the many faces of james todd smith
this has been on my mind for a while.
LL Cool J — everybody loves him! He’s considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, a successful crossover actor (NCIS: Los Angeles is now streaming on Paramount+), and an intergenerational heartthrob. There is something about him, though, that tends to get overlooked. Even I was unaware of this fact until last year.
Wait for it.
LL Cool J can dance! It’s either that or he can follow choreography extremely well.
Now the most probable theory to this little-known ability can be traced back to the New York City-based b-boy culture of the 1970s and 80s, which is where LL is from. To my recollection, though, he has not talked about where this came from. If he has, I need to find the interview.
The most prominent example of his dancing is in the video for his 1990 single “Jingling Baby (Remixed but Still Jingling),” which I tweeted about below.
Did you see how he was moving?! When I first saw that, I was in complete shock.
There are other minor examples of his dancing, including in the music video for his single “Around the Way Girl” (also released in 1990; I guess he was a dancing machine for the Mama Said Knock You Out era) and “Phenomenon” (released in 1997; a must-watch video). But neither are more surprising than “Jingling Baby.”
There is another mystery about LL Cool J that I will not dissect, but I will leave for you to think about: what did his hair look like in his early career? The most that can be seen are the sideburns that were spilling out of his trademark Kangols.
Anyway, I hope you feel enlightened or at least a little bit intrigued by this very unserious “investigation” of mine. And if you ever need some fun exercise, dance to a Marley Marl-remixed single.