Key Takeaways

• LL Cool J says Hip Hop’s relative youth helps explain why the culture is only now confronting artists aging within the genre.
• He argues that obsessing over an appropriate age for Hip Hop can reflect fear of no longer making impactful music.
• LL says older artists can still create for fans who have stayed with them over time.

LL Cool J has been making Hip Hop for more than four decades, so when the conversation turns to whether rappers can age with the genre, he has something to say.

During a conversation on “What Now? with Trevor Noah,” the 58-year-old rapper was asked why Hip Hop seems so fixated on longevity. Host Trevor Noah pointed to rock, where artists can perform well into their later years before their staying power becomes a major talking point. In Hip Hop, he noted, artists can reach their 40s and already face questions about how long they have managed to remain relevant.

For LL, part of the answer is simple: Hip Hop is still young. “Well, I think the reality is that the difference is that it's kinda like being around the Founding Fathers of a country,” he explained. “If you're like born when George Washington was born, and 60 years later you be like, ‘Wow, America's been here for a while.’ You know, we've been here, you know what I mean?... It's a new genre, I think, because the genre itself is so young. It's only 50-some years old itself as a genre.”

LL Cool J says Hip Hop is experiencing aging for the first time

Unlike jazz and rock, the Queens native argued, Hip Hop hasn’t had generations of artists grow old within the genre yet. Its pioneers are still here — and the culture is watching that process unfold for the first time. “So you're walking around, and it's like, ‘Oh, there's Grandmaster Flash. Oh, there's DJ Kool Herc. Oh, you know, there's The Fearless Four. Oh, there's Run DMC. Oh, there's LL Cool J… There's Fab 5 Freddy.’ We're here,” he said.

That reality also shapes the debate around what age is considered “appropriate” for a rapper. But LL believes there is something else behind some of that criticism. “Now, some people kind of obsess over, like, appropriate age to make Hip Hop and all that. But I think the majority of [the] time, when you hear people obsessing over that, that's just fear talking.”

When Noah asked what he meant, the two-time Grammy winner challenged artists to confront the possibility of creating impactful music later in life rather than dismissing it. “I think that they [are] just fearful that they won't be able to do something impactful, so they start calling sour grapes on the idea of making something hot at a certain age,” he said. “No, you just got a challenge in front of you. It's possible. You just got a challenge. Just own it… Don't say that it's not appropriate to be hot at a certain age now because you really just afraid you can't do it anymore.”

And according to LL, getting older doesn’t mean an artist’s audience suddenly disappears. “Because your fans are still around,” he added. “You still have fans. Your fans… didn't vaporize. They didn't evaporate. They didn't disappear. So you can still make something for your fans.”

LL Cool J’s decades-long Hip Hop career

LL’s own career backs up his point. The rap veteran has been making the genre professionally for more than 40 years, building a catalog that includes Radio, Mama Said Knock You Out and The FORCE. He also successfully crossed into acting, appearing in films like In Too Deep, Any Given Sunday and Deep Blue Sea, and starring as Sam Hanna on “NCIS: Los Angeles” for more than a decade.

His longevity has earned him major recognition, including becoming the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Decades into his career, LL continues to show that getting older doesn’t have to put an expiration date on making an impact.