LL COOL J says honoring Def Jam at VMAs “was a complete full circle moment”

LL COOL J‘s performance at the VMAs was a full-circle moment, as was the video for his Eminem-assisted “Murdergram Deux.” 

Speaking to Variety, he says performing at the award show to honor 40 years of Def Jam “felt full circle because it was an opportunity for me to do a timeless thing for multi generations.” 

“The fact that I was the first artist to launch an album on the label and then to be doing it on that level of platform and to be launching new records and new music, it was a complete full circle moment,” he said. “The sweetest part about it is I got to have my friends Public Enemy by my side. It was dope.”

As for the “Murdergram Deux” video, it featured LL and Em taking it back to their roots, even including their first cars. “We brought our first cars to the video. Mine was my Audi 5000 — I bought it for $30,000 cash in ’86 — and it’s the same Audi that I stood on for the cover of my second album, ‘I’m Bad,'” LL said. “It felt fitting to bring that part of my life to the video, and for him to have his first car on the set too. It was definitely full circle and reciprocal, mutual love.”

“Murdergram Deux” is featured on LL’s comeback album, The Force. “When I told people, ‘Yo, I wanna do a culturally relevant album’ in the midst of all these [younger artists], people looked at me like I had nine heads,” LL recalls. “But if somebody doesn’t do it … if I don’t tell you that a guy who’s been out for a long time can make a new record and be relevant — if nobody does it, it never happens.”