That's crazy.

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Yep.

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And one of his other earlier films from the early 90s was playing

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Captain Patrick Zevo in the film Toys.

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So he's been doing it for quite a long time.

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He's gone on to just continuing to raise the bar on TV and film.

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Boogie, want to talk about some of the earlier successes he's had and some of the things that

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like resonate with you?

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We don't have to go through his entire filmography, but what are the...

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all the earlier memories that you have of LL Cool J

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and some of the highlights of his career.

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Yeah, other than, you know, the rap career

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you know, his infamous battles with Kool Moe Dee,

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I mean, he had some pretty good television and film roles that other than the ones

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you mentioned.

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He starred in In the House.

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That was a show that I remember.

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I didn't watch too much of because it was during the college years we had terrible reception.

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you

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definitely remember the television show being on.

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They played the ex Oakland Raiders running back who rents part of his home

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to a single mother and her children had a nice cast here, Debbie Allen and Kim Wayans, a others.

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It was a pretty good show.

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Also popped up in the Halloween franchise.

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You haven't made it until you made it to a horror film franchise.

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he didn't get killed in that movie either, know, Halloween H2O.

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One of the rules that I definitely remember and that's probably because I've watched this fairly recently.

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He played Preacher the chef in Deep Blue Sea,

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infamous shark attack movie where the sharks were intelligent and were swarming upon the people who were tasked with doing

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research on them.

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And he didn't get taken out of that film either, but it's like, you know, this is LL.

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But Any Given Sunday he had a role in that movie as well.

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I remember him in Rollerball, Deliver Us from Eva opposite Gabrielle Union, S.W.A.T.

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Those are a couple of movies that I definitely remember him from.

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One of my favorite movies, and this is also one of DynoWright's favorite movies as

well,

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Last Holiday opposite Queen Latifah.

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Great movie.

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You know, he pops up on

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Various television shows, award shows,

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as mentioned in the takeaway, you know, as an ambassador for the industry.

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All around great character.

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Good guy.

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Yeah, we also covered In Too Deep.

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We did an episode of In Too Deep back in 2023.

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So he has a role there.

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And again, he doesn't die.

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Yeah, he doesn't die.

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LL Cool J, aka Die Hard.

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Yeah.

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We can't forget that he was a long time, spent a long time in the NCIS or I guess this is

the JAG verse.

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And so he was in NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles and Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: Hawai'i.

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so, yes, as Sam Hanna, 14 seasons of it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I think

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in his career.

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Yeah, a lot of people would know him primarily from that.

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Like if you weren't in on his early hip hop days or even, you know,

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some of folks that just watched the crime shows were like, yeah, LL Cool J, that's what he's known for.

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For sure.

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So man, what a storied career he's had.

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TV, film, he just has that charisma.

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You know, that smile, he's got the look.

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Handsome as heck, always into fitness.

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Ladies love Cool James, you know?

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Men love Cool James.

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We all love Cool James.

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I mean, seriously.

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He's got the total package.

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Takeaway number two was he's too popular with audiences to die, therefore you don't see that in his work.

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I mean, there are some of these scenes in movies where it's like he has to die

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because it looks like he's shot and killed, but he just always resurfaces.

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And like you saw that in H2O when he was a security guard

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and Deep Blue Sea where like he emerges, right?

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It's crazy.

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Yeah.

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We tried to corroborate this with some actual proof that there is a clause in his contract that...

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But other people who have interviewed him have not specifically pinned this down, but

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he has said in interviews that test audiences don't like him dying, so they don't do that.

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too, it's like Tom Cruise, like Tom Cruise ever dies in movies.

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He's too popular.

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Like, it's the same kind of thing.

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He's got that kind of status is what we're saying.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I think back to I'm Bad, the lyrics

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where he's like, the pinnacle, that means I reign supreme, I'm notorious, I'll crush you like a jelly bean.

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And the cops are like, I think we're gonna need backup, I think we're gonna need backup.

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He's like, you can't pin this guy, right?

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You can have a whole SWAT team, you can have a whole army, a whole militia, you won't get this guy.

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You can’t catch me ‘cause I’m too bad for you. Understand?

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

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I'm too bad for ya.

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I love that.

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Aw man, I love that video.

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It’s like he spoke that into existence.

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Yeah, for sure.

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Indestructible.

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Between being a tough guy being hyper as all heck, he bounced around in that video.

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It's like, dang.

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One thing to mention is he blends toughness with vulnerability.

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So like he has some of these sensitive, he has a sensitive nature to him as well.

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And again, it's funny, there's correlations between his hip hop as well, right?

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Because that song, I Need Love, which was just an amazing ballad, like

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I loved that song as a kid.

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Like I wrote the lyrics out to that.

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Yeah.

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Pretty much.

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I passed that in a note to someone.

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I was like all lyrics.

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Yep, yep.

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JB Smooth

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Yeah, yeah.

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True story, true story.

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My cousin came stay over with us for a summer.

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I'm not going to mention the name of the cousin because in she's listening.

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But one of my cousins came to stay with us and one of the neighbors

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that lived like down the street a little bit and liked her and wrote some of the lyrics down on a note and

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passed it to her.

