The album cover of LL Cool J's Exit 13 depicts a giant microphone crashing into a highway and literally cracking the asphalt. The 24-year hip-hop vet describes the artwork as him spiking the mic, the way a football player would spike the ball after grading a touchdown. He's notion that victorious about the project.
"It's a pressure inside of me," LL aforesaid, sitting in Manhattan's Chung King Studios, the facility in which he recorded so many of his hit records. "I feel like a champagne feeding bottle that got shook up. I'm all excited around people audience it, because I want them to know how much I love my music. There's only one way to prove it. It's non about organism old school or new school; it's about organism classic. I'm not rattling interested in all that 'legend' and 'icon.' It's cool. I mention it here and there, but I really wanna make a hot joint. If I never made an album before, I think this album would be hot. When there's pressure situations, I ordinarily deliver."
"Baby" with The-Dream is the current single from hip-hop's G.O.A.T. On the album, he also has a version of the track featuring Jon Bon Jovi's wingman.
"I have a remix of 'Baby' with Richie Sambora, which is a john Rock joint," he explained. "[It] is dotty but it's unconventional. I wanted to take it to another level and do something different and touch some of those people world Health Organization like me when I do that rock-edge spirit. I got a whole crew of people out there wHO heard me on the Howard Stern ["Private Parts"] soundtrack with the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers playing behind me.
"The remix is hot," he added. "We creatively assign our heads together. I told him I wanted that babble out box. Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi's is one of my front-runner albums. I thought the talk box on a couple of the songs was unbelievable, 'Livin' on a Prayer' especially. So, I got Richie to do it on the 'Baby' remix. It sounds crazy. Then he did some vocals, and he did some guitar solos ... so it's good. I'mma drop it out there, shoot it out there and give way people a chance to feel it. We been talking around it, having some in effect conversations."
Among the other appearances on Exit 13 are 50 Cent on "Feel My Heart Beat" and Wyclef Jean on "Mr. President."
"I thought his voice would do that song so much doJ," Uncle L said of Wyclef. "It resonates. It has that truthful vigor to it, that pain in the neck. I wrote a song that fundamentally, it's a letter to the president. If I had an opportunity to have a conversation with him, I'd pose a few questions to him in a respectful personal manner � because I think that, as a community, we tin can get further with me asking him questions in a respectful manner than me talk crazy. Instead of me starting a bunch of ruckus, I pose a bunch of questions that I thought were fairly intelligent to him, and we'll see if there's a response that comes back. [The questions] are relevant to our current president and at the same time could be posed to a president that comes in office after Bush, because none of the problems volition be resolved. They're pretty timeless questions."
To start the record off, he raps, "Dear Mr. President, with all due respect/ Wish we could have a conversation./ I would take a trip downcast to your residence, and we would talk around the state of the nation."
Later LL addresses the war in Iraq: "Don't get me wrong./ I esteem the flag/ But it hurts to see a kid in a eubstance bag./ He fought for his country with all he had./ Now we have a family without a pa./ Lil mama's glaring, the kid's are scared./ On 9/11, wherefore were we unprepared?"
Cool J is one of the many MCs who chimed in when MTV asked how the hip-hop community can support Barack Obama without bringing any minus light to his campaign.
"By being bright," was LL's answer. "You know the man's a politician. They're looking for any flaw to pounce on him. You recognize if there's a drip of blood on him, a shark is gonna come for him. Why would you say anything inflammatory in a record that's meant to support him? It's common sense. I live we're rap. I know it's vanish for us to be rebels. I respect that completely. I'm part of the culture. But there's a time and place for everything. While we're supporting this man, we need to support him in a way that's helpful."
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