LL Cool J to Host ACM’s Special Tribute to the Troops
Don’t call it a comeback! LL Cool J’s been here for … well …. he’s never really been here in country music whatsoever, except for that ill-advised pairing with Brad Paisley in “Accidental Racist” that captured the American zeitgeist for about 48 hours—catching hell from Saturday Night Live and Stephen Colbert in parodies—before being summarily forgotten and heavily suppressed in the public consciousness like the jarring memory of a childhood tragedy. But he’s back now! … to host this year’s ACM special slated to pander to country music demographics to promote CBS’s Fall lineup …. I mean salute America’s military.
LL Cool J, along with CBS’s NCIS: Los Angeles co-star Chris O’Donnell, are scheduled to host the April 7th “ACM Presents: An All-Star Salute to the Troops” that will be taped the day after the ACM Awards, and be aired on May 20th. Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, George Strait, Merle Haggard, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum are all scheduled to perform.
The rapper turned actor has also been the host of the Grammy Awards in previous years, and has done a fine job in his emcee duties. But the question is, was there not a country music personality that would be better suited for this special? With all the talk swirling around the ACM Awards and their desire to showcase as much talent as possible for the labels backing their enterprise, why not show off the comedy stylings of some country star that could use a lift out of the shadows, or at least that would be better suited for the event? Is Bubba in Birmingham really going to become an NCIS: Los Angeles lifer just because he saw LL Cool J introduce Tim McGraw before he performs some schlocky tribute? Do rap shows reach out to country stars to showcase them at their award shows or televised specials? Why does country music always feel the need to apologize for itself by rubbing elbows with stars of other genres to say, “Hey, we can be cool too!” instead of presenting what is cool about country itself?
It’s great that the Academy of Country Music has decided to shy away from shamelessly promoting Lionel Richie albums like they did some years back, and actually pay tribute to something that deserves it. (By the way, what rock has Lionel been hiding under recently? Yeah, that was a two-hour television investment poorly spent.) But is the point to promote country and support the troops, or try to hand out political payoffs to media partners?
March 29, 2014 @ 1:23 pm
One word: Pathetic.
March 29, 2014 @ 1:40 pm
Just another great example of TV network execs and “Synergy”….”LL Cool J is on our network. He was/is a musician. Let’s make him our go-to host for all things musical, it’ll be GREAT!”
Idiots….
March 29, 2014 @ 2:23 pm
He’s irrelevant in music. He hasn’t made anything worth a dime for 20 years. Which is why he switched to acting.
March 29, 2014 @ 4:29 pm
Maybe pop, hip hop, and rap fans are more fickle than country fans. Another concern about country going pop and rap and country radio playing that music more than and instead of the best country.
March 29, 2014 @ 5:21 pm
LL Cool J is totally not irrelevant. You must be under a rock somewhere. Hollywood always capitalize on the success of rappers when they reach the peak of their career. LL and Will Smith are the few who can actually act. Yeah, but you’re all right,the ACM is pretty far from his rapping days of “I AM BAD” and “I WANT A ROUND THE WAY GIRL. This cannot possible be LL’s idea.
March 29, 2014 @ 7:49 pm
Bigger and Deffer, Walking with a Panther, and Mama Said Knock You Out – all classics. Since then its pandering to pop music and just so so efforts. And yes he is completely irrelevant. He is never mentioned in conversations about worthwhile rappers. The only reason you even know he’s around is because of the acting.
March 29, 2014 @ 8:14 pm
Rap is not country. You Don’t grow old with your fans. LL Cool J stayed relevant from 1987 to nearly early 2000’s. That’s eternity in rap. He’s been acting since the mid nineties and he is quite a success, perhaps even more so than he was a rapper. The fact that the ACM is asking LL to host their awards is no discredit on LL’s part, the stupidity is on ACM’s part. Plus, how could you bad mouth someone so hot? I mean, damn!! Did you see that picture?
