{"id":8768,"date":"2026-10-05T12:50:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/10\/05\/ll-cool-j-explains-how-grandfather-helped-launch-his-career-grandmas-warning-against-pierced-nipples\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T12:50:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:50:45","slug":"ll-cool-j-explains-how-grandfather-helped-launch-his-career-grandmas-warning-against-pierced-nipples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/10\/05\/ll-cool-j-explains-how-grandfather-helped-launch-his-career-grandmas-warning-against-pierced-nipples\/","title":{"rendered":"LL Cool J Explains How Grandfather Helped Launch His Career &#038; Grandma&#8217;s Warning Against Pierced Nipples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/LL-Cool-J-1200x675.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LL Cool J recalls how his grandparents bought the gear that launched his career before Grandma drew the line at pierced nipples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/tag\/ll-cool-j\/\">LL Cool J<\/a>\u2018s grandfather watched every dollar, but his gift of two turntables and a mixer helped change Hip-Hop history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His grandmother made the pitch, saying the gear would keep young James Todd Smith home while giving his love for Hip-Hop room to grow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy grandfather being from Barbados, he didn\u2019t have a lot of money. He did not, but what he did have, he wasn\u2019t spending. It\u2019s like, \u2018I got, I have $19, and I\u2019m not spending the $19.\u2019 You know, it was that kind of a deal, right? So she convinced him to get me some equipment because it would keep me in the house. So he went, he bought me two turntables and a mixer, and I was able to lean more into Hip-Hop \u2019cause he knew I loved it already. He was a very open-minded person. He would encourage it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those decks became his lab, where LL practiced, built his voice and learned how to take control of a record. His jazz-playing grandfather also took him into the basement and recorded his voice on reel-to-reel tapes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-white-color has-body-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-3 has-dark-background has-xxl-margin-top has-xxl-margin-bottom\" data-content-name=\"middle-content-engagement-single\" data-track-content=\"\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-black-background-color has-background has-dark-background has-sm-padding-top has-sm-padding-bottom has-sm-padding-left has-sm-padding-right has--lg-margin-top has--lg-margin-bottom\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center is-style-altfont wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"h-join-us\">Join Us <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-allhiphop-s-daily-news-service\">AllHipHop\u2019s Daily News Service<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-sm-max-width wp-block-paragraph\">Delivering news to inboxes since 1999. We break it. They take it. Get it first, straight from AllHipHop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His grandfather died before LL turned pro, yet the older man seemed sure that fame was coming. During his final years in a VA hospital, he would hear the radio and insist, \u201cThat\u2019s Todd on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LL believed him and later named his 1985 debut <a href=\"https:\/\/defjamshop.com\/products\/ll-cool-j-radio-lp\"><em>Radio<\/em><\/a> for the man who had heard his future first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The album followed \u201cI Need a Beat,\u201d the 1984 single LL released at 16 that helped put Def Jam in business. Produced by Rick Rubin, <em>Radio<\/em> became Def Jam\u2019s first full album and delivered \u201cRock the Bells\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Live Without My Radio.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The family story then took a sharp turn when the grandmother who secured his gear drew a hard line over school. She told LL to choose school or leave her house, then added one last rule about keeping his nipples unpierced.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LL Cool J: Re-Learning to Rap\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D8d-Ja7Os0Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe only time I didn\u2019t listen is when my mother, my grandmother, \u2019cause I had made my first song, my grandmother said, \u2018You either go to school or you got to go.\u2019 Grandma definitely wanted me to put my shirt on. And whatever you do, don\u2019t pierce your nipples [laughter]. That was the only moment, you know, that was the only moment when I was like, \u2018I got to do this,\u2019 and I went after my dream. But other than that, I always listened. I always tell people that, in order to really be successful, especially in especially in the arts, you have to have rhino skin and a baby\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was tough love with a punch line, and Trevor Noah laughed right along with him. Grandma could live with the rap career, but nipple jewelry was one step too far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The kid who chose music built a catalog that moved from hard battle records to the vulnerable \u201cI Need Love.\u201d His grandmother later inspired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/news\/ll-cool-j-knocks-you-out\/\">\u201cMama Said Knock You Out\u201d<\/a> by urging him to fight the critics who thought his run was done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LL won a Grammy for that record in 1992 and another for \u201cHey Lover\u201d in 1997 before entering the <a href=\"https:\/\/rockhall.com\/inductees\/ll-cool-j\/\">Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2021. He returned with <em>The FORCE<\/em> in 2024, showing that the music career born in his grandparents\u2019 home was still alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also became a lasting screen star through <em>Krush Groove<\/em>, <em>In the House<\/em>, <em>Any Given Sunday<\/em>, <em>Last Holiday<\/em> and <em>S.W.A.T.<\/em> His biggest television role came as Sam Hanna, the agent he played for 14 seasons on <em>NCIS: Los Angeles<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now LL is <a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/back-from-cali-ll-cool-j-takes-sam-hanna-to-new-york-in-new-ncis-spinoff\/\">bringing Sam home in <em>NCIS: New York<\/em><\/a>, a new CBS spinoff pairing him with Scott Caan\u2019s Nick Schaeffer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CBS will premiere <em>NCIS: New York<\/em> on October 6 at 9 p.m. ET\/PT, with LL also serving as an executive producer.<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/ll-cool-j-explains-how-grandfather-helped-launch-his-career-grandmas-warning-against-pierced-nipples\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LL Cool J recalls how his grandparents bought the gear that launched his career before Grandma drew the line at pierced nipples. LL Cool J\u2018s grandfather watched every dollar, but his gift of two turntables and a mixer helped change Hip-Hop history. His grandmother made the pitch, saying the gear would keep young James Todd [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}