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When LL Cool J speaks, it's hard not to pay rapt attention. During interviews, the hip-hop singer exudes the intensity and self-confidence befitting a rapper who has managed to win over music critics and fans alike during a fruitful 12-year recording career.
If LL Cool J were on a football team, he'd be a prime candidate for captain, if not player-coach. The 28-year-old, who plays the Freedman Forum in Anaheim on Friday, is no shrinking violet, especially when it comes to defending his street credibility.
Good thing, since that's just what he's had to do since signing on to co-star in the NBC comedy series "In the House," which appeared as a midseason replacement a year ago.
Unlike Will Smith, who became the first hip-hop figure to make the move onto a TV sitcom with the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1990, LL Cool J entered sitcom land as a bona fide cutting-edge rap artist. (Queen Latifah also made a similar crossover into TV comedy with Fox's "Living Single.")
"In the House" is pretty standard fair in both style and content. Yet LL Cool J insists that his involvement in the show has done nothing to soil his reputation among his most devoted fans. In fact, he believes it has bolstered his image as a risk taker and maverick.
"A person who just listens to rap records might think, 'Oh, LL's doing a TV show, and he's going to lose his street credibility,' " said the Queens, N.Y.-born musician during a recent interview on the show's set.
"But a person who is part of the hip-hop culture would say, 'Oh LL's hustling; he's expanding; he's moving on even more, and that's good.'...