- LL Cool J Jiu-Jitsu is officially a thing — the hip-hop icon revealed on Joe Rogan’s podcast that he’s roughly a year into training under Brian Glick in Brooklyn.
- The rapper is learning in the John Danaher / Renzo Gracie lineage, one of the most respected pedigrees in the sport.
- Despite earlier karate, Wing Chun and Yiquan, he admits the mats left him feeling helpless — and he still hasn’t landed his first tap.
- The exchange became a reminder of why Jiu-Jitsu keeps humbling celebrities: the art doesn’t care about fame, charisma or status.
What LL Cool J Told Joe Rogan
LL Cool J spent a chunk of his latest Joe Rogan Experience appearance talking about the newest challenge on his plate. The hip-hop icon and actor is roughly a year into his Jiu-Jitsu training, and he’s working in Brooklyn under Brian Glick, an instructor he was introduced to by his friend, the actor Scott Caan.
You think you’re a tough guy, but you’re really a little old lady. You find out really quickly.
– LL Cool J –
That self-deprecating line landed because it’s the universal white-belt experience. LL Cool J framed the whole thing as deeply humbling, and he tied it to a lifelong interest in the martial arts — though grappling, he admitted, was a different animal entirely.
Beneath the jokes, though, there was a sincere note. He described the pursuit as part of a larger drive to keep learning and to “maximize our potential” — the mindset of someone who has spent a lifetime staying relevant by refusing to stop being a beginner at something.
Why Brian Glick’s Danaher Lineage Matters
Glick is not a celebrity trainer in the usual sense. He’s a longtime black belt in the John Danaher lineage — one of Danaher’s first batch of black belts to come out of the Blue Basement at Renzo Gracie Academy, and one of his longest-running students. It’s the same lineage that produced Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon and Georges St-Pierre under Danaher’s guidance.
Before Jiu-Jitsu, Glick was a professional musician who studied under the saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton. That academic, systematic bent carries into his teaching: his approach parallels Danaher’s methodical problem-solving style but is a little more fluid and rounded at the edges. He’s the black belt’s black belt — the kind of coach whose closed guard instructional work has been covered on this site before.
Helpless in Closed Guard — And Still No Tap
LL Cool J didn’t walk onto the mats cold. He told Rogan he grew up doing “a little Seido karate, a little Wing Chun, a little Yiquan.” None of it, he said, prepared him for grappling.
A guy put you on a closed guard and say, “Get out. Come on. Get out. You’re good.” And you do everything but stand up.
– LL Cool J –
The closed guard, he explained, is where a newcomer discovers just how little raw toughness actually helps. It’s one thing to be able to throw a punch; it’s another to be folded up by someone who never has to throw one.
And despite that time on the mats, he’s still chasing the first milestone that matters to any beginner.
No, I haven’t gotten it yet. I’m fresh. I’m brand new. I’m brand new in the game.
– LL Cool J –
LL Cool J Jiu-Jitsu Is A Reminder The Mats Don’t Care About Fame
Rogan’s sharper point was the one that fuels the whole celebrities-who-train genre: Jiu-Jitsu is one of the few arenas where fame, charisma and status simply don’t function.
You are either good at this or you are not good at this. There’s no charm. There’s no charisma.
– Joe Rogan –
As Rogan put it, you can’t charisma your way out of an Americana or a Kimura, and he framed the whole thing as a corrective for people who live inside a bubble of unconditional approval. LL Cool J pushed back gently that he’s an artist before a celebrity — “I’m famous by default because of the things that I do have made me known. But I don’t walk in rooms feeling famous.” Either way, the mats deliver the same verdict to everyone.
That’s exactly why the site’s list of 58 famous celebrities who train BJJ keeps growing. The art is the one place a life of standing ovations won’t help you escape side control — which is precisely the appeal for people who spend the rest of their days being told “yes.”
