LL Cool J relearned ‘how to rap’ on his first album in 11 years, ‘The FORCE.’ Here’s how

The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Grammy award winning rapper-actor- author LL COOL J will release his first new album in 11 years, “The FORCE” in September — 40 years into his hip-hop career. Not that he hasn’t been making music in that time. “I’ve always tinkered around in the studio here and there,” he told The Associated Press over Zoom. But over the last two or so years, inspiration really struck. He started working with a producer and pursuing music-making more seriously. Then he hit a roadblock. “I just felt like the tracks that this producer was giving me were better than the songs that I was writing,” he said. Then the late Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest came to him in a dream. “He…

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