This is a big year for Def Jam.
Look no further than the subject of our latest digital cover story, in which we spoke to LL Cool J and Def Jam CEO Tunji Balogun as both artist and label celebrate their shared 40th anniversaries.
It was, of course, way back in 1984 that LL provided the label with its very first official release via his 1984 debut single I Need A Beat. In a full-circle moment, his brilliant new album The FORCE sees the star back on the label he helped define, having previously parted ways in 2008. An all-star affair, The FORCE features A Tribe Called Quest legend Q-Tip producing every song, as well as guest features from Eminem, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Saweetie and more.
"He’s rapping his ass off on this album,” Balogun told Music Week. “It’s actually quite uncanny. LL has the same passion, hunger and energy that he had when he got signed at 15 and became that first iconic hip-hop star. That he’s been able to sustain a 40-year career and still be sharp, innovative and imaginative? It’s very, very, very rare.”
Here, in an unread extract of our interview with Def Jam CEO Tunji Balogun, who took over the reins in January 2022, takes us further inside the label’s history, his plans to continue its rich legacy and how LL Cool J just made one of the best records of his career...
As a huge fan of hip-hop, it must be a hell of a moment for you personally to be presiding over the 40 years of Def Jam celebrations?
“It's a completely surreal opportunity, absolutely, because I literally grew up on this label. I turned 41 this year, so I've been around pretty much the whole time. But as a fan, it's one of the labels that really shaped and informed my knowledge and fandom of hip-hop and of Black music in general. Obviously, the label started in ’84, but as a kid who grew up in the ’90s and the ’00s, there have been so many different primes of the label. LL Cool J’s Momma Said Knock You Out was a huge, huge record when I was really small. And Def Jam’s mid-’90s prime? Those are my high school years!”
You've also said LL Cool J’s Mr Smith was a key record for you growing up, but what other albums define Def Jam for you?
“It's not even just specific albums. There's some artist where it’s, like, their entire catalogue! Everything that came out on Roc-A-Fella: all the Jay-Z albums, and I'll throw in the Beanie Siegel albums, State Property, Freeway, Dipset and Kanye stuff. I love Foxy Brown's first album, Ill Nana, that's an amazing album. And the Redman and Method Man album, Blackout, was a high school classic. I have to say this too, as someone who grew up on the West Coast, Montell Jordan and Warren G both had classic albums. Then there was also the Drew Hill stuff. Rihanna's discography is impeccable – my favourite album of hers is Anti, and my favourite Bieber album is Journals. I'll even give Sisqo his props. And also, I would say maybe my favourite album of the last 15 years is probably Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, I really, really think that is a definitive classic that influenced so much after it came out. Jhené Aiko's music is also so influential, and I don't think she gets the credit she deserves for shaping the new era and sound of R&B. And then there's the stuff that came out when I was too young to experience it, but I went back to: The Art Of Storytelling by Slick Rick, It Takes A Nation Of Millions... by Public Enemy, and Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill. And, obviously, some of the classic LL albums: Radio, Bigger And Deffer, Walking With A Panther, Momma Said Knock You Out – these are all albums that I've studied truly as a fan, I can tell you everything about them. I have to reiterate the Jay-Z stuff too, because that was really my hero when I was in high school. The Blueprint came out in my sophomore year of college. I bought that and Fabolous’ Ghetto Fabolous [on the same day], went back to my dormroom and listened to them for the next 20 years… [laughs]”
Def Jam is focused on balancing its legacy while also trying to keep the brand pushing forward
Tunji Balogun, Def Jam
The FORCE marks LL’s first album back on the label since 2008’s Exit 13. Why does Def Jam and LL make sense in 2024 in a way that it didn't when he left?
“I can't speak on why he left, but I know that for him coming back, he wanted to really reconnect and come back to where he started, and just spark the energy that he's had since the beginning of his career. I actually didn't do the deal, it was done a few months before I got here, but it was something that I was extremely excited about, and it just makes so much sense, especially with the anniversary, for him to come back to where he started to reopen his music career. He's been quiet for a long time in the music space while he’s been doing a lot of TV stuff. He's been active, but I think he wanted to make it feel like a full statement. He's so synonymous with the label and the legacy of the label. It just made too much sense.”
