LL COOL J appeared as a guest recently on The Shop, where he revealed what keeps him motivated to create music. "I like the challenge, the 'I'm Bad' MC said. "I don't think that Hip-Hop has had it's Santana moment. We're so used to things coming and going that we don't understand an artist being out for 30 or 40 years."

LL shared that he worked with Dr. Dre years ago, and despite creating many songs, things didn't work out. "We made 30 or 40 songs, and his beats were pristine, it just wasn't all the way right", he shared. "My writing wasn't up to par, and then I had a dream where Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest came to me and said 'That music you're making with Dre is gonna be dope'. But he had this funny look on his face, so when I woke up I called Q Tip."

LL explained that he told Tip that he wanted to make an album consisting of "hot sauce, barbecue sauce, pickle juice. I just wanted the blackest - red, black, and green Marcus Garvey album that you can come up with. With Nigerian DNA baked in." LL then explains that he went to Tip's house, and Q Tip produced his entire album. He described the experience as amazing. "It's amazing because it could go either way - it can be amazing, or three days of fire emojis from ten people."

Check out the interview above.