LL Cool J Visits The Goodness Factor with Shelley Wade To Talk about Good News and Giving Back

Not only is LL Cool J a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Kennedy Center honoree and legendary entertainer, but he’s also a prolific philanthropist. Listen as LL shares with Shelley Wade why he gives back to the community, discusses his summer camp for teens in Queens and the kindest thing that anyone has ever done for him…In this episode of “The Goodness Factor with Shelley Wade”…

[Transcript]

This is Shelley’s best friend, Meredith, and this is The Goodness Factor With Shelley Wade.

Yes, welcome to episode three of The Goodness Factor in Audacy podcast. I’m Shelley Wade, radio personality, entertainment journalist, voiceover artist, and your host of The Goodness Factor podcast. Thanks for joining me for the third episode. So what’s The Goodness Factor all about? Well, as an antidote to the daily drum beat of bad, negative, and sad news in our 24-hour news cycle, with The Goodness Factor With Shelley Wade, I want to constantly remind you that there are actually good people in this world doing good things. And each episode, I’ll introduce you to some of them. I’ll be interviewing both celebs and regular people alike, shining the spotlight on the good deeds they’re doing. Today, we shine the spotlight on a celeb, the legendary LL Cool J, who, aside from being a versatile, talented and prolific entertainer, is also a philanthropist. We’re gonna talk to LL about what inspires him to give back and put goodness out into the universe.

We’ll be releasing new episodes of The Goodness Factor every Tuesday, so be sure to subscribe on the Audacy app or “your favorite podcast platform so that you’ll be immediately notified when a new episode drops. Each episode begins with The Goodness Report, where I’ll share inspiring stories the world over about goodness, kindness and compassion. Then I’ll interview and shine the spotlight on a person, celeb or regular, who is actively doing good deeds to benefit others. I call it the do-gooder interview. Like I said, LL Cool J is this episode’s do-gooder. Then each episode ends with a good word….Words of inspiration, positivity and encouragement. So, let’s get it started. Time for the Goodness Report.

A new poll found that more people than ever, all over the world, are actively avoiding the news because it’s too stressful. according to the report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, 39 percent of people worldwide said they sometimes or often avoid reading or watching the news. They avoid it. Now, that’s up from 29 percent when they did the same survey in 2017. So, it’s 39 percent now up from when it was 29 percent back in 2017. A big factor in this? News about wars and constant updates about the pandemic. Only 46 percent of people say they’re very or extremely interested in the news now. And that’s down from 63 percent. So, how do I feel about this? Well, I’m one of those people that sometimes I do avoid the news. Now, I don’t avoid it that much because I am in the media, and I feel like it’s my job to stay in the know about all things. So, I’m a voracious learner. I love to learn about new things. I love to learn about what’s going on in the world, about what’s going on here in America, about what’s going on right here in my community. So, I do watch the news daily and more than once a day, but a lot of news reports will last sometimes two and three hours, and they’ll just repeat the news, recycle the same story. So, I’ll make sure I get all the stories in, and then when I see that they’ve started to recycle stories that I’ve seen once or twice already, then I might tune away sometimes if I feel like the news is bringing me down too much, you know, the heaviness is weighing on my spirit. So, I sometimes do avoid the news, but not that much.

But what I will say is that when in those times where you find yourself avoiding the bad news, that’s when you should turn to The Goodness Factor. Just open up your podcast app and search for The Goodness Factor and listen to the episodes, because we will definitely uplift your spirits by reminding you that there are good people out here doing good things. It’s not all negative stuff going on.

The Goodness Factor will always remind you of that. And here is a good story that came out of a bad situation. You may remember back in 2020 when Christian Cooper was in an area called The Ramble in New York City Central Park here in NYC, enjoying his lifelong passion for bird watching when a woman threatened to call 911 on him after he had the nerve to ask her to put her dog on a leash. “I mean, it’s only the law in Central Park, but how dare he ask her to put her dog on a leash? So how does she respond? She threatened to call 911 on him, and not only did she threaten, she actually did call 911 on him, and she made it racial by telling the police that there was an African American man threatening her life, which is ironic because her false claim against him could have ended up threatening his life had there been any misunderstandings or tragic turn of events when the police arrived.

But luckily, Harvard educated Cooper was recording her entire stunt on his smartphone. The incident became national news after his sister posted the video of it to social media and the woman was eventually fired from her job as an investment manager. But while she got fired, Cooper got hired.

