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LL COOL J's THE FORCE: The Videos

LL COOL J's THE FORCE: The Videos

Published Fri, October 25, 2024 at 2:30 PM EDT

Saturday Night Special featuring Fat Joe and Rick Ross

"Saturday Night Special", the debut single from The FORCE tells the story of a street hustler from three different perspectives, represented by LL COOL J, Rick Ross, and Fat Joe. In an exclusive with Rock The Bells, LL explained his writing process for the single. "Let's take a song like 'Saturday Night Special'. I really worked on writing better songs, wordplay and things that I felt would make me a better rapper.

I went into this project figuring out how to learn how to rap. What is a song like, how do you write a good rap song? What does a good rap song sound like? What's gonna make the song impactful? I really went into it from that space."

Passion

"Passion" finds LL nonchalantly spittin' dopeness such as "All these cats blue in the face when I come in the place/Money track you could run a relay race in my safe/Y'all need a new team like a girl wit a bbl need new jeans/I'm a dog with the shit/There's food in my pen you would think I breed pits." L's nonlinear flow fits perfectly over Q-Tip's mid tempo synth and organ heavy track.

The video features LL writing rhymes in his childhood bedroom in a modern day setting( complete with a vintage boom box), with flashbacks to writing in that same room as a kid.

Proclivities featuring Saweetie

In the tradition of some of LL's more sexually charged songs such as 1996's "Doin' It", "Proclivities" finds LL flexing his sexual prowess, while trading verses with guest Saweetie. The video is sexy, and mirrors the seductive tone of the Q-Tip produced track. Check out the video below.

Murdergram Deux featuring Eminem

In a recent Sirius XM listening session, LL spoke on the recording process for "Murdergram Deux". "When Q-Tip made the beat, I was like 'Yo me and Em would be crazy on this.' I sent him the beat, and once he heard the beat, me and Em went to Dr. Dre's studio.

The way the process was, I would write my rhyme and lay it then leave. He would come in and hear it, I would leave and he would write his rhyme. We went back and forth in the booth without seeing each other record until we did the very last thing together."

In the video's intro, LL recreates the classic album cover from his hit 1987 album, Bigger And Deffer. The cover is recreated with great detail, down to the Andrew Jackson High School background, a cherry red 1986 Audi 5000, and even the album cover font. On Eminem's last verse, he gives a nod to Big Daddy Kane (while wearing a Big Daddy Kane t-shirt) with the lines, "Now women treat me like BDK/ the king and they feed me grapes/ Either way I got more on my plate than an all you can eat buffet/ So better pick a B.C. date/ because your history as Shady is bout to set it on you like a TV tray". Em is also in a setting strikingly similar to Kane's 1988 debut album, Long Live The Kane.

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