LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith on January 14th, 1968 in Bay Shore, N.Y., as the only child of James and Ondrea Smith. He was born into an abusive family and his father, James, eventually shot both his mother and his grandfather. Both survived and Ondrea Smith eventually fell for a physical therapist at the hospital she was healing at. Unfortunately, while she was away at work, the new man in her and little James’ life was verbally and physically abusing him. Little James, unable to reconcile this horrific circumstance, subsequently began bullying others in his neighborhood and school as a way to vent his inner termoil.
Fortunately, as fate would have it, James channeled his angst into this relatively new form of music called rap, a fledgling but exciting music form raging in the boroughs of New York in the mid and late 1970s