March 31, 2014 @ 7:21 am
I disagree about him being irrelevant but I do agree that they could have gotten a country artist for the pre-show event.You wont see a country hosting an event for the Source Awards, just saying.
March 29, 2014 @ 1:43 pm
What does the Academy of Country Music (ACM) actually do besides this awards show? From perusing there website it appears that they were created specifically for the awards and now seem to have some charitable endeavors of which I know nothing. The CMA seems to be a far more legit organization with there affiliation with the HOF and might have more power to not sell out to the there network partners than the ACM. So if CBS wants to use the awards to promote some of there programming then the ACMs just play along (I know the CMAs have gone heavy on ‘Nashville’ stars on there ABC broadcast but at least there is a tie-in to country music) because they need CBS more than the other way around.
March 29, 2014 @ 5:55 pm
The ACM was created in the 1960s by the West Coast country music industry (primarily Bakersfield/L.A.) because the Nashville-based CMA wasn’t promoting “outsiders” (Hag, Buck, etc). Looks like they’ve lost their way.
March 29, 2014 @ 2:46 pm
Not even worth a write up imo.
March 29, 2014 @ 3:35 pm
This is as cool as when Sting was tag team partners with Robocop !
March 29, 2014 @ 4:49 pm
Ha! Sting might be returning & the new Robocop movie is out.
Reunion possibly?
March 29, 2014 @ 4:22 pm
I guess CBS picked LL and Chris to promote NCIS. I watch these shows for the country music performances, which have gotten to be fewer and far between in recent years. At least this salute to the troops show has some great country performers including Merle Haggard, George Strait, Dierks Bentley, Lee Brice, and Saving Country Music Album of the Year winner Kellie Pickler, who deserves nominations and performances on every awards show (same as other top talents get). This might be better than the ACM Awards but I wonder if they will all sing their own songs or get full solo performances.
March 29, 2014 @ 4:38 pm
I’ve seen a run sheet for the night. It’s going to be 90 minutes of LL Cool J freestyle rapping, and then the rest of the performers will sing a medley of all the songs from Toby Keith’s 2003 album “Shock’n Y’all”.
March 29, 2014 @ 11:11 pm
Oh, lord.
My mother actually owns that CD, I’m afraid.
March 29, 2014 @ 4:51 pm
Triggerman- i hope you bring back the forum one day. this topic would be perfect to go all “gtrman” on…
March 29, 2014 @ 5:29 pm
I said I never wanted to start a message board unless it was active and vibrant, and if it didn’t take away from Hank3’s message board. So I started one, and they both went down the tubes. Nothing more lame than a lame message board. At some point last year when we were salvaging the site from some technical disaster, it got lost. I think it is still out there somewhere in tact, but salvaging it and upgrading it is probably a long weekend project. Maybe since there’s much more interest in SCM and many more daily readers, it would take off.
March 29, 2014 @ 7:09 pm
i bet it would…like you said, the audience has gotten a lot bigger even since i became a regular reader. it’s kind of amazing. i don’t really know how forums work but if you do it and need some help, let me know.
March 29, 2014 @ 7:27 pm
I would definitely participate in a forum! It would be great to have a place to discuss all of the latest album releases and news. So count me in if you decide to bring one back.
March 29, 2014 @ 9:58 pm
I read the forum back when it was here, but I didn’t really feel “connected” with the site quite enough to do more than that. At this point I do feel that way, so I’d be another one to count as a potential member.
March 30, 2014 @ 3:27 am
One of my favorite things about this site is that it’s pretty much the only place on the Internet where I can find large amounts of like-minded country fans. Count me in too as a regular poster on any message board.
March 30, 2014 @ 10:39 am
Well, we’ll look into it. There’s a lot of back end projects we’re working on with the site right now, so it would probably be a while before it became a priority, and it would be a big project, especially if we attempted to salvage the old message board and all the content there (which I’d like to do). I personally would like to have a message board, because for some specific stories like this one, it would be perfect. Right now without anywhere else to post content, a story like this lands on the main page.