That’s right. From that horrible experience came a wonderful new career opportunity when he was asked to host a birding show on Nat Geo. Yeah, and the good news doesn’t end there.

Earlier this year, Cooper became a daytime Emmy award winner. In the outstanding daytime personality category for his show, Extraordinary Birder, which took viewers all over the Western Hemisphere, exploring the nature and character of birds and Cooper’s lifelong hobby. I mean, listen, that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you turn lemons into lemonade. Or as Gayle King once said to me, that’s how you turn lemons into lemon meringue pie. Good for him, turning that negative situation into a good situation.

Now let’s shine the spotlight on this week’s do-gooder, LL Cool J.

Two-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop icon, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Kennedy Center honoree, recording artist, actor, author, NAACP Image Award-winner, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Rock the Bells. LL Cool J has created one of the most multifaceted careers and brands in entertainment, and he continues to display his wide range of talents with every project. Three decades after he first burst onto the scene, LL Cool J continues his vibrant, trailblazing career. LL began in the nascent, burgeoning rap and hip hop scene of the 80s, which developed into the musical and cultural phenomenon that is today’s hip hop. All the while, LL has remained a musical and cultural force, a living icon and a significant, relevant artist “still churning out the hits. In fact, he zoomed in to my 94.7 The Block New York City show to discuss his single featuring Rick Ross and Fat Joe called Saturday Night Special, as well as his new Q-tip produced album, The Force. After we discussed the music, we discussed his philanthropy. LL is an avid philanthropist involved in numerous causes, including literacy for kids, music and arts programs in schools, as well as his annual charity Jumpin Ball in his hometown of Queens here in New York City. Which gives back to his community by offering a five-week athletic and team building program dedicated to bringing wholesome fun to young people. He’s a 2018 We Are Family Humanitarian Award honoree. LL and his wife, Simone Smith, who is a cancer survivor herself, promote Beat Cancer Like a Boss for the American Cancer Society. Here’s my conversation with do-gooder LL Cool J.

I noticed that a lot of your charity work focuses on uplifting kids and young people.

Yeah, you know, the reason why I started jumping ball, the reason why I do the things that I do in my community and the philanthropic stuff is because if we don’t do it for ourselves, who will? You know, and like, I think part of being a human is sharing. So if I can make these kids’ lives better from my neighborhood where I grew up at, man, that just makes me feel better. So it’s in a lot of ways, it’s selfish. You know what I’m saying? It’s just like, it’s a selfish thing that I love to do, which is to see other people succeed and help them in any way I can. And, you know, it just, it makes success more enjoyable when you, you know, when other people benefit as well. You know what I mean? Like, that’s just a real, that’s a real answer. You know what I’m saying? I just, I know what it’s like to be a little kid, you know, run around in Queens, you know, throw cinder blocks through bus windows on Halloween because there’s nothing to do. You know what I’m saying? To be in a moron. You know, I know what that’s like. I know what it’s like.
You know, my grandmother used to tell me, I don’t mind as the devil’s workshop. You know, when you’re growing up in the hood, a lot of times people get in trouble because there’s nothing to do. And so at least at that time, now, you know, people have phones, so maybe they’d be a little bit more occupied in certain ways. But at the same time, when they do go outside, you know, when they do decide to do other things, it’s like, I just want to make it easier for them. So like to have a basketball camp and to have that during the month of August and give those girls and those boys and girls an opportunity to play and win trophies and learn about teamwork, like that’s what it’s about. Like, are you going to have a, you’re supposed to be the big homie from the neighborhood, but you don’t do nothing for the neighborhood. You know, I don’t, I just can’t live like that. You know what I’m saying? So, you know, I may not be around the neighborhood every day, but I still care about my hood and I still care about the kids that are there, even if they only know me as a Grammy host. They may not know the music, they may not even know the show, but they know, they see me on the Lip Sync Battle, maybe they see me at the Grammy host, or maybe the aunt loves me or something like that. And that’s enough. So for me, it’s like, okay, then let me do something for y’all and just share the love. You know what I’m saying?

Yeah, and you’re referring to your basketball camp, Jump and Ball.

Yeah, Jump and Ball. Every year during the month of August, I have the kids go out there and on the weekends, they do an amazing basketball program, and it’s about 250 kids. And I’ve been doing it for, I don’t know, 17, 18 years, something like that.
And, you know, it’s just, it’s been good. It’s been feeling good.

