Ever since 1984 L.L. Cool J. (birth name James Todd Smith) has lived up to his name – “Ladies Love Cool James”- as one of the coldest rappers in the game and a sex symbol for his female fans. Fast forward to 2021, and now L.L. and his wife, Simone Smith’s, four offspring are grown adults who are living up to their versions of their Pop’s rap name too.

Meet L.L.’s Kids

Smith Kid #1: Najee Smith

As a damn near clone of his “I’m Bad” daddy, L.L.’s and Simone’s first born child-  31 year old son,  Najee Laurent Todd Eugene Smith- has the ladies loving him these days. He’s a successful professional photographer who’s very grounded and close with his fam.’ Check out some of his work at www.NajeePhotography.com.

Smith Kid #2: Italia

The Smith’s second born- daughter, 30 year old Italia Smith is beautiful and she’s taken fellas. She and her husband, Lamar Cardinez, jumped the broom in June 2017, and share a beautiful one-year-old daughter, named Faith. Italia is a licensed real estate agent, with a degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University. Her LinkedIn profile states that she’s “No stranger to working with high profile clients such as professional athletes and celebrities. She has the utmost respect for her clients’ confidentiality and privacy.”

Smith Kid #3: Samaria

The third born “Rock The Bells” baby is 25 year old Samaria Smith, who is her dad’s twin as you can see. Samaria graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology and owns a denim brand, which she’s named after herself.

She’s also been gifted with L.L.’s musical gene, except instead of spittin’ bars, she’s singing beautiful melodies over tracks and making her daddy a proud papa.

Smith Kid #4: Nina Symone Smith
And last, but not least is the Smiths’ baby of the bunch — who was named after one of our favorite artists of all time — 20 year old Nina Symone Smith.

 

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Don’t Believe The Hype

Seeing L.L. with his kids and wife of 26 years is a beautiful thing. Why? Because there was a time when L.L. was a part of the emerging hip hop scene in the ’80s and not only did hip hop get a bad wrap back then — by those who just didn’t view it as a ‘real’ art form — but so did the rappers who were fathers as well. The general consensus was that young Black male celebrity dads (and Black fathers overall) were not responsible enough to take care of their seeds. Looking at the Smith fam,’ it’s evident that that generalized assumption missed him. He’s been in his babies’ lives since day one and has remained solid with his wife.

The past 37 years of L.L.’s career as a rap-legend-turned-actor has been a pretty cool transformation to witness. Now, if we can just get the brotha to drop a new rap classic just for nostalgia’s sake, then we’d really be saying something.

The post LL Cool J’s Daughters Are Gorgeous, And His Son Made Us Think We Were Seeing Double appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

LL Cool J is one of the most respected rappers in the game but even he has endured his fair share of obstacles. As a young boy growing up in New York City LL witnessed a few traumatic events that he carried with him into his adulthood.

A Tough Childhood In Queens

LL’s Dad shot his Mom and Grandfather

LL (birth name James Todd Smith) recounted his painful childhood memories in his biography “I Make My Own Rules” and the details are shocking. When he was very young his parents got a divorce and it angered his biological father, James, so much that he shot both LL’s mother and grandfather with a shotgun. And LL was the one who discovered them! According to Hollywood.com;

Truck driver James Nunya shot his father-in-law Eugene in the stomach and estranged wife Ondrea in the back out of frustration over the couple’s divorce in 1972, when the Grammy winner and awards host was just a young boy.

Both relatives survived their injuries, and the NCIS: Los Angeles star insists he has since made peace with his dad – even though he was initially reluctant to allow him back into his life.

His Mom’s Next Relationship Was Horrific for L.L.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, his mother, Ondrea, eventually settled into another relationship with a man named, Roscoe Granger, and in the book, LL details (via The Daily Press) how Roscoe, allegedly a drug addict,  took every opportunity to beat LL whenever he had the chance.

“Roscoe beat me for just about anything. He would beat me for watching television, for lookin’ at him funny, for looking out the window watching other kids play. He didn’t need a good reason. It was just a power trip… ”

“He’d make me take off all my clothes and put my arms up on my bunk bed with the `Star Wars’ sheets while he beat me. It was like the scene in `Glory’ when Denzel Washington was getting beat down like a slave, except I was like 8 years old. He’d even pull me out of the shower to get a beating. He didn’t care how he beat me or with what… “

Eventually Ondrea left Roscoe but after all of the trauma LL suffered it was too little too late.

