LL COOL J has reflected on his decorated career, admitting he made some “bad albums” and can relate to André 3000‘s pivot to playing the flute.
The rap legend stopped by LeBron James’ The Shop this week where he had a conversation with fellow guest Lena Waithe about his discography.
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“I make bad albums, but I also have some smack, some crazy shit too,” he acknowledged. “But I made bad shit, or shit that people didn’t respond to because that was where I was at.”
Waithe then interjected and said: “But at the time you thought it was good!”
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LL bluntly replied: “Not always. I’m a little bit of a weirdo, B. Sometimes I make records in a vacuum just because it’s for me and then sometimes I make albums for the culture. I’m very different in that regard, so you can’t really gauge my albums like that ’cause I don’t make all my records for the culture.”
It’s this revelation that the “Mama Said Knock You Out” rapper allows him to relate to 3 Stacks, whose long-awaited debut solo album New Blue Sun was an entirely instrumental affair that partly showcased his woodwind skills.
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“Maybe that’s what André was doing with the flute thing,” he theorized. “I can understand it from that point of view. He just expressed it differently.
Check out the clip below. The full episode premieres on YouTube on Thursday (May 9) at 9 a.m. PST.
André 3000 will likely be relieved by LL COOL J’s comments considering he previously expressed disappointment over fans’ reactions to New Blue Sun.
Despite being given plenty of notice that it wasn’t a rap album, some listeners were still upset with the ambient instrumental tunes — especially given the 17-year wait since 3 Stacks’ last full-length release, OutKast’s 2006 LP Idlewild.
During an interview with CBS Mornings, André shared his thoughts on the polarizing reactions to his project while also sympathizing with people’s expectations.
“Even on the artwork it says, ‘No bars,’ so if you’re disappointed, man, I don’t know what else I could do,” he said. “I don’t like that people are upset a little bit about it.
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“If I were waiting for a thing for 17 years, a certain thing that I’m looking for and, something else shows up, I’d probably be upset too. To be a rapper, you gotta be rapping. I haven’t been rapping, like I don’t hang around the studio.”
He added: “I don’t sit and try to rap every day like when I was younger, and that’s all I did. I miss those times a lot, but life changes, life moves on.”
