LL Cool J opens up about childhood abuse in new TV interview

Rapper/actor Ll Cool J has opened up about his life as the victim of child abuse, revealing he was physically and emotionally tortured for years by his mother's ex-boyfriend.

The Going Back to Cali hitmaker, real name James Smith, first touched on his tough childhood in his 1998 memoir I Make My Own Rules, claiming his mum's former live-in boyfriend Roscoe started abusing him when he was only four years old.

He wrote, "Living with Roscoe was like being a little kid who gets to play in the daisy field every day. But every evening that kid has to go home and sleep in a cemetery with a dragon. It was the most horrible experience. I was defenceless and I didn't understand. The pain went so deep."

Now he has spoken out about his painful past in a new interview with Oprah Winfrey, claiming he was routinely stripped and beaten.

He says, "It wasn't sexual, it was just beatings... (Getting) kicked out in the snow, (and being ordered to) stay outside... (Getting) beat (sic) with vacuum cleaner pipes, (getting ordered to) strip naked, 'Put your hands on the bunk bed,' and when you fall down, 'Stand up, get back up.'"

The candid chat will air on Oprah's Next Chapter on Sunday (27Jan13).