I Make My Own Rules

That is the title of LL Cool J's (James Todd Smith), book and in case you were wondering I finished it last Friday. It was written in the late 90's, and chronicles LL's rise through the 80's and his personnel life all the way though. It was pretty good, it was real graphic though and I would caution young eyes if you know what I mean. He is set to release his 13th album this year and he will finally be able to leave Def Jam. Apparently his dad had him sign some insane agreement before he knew what he was doing. He did have alot of forgiveness for his dad though, at least before that. See his dad shot his mom and grandfather when he was four. Then his mom hooked up with her rehab therapist and the guy would beat LL for any reason and just made life really tough on him. Unfortunately he couldn't tell his mom because she wouldn't believe him. So he turned violent himself before turning to a life of rap and hip hop. Then he got rich and blew a bunch of his money, got into drugs a little and quickly gave them up, but was addicted to physical activity with the females. That is where the book gets a little graphic. Anyway where the book ended he had 3 kids and a wife and was working on his show on UPN, with his clothing line FUBU and shoes Najee (named after his son). He did get pretty deep into religion (when LL was young he was actually Catholic and sang for the Pope in a choir in the 70's). I know the show is no longer on, but I'm not sure where his life is now. Anyway it was a pretty interesting book and just couldn't put it down.