Ll Cool J Net Worth

LL Cool J is an American rapper and actor with a net worth estimated at $80 million. LL Cool J Salary What is LL Cool J's salary per episode of CSI Los Angeles? $125,000 LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith on January 14th, 1968 in Bay shore, New York. Smith took an interest in music at an early age when he began performing in his church choir. His grandfather encouraged James with his music at brought him his first mixing table at the age of sixteen. The mixing table was bought at Sears. He began recording his own songs which he sent out to various record companies. His demo got into the hands of the folks at Def Jam recordings. Def Jam loved the demo and released his first record. The record was released under his new stage name L L Cool J which meant Ladies Love Cool James. The rap industry and America also loved Cool J because his single "I need a beat" sold over 100,000 copies. This prompted him to drop out of high school to record his first album. His debut album, "Radio" was a huge success and went platinum with 1,500,000 sales. Beyond being a financial success it was also critical success with Cool J bringing conventional song structure which made rap friendlier to the average listener. He would follow it up in 1987 with "Bigger and Deffer". The song "I need love" was one of the first pop-rap songs. He was much again met with both critical and commercial acclaim with the album going 2X platinum. He would return in 1989 with another album (Walking with a Panther) which would once again go platinum. It was during this time that the hip-hop scene in the west began to emerge. The themes in the hip-hop community began to involve more gangster themes. In 1990 he released "Mama Said Knock You Out". The album had a much rougher edged which appealed to the new face of hip-hop... It was considered another success. Sadly, his follow-up album in 1993 failed with both critics and audiences. He took two years off and began an acting career. It was during this time that he appeared in the films "The Hard Way" and "Toys". He also starred on the NBC sitcom "In the house". He returned to music in 1995 with Mr. Smith. The record featured tracks with Boys II Men and even covered the Michael Jackson song, "The Lady in My Life". The music video would be one of the first hip-hop videos ever featured on VH1 and would earn LL a Grammy award. He has since released six other successful records. Recently LL Cool J focuses more of his acting career. He has appeared in the films Halloween: H20, Deep Blue Sea, and The last Holiday just to name a few. He can currently be seen on the hit television program NCSI: Los Angeles opposite Chris O' Donnell.