LL COOL J's highly-anticipated album has finally arrived.
On Friday, September 6, the veteran MC dropped his 14th studio album The FORCE via Def Jam Recordings/Virgin Music Group. The album, executive produced by Q-Tip, begins with his brand-new collaboration alongside Snoop Dogg "Spirit of Cyrus" followed by the title track. From there, the Queens, N.Y. native serves up songs like "Saturday Night Special" with Fat Joe & Rick Ross, "Black Code Suite" featuring Sona Jobarteh and his Saweetie-assisted "Proclivities." LL closes out the 14-track project with "Huey In The Chair" featuring Busta Rhymes, "Praise Him" with Nas, "Murdergram Deux" featuring Eminem and "The Vow" with Don Pablito, J-S.A.N.D. and Mad Squablz.
It's been a long time coming for LL COOL J. This is his first full-length studio album in 11 years following his Authentic LP. He originally planned to drop G.O.A.T. 2 in 2014 but scrapped the project to focus on his acting career. In 2019, LL returned to Def Jam under a new deal and began to cook up his next project. It wasn't until 2022 that fans got a promising update about LL COOL J's upcoming album. He announced that Q-Tip would serve as an executive producer, which officially fueled more hype for the project. While making the album, the Grammy award-winning artist said he spent time "learning how to rap again."
"That’s why there isn’t a lot of fluff on this album," LL told the Associated Press. "The LeBrons, the Stephs, the Jordans and the Kobes, they all go back to the drawing board, they always try to make themselves better. I wasn’t trying to do trendy, and I wasn’t trying to recapture anything I did before.”
Listen to LL COOL J's new album The FORCE on iHeartRadio now!