LL Cool J is on a mission to ensure the world never forgets the impact of hip-hop.
The word “legendary” doesn’t feel like it could describe, let alone quantify, his legacy. In 1984, the man born James Todd Smith was the first artist signed to Def Jam at the age of 17. As a hip-hop pioneer, he was the first rapper to earn the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2017 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Four decades later, the Rock The Bells festival, which dons the name of LL Cool J’s third single from his influential debut album, “Radio” (1985), is a living, breathing monument to the genre that continues to set the compass of modern music.
Not to be confused with the previous installment of the festival, which ran from 2004 to 2013, LL Cool J won a lawsuit stopping the concert promoters from using the “Rock The Bells” name…