LL Cool J Says Phife Dawg Told Him His ‘Album Could Be Crazy’ in Dream

The dream left such an impact that LL decided to put what he was working on at the time on hold.

November 18, 2024

LL Cool J in a red cap and sunglasses, wearing a black coat and chains. Phife Dawg in a black cap and jacket, with hands clasped.

Images via Getty/Gareth Cattermole/MTV EMA/Paramount & Getty/Andrew H. Walker/Tribeca Film Festival

LL Cool J says some timely dream-delivered encouragement from the late Phife Dawg proved pivotal in the early development of what would eventually become The Frequencies of Real Creative Energy, a.k.a. The FORCE, his latest album.

During a recent interview for Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie, LL looked back on the impactful dream in question, which he’s also discussed elsewhere in the run-up to his fourteenth album. According to the two-time Grammy winner, the revered A Tribe Called Quest member, who died in 2016 at the age of 45, came to him in a dream when he was working on a totally different project. The impact of this moment was enough, in fact, to inspire LL to shift gears entirely.

“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 said in the interview, also available via the Global Player ap. “And I was like… 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.”

Q-Tip helmed much of the production behind The FORCE, which counts everyone from Eminem to Saweetie among its roster of guests. After the touching Phife experience, LL added, he was confident that he and Q-Tip were onto something special. LL also likened the larger experience of being an artist to both a dream and a motion picture.

“It’s all a dream,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it, right? All of this is a dream for all of us.”

Earlier this year, ATCQ was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside Ozzy Osbourne and others in the 2024 honorees class. Dave Chappelle took part in the ceremony by serving as the group’s presenter, resulting in a speech touching on the “very difficult” period following Phife’s death.

LL's The FORCE is out now and also features Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, Nas, and more. For the official video for “Murdergram Deux,” a song with Em, LL worked with director JakeTheShooter to recreate an assortment of classic hip-hop moments.