Bring Street to the House

When LL Cool J speaks, it’s hard not to pay rapt attention. During interviews, the hip-hop star exudes the type of intensity and self-confidence befitting a rapper who has managed to win over both critics and fans during a lengthy and 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 is no shrinking violet, especially when it comes to defending his street credibility.

Indeed, some observers felt he was putting his well-earned rap reputation in jeopardy when he signed 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 was a harder-edged artist. (Queen Latifah also made a similar crossover into TV comedy with Fox’s “Living Single.”)

“In the House” is pretty standard sitcom fare 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,’ ” the Queens, N.Y.-born artist argues during a recent interview on the Hollywood set of “In the House.” “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.’ It’s the difference between a critic listening to a rap record and understanding and living hip-hop culture. [Designers] Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karan may not be from the streets, but their clothes have street credibility. It’s the culture that gives you the credibility.”

Now winding up its first full season, “In the House” finds LL Cool J playing Marion Hill, a sidelined pro football player turned landlord. Debbie Allen stars as Jackie Warren, a recently divorced woman who rents a house owned by Hill. When Warren lands a job as a legal assistant, she recruits the recuperating athlete, who lives in an adjoining apartment, to serve as a nanny to her two kids.

“In the House” may have actually increased LL Cool J’s popularity as a rap artist. His current “Hey Lover” single is a Top 5 smash on both the pop and R&B; charts. The rap-ballad is his most commercially successful single in a career that has included five other Top 40 songs, including 1991’s ferocious “Mama Said Knock You Out.”

His previous five albums have all reached platinum status, an achievement unmatched in the often fleeting (even by pop music standards) world of hip-hop. His current “Mr. Smith” album is also expected to go platinum.

For the former James Todd Smith, television has been a way to bring his music even further into the mainstream. “Wherever I go, hip-hop goes,” he says matter-of-factly. “I like acting, but I love music more. Music has done so much for me. It’s allowed me to do other things.”

Though he downplays the image, LL Cool J’s profile as a rap sex symbol has undoubtedly played a part in his success. Playgirl magazine once named him one of the 10 sexiest men in rock. (LL Cool J stands for Ladies Love Cool James.)

As an actor, LL Cool J first appeared in the action film “The Hard Way” in 1991, then in Barry Levinson’s oddball comedy “Toys” the following year. When producers Quincy Jones and Winifred Hervey approached him about doing “In the House,” the actor insisted that the Marion Hill character not be a stereotypical dumb jock. He wanted to play a strong but spiritual and emotionally broad figure.

“In a way, [Marion] is like me in that he’s feeling, loves kids and is health-conscious,” says the athletic-looking actor-rapper. “But he’s different than me in that I wouldn’t sit around the house just waiting to heal. I would go out and make something else happen.”

LL Cool J takes a more proactive than reactive mind set. His musical career has been marked by artistic diversity, shrewdly and deftly combining harder-edged rap tunes like “I’m Bad” with sexy ballads such as “I Need Love.” In 1991, he became the first rap act, along with De La Soul and M.C. Lyte, to perform acoustic on “MTV Unplugged,” and in 1992 he rapped for President Clinton during his inaugural celebration.

Today a husband and a father of three young children, LL Cool J says he feels more comfortable with himself and his rap peers than in the late ‘80s, when he found himself embroiled in a number of chest-thumping feuds with other rap artists such as Kool Moe Dee. In addition, he was the target of criticism when the cover of his 1989 album, “Walk Like a Panther,” depicted him living the high life with champagne and three leggy women.

“I don’t regret [the “Panther” album cover] because I wouldn’t be able to understand the things I do now if I wasn’t able to experience that,” says the rapper-actor, who finances a summer camp for underprivileged kids in the New York area called Camp Cool J. “Because I experienced that, I can lease a cheap car for $300 a month and drive around and feel comfortable. And a rapper with two singles can ride past me in his 600 [Mercedes] Benz and laugh at me, and I’ll feel great. If I hadn’t experienced that, I wouldn’t know what’s important.”

And he’s equally philosophical about the future of “In the House.”

“It’s been a good train ride,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot. I’ve been able to work with directors and different actors. We’ll see if we get picked up [for next season]. If we don’t, I’m glad I had the opportunity. If we do, I’ll continue to give 100%.”

* “In the House” airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC (Channel 4).

* LL Cool J performs at the House of Blues on March 21 and at the Freedman Forum in Anaheim on March 22.