March 29, 2014 @ 6:34 pm
hes is going to introduce nelly featuring florida gawga line, its not rocket science
March 30, 2014 @ 7:23 am
If you don’t oppose it outright, then you are enabling. The proper stance to take is “I don’t know anything about it, but I hate it.”
March 30, 2014 @ 10:28 am
Re: this article… You lost me at LL
March 30, 2014 @ 10:31 am
Hey Trigger, long time reader, first time poster here…I totally agree with you here (and in the past) when you talk about how dumb and ridiculous it is that the country music establishment seems to always feel the need to suck up to “stars” of other genres, that it seemingly always takes a submissive role any time there is a “fusion” of country and other genres, etc. I totally get all that.
HOWEVER I don’t think that is what is happening here, and therefore don’t see how this is newsworthy or something to get worked up about….If this special was on, let’s say, ABC, and the ACMs decided to have LL Cool J (and only LL) be the host, I’d be on the same page with you. In that case, it would seem to me to be a pathetic and desperate attempt to pander to hip-hop/pop fans and/or trying to look “cool,” as well as trying to continue LL’s minor country “connection” that began with that terrible song Accidental Racist. But to me all this is, is CBS wanting to have the stars of one of their shows host this tribute in order to hopefully draw more viewers, something that these shows do quite often, and thus, in my opinion, is no big deal.
Additionally, the fact that it is both LL AND Chris O’Donnell hosting makes a big difference to me. If it was just LL, then I would see more of what you’re talking about–country trying to pander to other genres. But Chris O’Donnell is hosting too, and he has no connection to any kind of music whatsoever (that I know of, anyway)….so it seems to me that this is simply CBS doing what these networks/award shows do and having a couple TV stars host in a cross-promotional effort. The fact that LL Cool J made his name as a rapper is a mere coincidence, in my opinion. I don’t see this particular event as an instance of country trying to make nice with other types of music (which DOES irk me greatly, as I said at the beginning of my post).
March 30, 2014 @ 10:46 am
It’s appropriate that a thread has broken out in the comments section here about how Saving Country Music needs to salvage the old message board, because traditionally a story like this would be more appropriate for that type of format. But in lieu of anywhere else to put it, I decided to post something about it on the main page. In that respect, I somewhat agree with you.
Having said that, I do think this is newsworthy, both from the respect that it is the first time you have a host of a country award show that his a hip hop artist AND an actor from the broadcasting network hosting the show. I think this illustrates a dangerous intrusion in both respects. Country award shows have had actors and television personalities, and performers from outside the genre present awards and perform before, but this is the first time a prominent position involving a lot of face time is being filled outside the country fold.
Is it some huge development? Probably not. But I do think it is important to note, take account of, and comment on, and that’s why I did so.
March 31, 2014 @ 12:49 pm
Blake Shelton is going to sing a duet with Shakira on the ACM Awards.
Wow.
April 1, 2014 @ 7:15 am
Nothing screams country music like a fucking rapper! It is just becoming more apparent that the fucktards behind the scenes have no fucking inclination nor respect for the music in general. As a hater of any mainstream/pop music in general this is rather sickening, but it is far worse than that. I can understand cross over acts that are pop/country or whatever you call that shit collaborating, but rap? I’m guessing when the beer+truck+girl bandwagon fizzles out the new line up of Country entertainers will consist of rap idiots, drum beats, bitches and hoes rollin on the bling in the dub with 39’s smokin reefer, gold teeth and all that “Country” shit. I hope LL Fuck head and the rest of these cunts enjoy their rise to the top in the Country. Whats next……a music video with some rapper and Merle riding dirty????? I I THINK NOT. This shit has become so fucked up, what ever happened to tuning into a Country awards show and seeing Country entertainers playing Country music?
April 2, 2014 @ 12:32 pm
Your comment is offensive. Plus, you sound kinda racist.