LL Cool J Declares He's the Most Important Rapper of All Time

LL Cool J believes that he’s the most important rapper to have ever existed.

In a recent conversation on Apple Music’s Le Code, the rap legend was asked about the possibility of a movie about his career, and he responded by declaring it’s nigh impossible based on everything that he’s done.

"I think that one day people are going to wake up and realize LL Cool J is the most important rapper that ever existed,” said LL Cool J. “I truly believe one day people will say that.”

The "Going Back to Cali" artist continued to break down everything that he believes he was the first to do, similar to how Soulja Boy has done in the past.

“They’re going to look and say, 'Wow when it comes to the jewelry, this is the guy that introduced all the ice and the jewelry and the champagne,'” he explained. “They’re going to say when it comes to the love songs, they’re going to say, 'This is the guy that introduced the love songs and all the love shit.'

“When it comes to the bad boy vibe, they’re going to realize that this is the guy who introduced all the bad boy vibes before it was done,” he continued. “When it comes to the G.O.A.T terminology, 'This is the guy who came up with all the G.O.A.T stuff.' They’re going to say when it comes to Def Jam ... 'Wow this is the first artist that was on Def Jam.'”

LL Cool J also declared he was one of rap’s first solo artists to go global, popularized endorsements with his work with Kangol, and pioneered acting on TV while still putting out music.

With all of that in mind, LL Cool J made it clear that it would be hard to distill his career in a film. “How do you make a movie about that?” he asked the host.

Being the first to do so many things in hip-hop has to put him in G.O.A.T. territory, but LL Cool J refused to say that during the interview. “There are too many rappers that have done too many important things for me to claim that I’m the one,” he explained.

Earlier this month, LL Cool J revealed a dream conversation with late A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg that encouraged him to pivot music projects to what would become his latest album, The Frequencies of Real Creative Energy a.k.a. The FORCE.

“He came to me in a dream, and he was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be dope. This album could be crazy. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’” LL Cool J said. “It was a weird dream, because I was working on another album at the time, but when he came to me, when I woke up, I just decided to call Q-Tip and put the other thing on hold.”