Hang tight. The Goodness Factor continues next.

And of course, you and your lovely wife, Simone, you promote beat cancer like a boss, American Cancer Society, because Simone is a survivor. Can you speak on that?

She survived it. I mean, that, you know, that’s the blessing in and of itself, right? And there are a lot of people out there that, you know, go through a lot of things. And, you know, part of life is like, you know, when you beat somebody, giving people the playbook or helping people to find the playbook. You know, part of that’s part of embracing the things that go on in life. You know what I’m saying?
So because there’s so many people that can relate to so many things and go through so many things. And so, you know, she handled that well and, you know, she was able to overcome that. And, you know, my thing is, OK, let’s, you know, pay it forward some, you know, and like at the end of the day, you’re on earth to maximize your potential to have some fun. You know, God, you know, he’ll get a blessing to you if he can get a blessing through you. You know what I’m saying? People can get a blessing through you. You know what I’m saying? And a lot of times, you know, you got to see yourself more as a conduit and a pipeline, not just a reservoir that captures all the blessings, that captures all of the success, but don’t want to share it. You know what I’m saying? And I’m not talking about sharing it with some selfish person who thinks that they’re supposed to have it, because that’s weakness. I’m talking about sharing it with those who really are ready and are open and allow it to happen for real and really are taking the action steps necessary to be worthy of it. You know what I’m saying? There’s always a sprinkle of mercy in there. None of us are perfect. So we all need some grace and mercy. That being said, though, you want to be a blessing to those who are really ready for the blessing, you know what I’m saying? And that’s what it’s about, you know what I mean?

I end the interview by asking LL, what’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for him? Here’s his answer.

I mean, my mother gave birth to me. That was pretty good. That was pretty kind. She gave me a shot. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that was pretty good of her. You know, pops lit the fuse, obviously. So, you know, we appreciate him too. You know, he shot me out of space or in a space. And then, you know, moms, you know, gave me a planet to kind of form in. So, you know, that was pretty good of her. I kind of appreciate that.

I love that. First thing you do is uplift mom. Love her.

I kind of appreciate that. Like, you know, that was pretty nice of her. Give me a shot. You know what I mean? Moms give you a shot at life. That’s pretty good.

Love you so much, LL.

Love you too, Shelley Wade.

Thank you. Love, love. I appreciate you.

And there you go. The great LL Cool J. Thanks, LL, for taking the time to discuss your philanthropy with me. And for all the goodness you continue to put out into the universe. Now it’s time for The Good Word, which also comes to us courtesy of LL Cool J. It’s from an interview I did with LL a few years back, but his inspirational words still hold meaningfulness and power today. Check him out…

Yeah, a lot of people are going through it, right? Like you have a lot of people, you know, times are tough out there. You know, you got people that are worried about bills, worried about things. You know, they want their kids to be able to go to certain schools. They, you know, it’s tough and you can get discouraged, but you just can’t let it, you can’t let it pull you down. You know what I’m saying? You have to keep your chin up. And you may have to make some adjustments. You may have to rethink your plan, but you can keep your eyes on the prize and have the same goal. You know what I’m saying? And make it. You can make it. You could do it. You know, when you get in these situations, don’t let it crush you. Let it turn you into a diamond. You know, let it make you even better. Let it make you stronger. Utilize it as fuel to take your life to the next level. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I did.

And that wraps up episode three of The Goodness Factor. Thanks so much for joining me. Be sure to subscribe to The Goodness Factor on the Audacy app or wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be releasing new episodes every Tuesday, so be sure to subscribe and follow, so you’ll be immediately notified when a new episode drops. Also follow us on Instagram at The Goodness Factor and on our Facebook page, The Goodness Factor With Shelley Wade. Be sure to like and follow so you don’t miss any of our posts. Also interact with us by liking, commenting, and sharing our posts. And if you know of any people or organizations doing good things for their communities and you want to shine the spotlight on them, DM us on social media. Also, if you have a good story to share, record it and DM me the voice message. Yeah, just record it with your own voice. Tell me the story yourself and I’ll be sure to include the audio, your voice in the next episode. This has been The Goodness Factor With yours truly, Shelley Wade and Audacy Podcast.

Love you so much for taking the time to listen.