LL Cool J tweets and makes Mormons all a-twitter…
Hi folks. I am up to my eyeballs in boxes right now, but I figure I have time for a quick Pop Rock Nation post as I unpack all the stuff I should have thrown out years ago. Some of my readers know that my husband is a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have never been LDS, but my husband’s brief affiliation with the Mormon church has caused me to learn more about it. It’s not often that my interests in music collide with Mormon culture, although I have found that a lot of Mormons and former Mormons have really good taste in music.
Anyway, this week I was very surprised to read a news article about rapper LL Cool J, otherwise known as James Todd Smith, and the Mormons. It seems that this week, LL Cool J tweeted “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” Then he attributed the quote to former LDS president, Gordon B. Hinckley. Hinckley served as the Mormon church’s living prophet from 1995 until his death in 2008.
It’s not that I don’t agree with Hinckley’s quote or LL Cool J’s decision to tweet it. It’s just that I went through a very brief LL Cool J phase back in the mid 1980s. I bought a copy of his 1987 album, Bigger and Deffer and remember the songs on it because I used to listen to it all the time. Let’s just say that I never would have guessed that LL Cool J would be interested in anything Mormon. Granted, I know that people change and I’ve seen evidence that LL Cool J is not quite the same guy he was back in the 80s and 90s when he rapped songs like…
“I’m That Type of Guy”
And
“Kanday”
And
“Around The Way Girl”
And
“Mama Said Knock You Out”
Wow… I haven’t heard these songs in ages and now I’m thinking it’s time to revisit them. I’m not a big rap fan, but I do like LL Cool J.
LL Cool J definitely has a way with a groove and I hear he’s a decent actor, too. But none of the songs I’ve heard by him suggest that his work and Mormonism have anything in common. He is getting older, though, and maybe he’s becoming more conservative. LL Cool J has been around for a long time now, which means he must be doing something right. I’m sure hard work has a lot to do with his success, too. I gotta start paying more attention to Twitter. Sometimes it yields some fascinating insights into the lives of famous people.
Anyway, back to unpacking. Have a great weekend, everybody!