“You know how glad I was to have Roscoe out of my life, but the damage was done. I was doing all kinds of wild things by then and getting in all kinds of trouble.”

Though he was beginning to act out in the aftermath of the abuse by the age of 16 LL found his calling during the Golden Age of Hip Hop as one of the top emcees of the time. Yet, the scars never fully healed.

LL Talks To Oprah About The Abuse

Decades later LL sat down with Oprah Winfrey during a segment on Oprah’s Next Chapter to discuss how he coped with Roscoe’s constant abuse and it’s sad to hear that he had to become so strong at such a young age.

The abuse he suffered from Roscoe was damaging, but living with the pain of his father shooting his mother and grandfather must have been worse. Eventually, LL’s father James came back into his life and helped him out in the early stages of his budding rap career. Unfortunately, that relationship turned sour when James mismanaged LL’s funds and he ended up owing $2 million dollars to the IRS. As a result LL fired James and hired a new manager. But even with all of that negativity LL still found a way to forgive his father for everything he’s ever done to him.

“I guess it would leave you scarred, at four years old, based on how the people around you dealt with it and encouraged you to deal with it. It was tough.

“My family is a very interesting family. My mother forgave my father… He came back into my life and made amends for a lot of things by helping to guide me with my music career early on, and kinda helping me in that area (sic). My father made a massive blunder, but he also did a lot of things right.”

The post LL Cool J Painfully Detailed Why His Dad Shot His Mom & Grandfather, Why He Forgave Him appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Not only have fans -of many races- been defending the NFL players’ peaceful protests against injustices against Black people, but celebs have as well. Now, L.L. Cool J. and Tyrese have both hit up their social media pages to give suggestions on what the next steps should be to avoid further division that is being created under the new presidency.

The interesting thing is that they both gave similar messages- to pray- but each of them got two very different feedbacks from their fans.

L.L.’s message

First L.L. Cool J. posted his message via Twitter on Saturday night:

#takeaknee #Taketheknee #nfl #prayers pic.twitter.com/7Cp2EkWdex

— LLCOOLJ (@llcoolj) September 24, 2017

Fans reacted to L.L.’s message with gratitude and were mostly in agreement with his suggestion to take a knee to protest and while down there, pray for unity:

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Tyrese’s Message

Then Tyrese posted his message on Sunday via Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZcFlz-nOG0/

Tyrese, on the other hand, received mixed feedback from fans- many were with him and many others were pissed:

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We, here at ILoveOldSchoolMusic, have also received mixed reactions in response to our articles on the NFL protests, Colin Kaepernick, and Trump’s racially/socially divisive messages. Although most of those, within our ILOSM fam,’ are with us, some others believe that we are wrong for simply stating that the players have a 1st amendment right to peacefully kneel during the anthem.

As several players have already stated, they are not protesting the military, nor veterans. They’re protesting the countless murders of Black people at the hands of some (not all) police officers, as well as the many other injustices against people of color that continue to go unpunished by the legal system. ILOSM will continue to stand by the basic right to free speech that we all have in America…pretty sure, L.L. Cool J. and Tyrese feel the same way about their own stances as well. Thoughts ILOSM family?

The post L.L. & Tyrese Give Similar Message About Protests, But Get 2 Very Different Fan Reactions appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

The league’s commissioner, Roger Mason Jr., expressed that same sentiment:

Vis CNN: “There’s a nostalgia there of a fan that watched those guys in the NBA,” Mason said. “There’s also a younger fan that competes and plays 3-on-3 out on the blacktop and that will be interested to see our guys play as well. […] There’s plenty of guys that actually continue to work out, that still work on their skills and their game,” Mason said. “Those are the guys that should be out there representing the league.”

“I signed up to be coach, player, captain,” Iverson said. “The coach part is going to go on throughout the game. The playing part is not going to be what you expect. I’m 42 years old, been retired, what, six, seven years? The only reason I get out there for the couple minutes I do get out there is for the fans, you know what I mean?” He added: “You’re not going to see the Allen Iverson of old out there.”

Source1, Source2, Photos via TMZ

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