The news of hip-hop legends LL Cool J, the Roots, DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Z-Trip going on tour together was massive. Though it initially felt too good to be true, new details on the trek have made it clear that this is actually happening! This past weekend, LL went into detail about what awaits on the other side during an Instagram Live chat with Black Thought and Questlove.
“You’ve done arena tours before. I’ve done arena tours before. But I’ve never really felt like they were mine,” Quest said on Saturday. “They were always, like, festivals, or opening up for other acts. This is super major, man.”
“You know what I’m excited about, Quest?” LL responded. “When the first snare hits, like … it ain’t stoppin’. We goin’ hard. This is going to be a show unlike anything … I haven’t done an arena tour in many years, you know what I’m sayin’? And I put all my energy into making this thing right. This is like everything we’ve ever done on super-roids. So, it’s going to be way more than you can imagine, you know what I’m sayin’?”
“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Questlove, who recently produced a hip-hop tribute for the Grammys, continued. “But I’m also trying to give people something that they’ve never seen before … the way we’re formatting the show, it’s going to be like the Grammys performance on steroids.”
The F.O.R.C.E. Live tour is scheduled to commence on June 25 in Boston, run through the summer and conclude in Los Angeles on September 3. Branded as the “ultimate Hip Hop mash-up tour,” every stop will feature a rotating lineup of guest acts. Among them will be all-stars such as Rick Ross, Method Man, Redman, Salt-N-Pepa, Common, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Jadakiss and many more.
Additionally, LL Cool Jay also revealed that he’s currently working on new music alongside another hip-hop icon: “Q-Tip did all the production, all the beats … There will be some new music coming in the next couple of weeks or so.”
The 24-stop F.O.R.C.E. Live tour will pass through several major cities across North America. Get your tickets here.
