LL's COOL STORY

Last week I was pleasantly surprised by a MMM profile I hadn't seen before - LL Cool J. While I distinctly remember the bamboo earrings in Junior High and "doin' it an' doin' it an' doin' well" at University parties, I quickly realized I knew little of his story. (It's always about the story for me.) Yes, there's the usual blah blah about single-parent families, but most appealling was the realization that LL's adolescent vices had nothing to do with thug life and street crime and everything to do with 'round da way' girls and parties. Now those are the guys I knew back in the day! No guns, but lots of women...lots of them! And oh was it fun!

As a Canadian Gen-x.5er, there are no 50 Cents or Shines in my world! My ass may tend to shake to a good beat, but at age 29, I struggle to understand let alone relate to the lives led by today's youth. Canadian beer and stolen moments with the girl or guy we were 'checking' were the best of our adventures. I guess somewhere between Puff Daddy and Ja Rule things changed? Can we blame the death of good ol' r&b...is that when the love-making stopped? Perhaps itunes can help me decipher this madness, but first I will groove to L.L's earlier beats and retreat to a simpler time of wholesome stories.