#2561 - LL Cool J

LL Cool J (0:01)

Joe Rogan Podcast, checking in.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

SPEAKER_3 (0:13)

Those shorts are unbelievably comfortable.

LL Cool J (0:15)

I promise you.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

I believe you. We're up. I got sneaker recommendations from LL Cool J.

I'll take that. I was wearing these Pumas. I'm gonna throw them, you said I'm gonna incinerate them?

LL Cool J (0:26)

You'll throw them in the incinerator. Okay.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

I don't know if that's true, but I like these.

LL Cool J (0:31)

You have no reason to believe me yet.

SPEAKER_4 (0:34)

I'll give you that.

SPEAKER_3 (0:34)

You have no reason to believe me.

LL Cool J (0:36)

But when you try, you're gonna say, yo, your man was telling the truth.

SPEAKER_4 (0:40)

You'll see.

LL Cool J (0:41)

You're gonna come back on and say that.

Joe Rogan (0:43)

All right.

LL Cool J (0:43)

I promise you.

Joe Rogan (0:44)

I believe you. I'll give it a shot. I'll give it a shot.

Well, anyway, very nice to meet you.

LL Cool J (0:50)

Nice to meet you, too.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

I met you a long fucking time ago. Very briefly, yeah. We were at this stupid NBC thing. It was very funny because you were making fun of it. It was some sick, you know, they do those things where they have all the new shows and everybody has to show up.

It's like everyone sits down. I was at a table with you. Oh, okay. And I was a nobody. This was like 1994 I was like, oh shit, that's LL Cool J. It was, I was just getting, it was just still weird for me to be around famous people. And I remember you were like, what the fuck is this?

SPEAKER_4 (1:24)

You were making fun of the whole thing.

Joe Rogan (1:26)

And I was like, god, I wish I could do that. Like, this guy's making fun of this shit. Like, you didn't give a fuck about it all. It was really funny.

LL Cool J (1:32)

I mean, you could never take it too serious.

Joe Rogan (1:34)

No.

LL Cool J (1:35)

You know what I mean? Like, we're not, you know, we're not going to take it too serious.

SPEAKER_4 (1:39)

You know, life is good.

Joe Rogan (1:41)

Especially those kind of things where they sit down, they announce all the shows and you have to clap. You know, they have all these.

LL Cool J (1:49)

You know, I mean, I'm going to have niner's, but at the same time, I'm not going to take it too serious.

Joe Rogan (1:54)

No, but you were making fun of it and I was enjoying it.

SPEAKER_3 (1:56)

I was enjoying it.

It's funny. It's funny.

Joe Rogan (2:00)

This is like, this is the 90s.

This is a long, long time ago. You've had a fucking insane career, man. I mean, when did you get signed? Weren't you like 17 or some shit? Like, how old were you when you first got your first contract?

LL Cool J (2:15)

So, 16

Joe Rogan (2:18)

16

LL Cool J (2:19)

16 We started Def Jam.

Joe Rogan (2:21)

Wow.

LL Cool J (2:21)

Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons started, well, Rick started Def Jam, right, as a production company. Rick and Russell together formed Def Jam the label, and I was the first act. The first song on Def Jam Productions was It's Yours by Tila Rock. And then from there, the label was formed, because that was Streetwise Party Time. And then from there, the label was formed. And, you know, the rest is history. That's incredible. Ad Rock from the Beastie Boys actually programmed the beat.

Rick Rubin produced it. And I did the mic, and here we are.

Joe Rogan (2:53)

Most people who get that successful at 16 have a very difficult time keeping their shit together. But you just managed to keep smiling and floating through this thing.

LL Cool J (3:02)

Yeah, you know what? You know what?

SPEAKER_4 (3:04)

You know what? Yo, man, you get enough bites at the apple. You know what I mean?

LL Cool J (3:10)

Yeah, yeah, that was probably about 17, 18 right there. I always could tell by my jewelry.

SPEAKER_4 (3:16)

You know what I'm saying? You know?

Joe Rogan (3:19)

Wow. That's back in the boombox days.

LL Cool J (3:22)

Yeah, it was the boombox, man. That was everything. That meant everything to me.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

Oh, everybody had those back then.

LL Cool J (3:27)

Absolutely.

Joe Rogan (3:27)