The Beats 1 freestyle with Dre was refreshing. What inspired you to do it?

LL Cool J: “It’s just been a long time. My man DJ Pooh called me, hit me up, and I went over there to Beats 1 with Dre to hang out and chill. There wasn’t anything official set up, and we just got to talking, and Pooh was like, ‘yo you want to do some drops?’ And I was like, ‘a drop? Let me spit something.’ Then Dre came out of nowhere with the laptop and just threw that joint on [laughs].

Once I heard the beat, I was so inspired, man. Wrote it in probably 15-20, 30 minutes, whatever it was, and yeah man, we just knocked it out. I just feel very inspired to do hip-hop right now and I wanted people to see the difference between what I’ve done and what I’m capable of doing, you know what I’m saying?”

It’s great to know the whole thing happened so organically too. What’s your guys’ relationship like these days?

LL: “You know, me and Dre kick it on the phone here and there and that’s my man. We’ve known each other for a long time. He’s doing his thing, I’m doing my thing, but we’ve always had love for one another. I was only going to kick it at the studio, but the stars line up like that sometimes, you know what I mean? Nobody was looking for nothing, nobody was expecting anything. It was really just 2 dudes who love hip-hop, who got together, and did what we do.”

After watching the video, you could really feel and see the energy. Seems like you’re almost re-motivated in a way. Can we expect more content soon?

LL: “Yeah definitely. I’m putting something together now and it’s gonna be special, man. I think hip-hop culture’s in for a treat. When my next thing comes, it’s gonna be a real exciting time in hip-hop because what you saw in that video/freestyle was only the tip of the iceberg baby [laughs]. You got my word on that.”