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huh.

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It would...

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she showed me the note I was reading, like, wait a minute, I know these lyrics.

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Hahaha!

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No, I didn't pass them off as my own.

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That was, that was, it was I Need Love.

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Ha ha ha ha

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yeah, right,

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I hope it wasn't that he wanted to swing an episode in his Jeep.

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man.

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I mean, my defense, I didn't pass off the lyrics as my own.

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I was like, you know, I Need Love by LL Cool J and these are the lyrics.

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Just like do with it what you will.

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I cited it.

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Cite your sources, that’s good.

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No, this guy passed them off as his.

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Ha ha ha ha

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Not so smooth.

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I wonder where he’s at now.

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Not with your cousin.

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No!

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It didn't work.

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He swatted that away.

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If it worked, wouldn't.

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She showed me the note because it didn't work.

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She looked at it was like, no.

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Yeah, look at this.

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It's a cornball.

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Gave him the Mutombo!

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Funny.

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Wagging his finger like this.

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But, but no, he definitely, he definitely made songs for the ladies.

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I mean, even Around the Way Girl,

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it was up tempo, but it was definitely a shout out to the women.

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You know, something for them to show appreciation.

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That vulnerability definitely carried over to film.

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Even this character in Deliver Us from Eva,

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you know, if those who haven't seen it, – quick plot summary:

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There was a group of sisters and they were all in relationships and there was the one sister who was single, who was Eva.

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And because she was single, she was always in the other relationship,

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you know, always intermingling and annoying the guys in the relationship.

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So the guys got their friend to...

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seduce Eva to keep Eva away so that they can flourish in their relationships.

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And the character that they brought in was the LL Cool J character who

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chases Gabrielle Union's character, Eva, and falls in love with her.

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But he definitely showed a lot of vulnerability in that role.

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Very similar to how he was in Last Holiday.

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Real nice guy role.

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Right, right.

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So he shows his versatility there, not only the tough guy, but also the sensitivity.

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And because of him being so well-rounded and so

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popular and so charismatic, you know, our final takeaway, he has

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become an ambassador for hip hop, as well as a mentor figure in

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both music and the entertainment industry at large.

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He's called upon to host a lot of award shows and he always knocks it out of the park.

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Absolutely.

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He has hosted the Grammys multiple times.

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First time in 1995, and then he did it straight from 2000 to 2006.

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And then in the 50 years of hip hop, the Grammys put on a special show

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to commemorate 50 years of hip hop last year, and he hosted that as well.

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He's done other award shows also, like AMAs.

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He even hosted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony once.

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Teen Choice Awards as well.

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And he's been honored himself in certain ways.

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guys want to talk about that?

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How he's been honored.

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Yeah, he's got a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and he

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is the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center honor in 2017.

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So I think since then only Queen Latifah has gotten that award, right?

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So rare company.

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Mm hmm.

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Yeah.

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and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, I mean, his role as hip hop and entertainment ambassador is just, I mean, he's very well received by his peers in hip hop.

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Primarily, most recently he started his Rock the Bells radio station on Sirius XM, where not only does he play a lot of throwback hip hop,

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But he's also brought in a lot of acts like Roxanne Shante, Flavor Flav.

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There's other rappers that his contemporaries who are now hosting shows on his station.

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And it's good to hear and it's good to listen to

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and see the appreciation that they have for him as well for trying to push the genre forward by appreciating the past.

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And I mentioned I was fortunate to go to the Rock the Bells Festival last year, which was incredible.

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They do a Rock the Bells cruise as well with a lot of artists.

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I want to get to that one year.

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Yeah, me too.

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It's a whole institution.

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Rock the Bells is just enormous.

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Yeah.

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And it has swag too.

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I mean, the jackets are nice.

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The varsity jackets with the wool and the leather sleeves.

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Nice.

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But yeah, he's definitely a one of a kind person.

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Yep, so we're happy to pay tribute to LL Cool J with this profile episode.

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Yep, some of these things you may not have known.

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for the youngins.

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I was about to say that for the youngins.

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If you have not heard LL Cool J rap, get this album.

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Listen to it repeatedly.

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Study it.

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It's great.

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The features are great.

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He's got some some some well -known artists,

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some up and coming artists, some artists you've never heard of, probably never heard of before.

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And it all works.

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The production is immaculate.

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Yeah, Q-Tip doesn't mess around.

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Yeah.

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Produced by Q-Tip.

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Yep, exactly.

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One of our all time favorites from Tribe Called Quest.

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Legends collaborating.

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It's going to be a masterpiece.

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Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie and DynoWright.

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Theme music by Boogie.

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On November 13th at SteelStacks in Bethlehem,

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we're presenting a screening of Boyz in the Hood,

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with a special panel discussion.

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Tickets available at SteelStacks .org.

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We're on Instagram, Facebook and Threads

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@HipHopMovieClub.

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And whether you're listening to the podcast or watching us on YouTube,

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please give us a follow.

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It's a real power up for us.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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And remember, don't hate, punctuate.

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Period.

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As the kids say.

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Period.

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Look at us.

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