What is The FORCE saying about LL Cool J in 2024?
“He's hungrier than you heard him in his last era. And one of the most special things about it is that he collaborated with Q-Tip on the album: another originator, another pillar of hip-hop, another Queen's legend. So it just adds another layer of magic to it. There are a lot of highlights on the album. People will love the record with Eminem [Murdergram Deux]. One of my favourite songs is Runnit Back – just hearing Q-Tip on the hook, and then LL styling all over that track. That one is really amazing to me. And Saturday Night Special is another dope song, because it's him paired with two other legends [Rick Ross and Fat Joe]. It's a deep album. There are a lot of great cuts on it. You can just hear the hunger, tenacity and intensity on every song. The guy is just unrelentingly hungry. And that's rare. Honestly, I think it's important for us to celebrate that a 40-year career in hip-hop is possible and that you can maintain your integrity and you don't have to conform or switch up the way that you sound, or the people that you collaborate with, in order to stay relevant and create great music. I really wanted to make sure that that was shown in the right light, and that he gets his flowers in real time.”
What’s interesting at this particular moment in time is that on the one hand you’re looking back and really celebrating the rich legacy of the label, and then on the other you’re hyper-focused on finding the stars of tomorrow. That's a tough juggling act…
“I mean, it's really important, especially here, because the heritage is tied so closely to the brand. Unlike many other major labels, the brand is so well defined, and the original cast of characters is indelible in the label’s definition, whether it's LL or Public Enemy or the Beasties or, as you go into the ’90s era, Jay-Z, DMX, Redman and Method Man. But I think any successful label has to be pushing forward while also always celebrating the legacy and the superstars that define the label. It would be foolish to just ignore that.”
I really wanted to make sure that LL Cool J gets his flowers in real time
Tunji Balogun, Def Jam
What are you most proud of that you’ve done so far since taking over at Def Jam?
“I would say that we're really doing the work to break a new generation of artists that can carry the legacy, but push forward with their sound and with the way that they approach making music. The best examples would be Muni Long, we just dropped her new album, and there’s another artist named Coco Jones, who's an amazing R&B singer. Muni and Coco have won the R&B performance Grammy in the last two years, and they're really setting themselves up to be part of the future of the R&B conversation. Another artist is named Fridayy, who really embodies the ethos of where we're going: his sound is R&B meets hip-hop meets Afrobeats meets dancehall meets gospel. There’s a really organic story building around him that illustrates where we're going as a label, and there's a lot of other artists and examples. We're pushing into into Afrobeats, and dancehall and expanding the genre palette of the label, and continuing to sort of be at the cutting edge of where the music is at, while also staying heavy in hip-hop, pop and everything that we've been doing. So I'm just proud that we're marching forward and we have a set of young artists that I feel like, with the right amount of focus and energy, can become legends like the people that came before them. So that's what we're focused on. It's about balancing the past and the legacy and the heritage, but trying to keep the brand fresh and imaginative and new and pushing forward.”
Finally, part of the 40th anniversary celebrations have included reissues – and thank you for finally getting Scarface’s classic The Fix back out into the world on vinyl. But what else can we expect next from Def Jam in terms of the 40th anniversary celebrations?
“That Scarface record is so special. I love that album. We've been doing reissues, we did a partnership with Vinyl Me Please to do another set of reissues of classic albums. It's just trying to do that tastefully to celebrate the legacy – we don't want to make it cheap and cheesy either. So we’re being really selective about what we're doing. We’ve done events and panels – I did a Grammy week panel with Benny The Butcher and Chuck D. We did a panel at SXSW with Chuck D and one of our new artists, Lady London. Obviously, this LL album is a big part of it, too. We're talking about celebrating some of the iconic artwork and even the logo. There’s also LL Cool J at the MTV VMAs doing a nod to Def Jam 40 in that, too. We’re just trying to find those moments to tastefully celebrate the brand and also centre the artist, because at the end of the day, it is really the artists who built this and who created the magic that has sustained the brand for so long. LL, Chuck D, all those legends who are still making great music and are still in the conversation today.”
You can read our LL Cool J digital cover story here.
Photo: Ro.Lexx
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