LL COOL J dropped The F.O.R.C.E. in 2024, his first solo effort since 2013’s Authentic. With the same ferocity he unleashed on albums like Bigger and Deffer and Mama Said Knock You Out, Mr. Ladies Love Cool James flexed his lyrical prowess alongside several other hip-hop vets, including Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe. Simultaneously, he honored the new generation by featuring Saweetie on the sensuous single “Proclivities.” It was all Big Daddy Kane needed to hear to reignite his desire to record again.
“LL COOL J came and played his album for me,” Kane remembers. “We sat in an alley, just sitting there listening to it and bumping it from the truck. I told him how phenomenal I thought it was, how lyrical he was on there and the diversity that he showed. He was like, ’It’s that time, not just for me, but for you, too. We need to do this right now.’ To see that fire in him and also him wanting to share that light, I was like, ‘Maybe you’re right.’”
The more Kane thought about it, the more he could hear Busta Rhymes’s voice, who’d been encouraging him to get in the studio for over a decade. LL COOL J took it a step further and had Q-Tip reach out to Kane, which only strengthened his resolve to record again. So, with a renewed sense of urgency, Kane got to work, laying out what would eventually become Curtain Call, his first full-length project in nearly 30 years.
