LL Cool J To Discuss Childhood Abuse On ‘Oprah’s Next Chapter’ [Video]

LL Cool J will be sitting down with Oprah Winfrey on the next episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter, and he’ll be discussing a very dark period of his life.

The rapper-actor — whose real name is James Todd Smith — will be opening up to the media mogul about the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his mother’s friend, Roscoe. LL Cool J has previously written about the abuse in his 1998 autobiography, I Make My Own Rules, but he has yet to speak about it publicly.

In the book, the NCIS: Los Angeles star wrote:

“Roscoe beat me for just about anything. He would beat me for watching television, for lookin’ at him funny, for looking out of the window watching other kids play. He didn’t need a good reason. It was just a power trip. While my mother worked, Roscoe was home abusing her son. He was usually home when I came in from school and it was like, ‘Let the games begin!'”

In the interview, Winfrey says that LL Cool J called what Roscoe did to him abuse, but it was really torture. She asks him what was the worst thing Roscoe did to him.

“Just, beat with vacuum cleaner pipes. Just, strip naked, put your hands on the bunk bed. When you fall down, stand back up, get up.”

“Torture,” Winfrey interjects.

LL Cool J’s interview with Oprah Winfrey will air Sunday, January 27 at 9/8c on OWN.