Legendary Hip-Hop Artist LL Cool J Accepts Key To His Hometown At the Rock The Bells Festival in Queens, NY

LL Cool J Accepts Key To His Hometown At the Rock The Bells Festival in Queens, NY
The Hip-Hop artist who helped kick off, possibly the most important record label in the history of recorded music, Def Jam Recordings, was recently honored with the key to his hometown of Queens, NY.
James Todd Smith, more famously known as LL Cool J, a recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (2021) was presented the key to Queens, NY by Adrienne Adams, Speaker of the New York City Council. This took place at his Rock the Bells Festival which took place over the weekend on August 6 at the Forest Hills Stadium.
Hollis, Queens was represented today at @RockTheBells as the @NYCCouncil celebrated a true Queens legend, the one and only @llcoolj! It was an honor to present him with a proclamation acknowledging his undeniable impact on hip-hop and popular culture. pic.twitter.com/p2mlSG1yov
— Adrienne Adams (@NYCSpeakerAdams) August 6, 2022
The company, Rock The Bells was started in 2018 as a content and commerce brand that is dedicated to classic hip-hop and is led by former BET executive James Cuthbert, who joined the company last year.
Rock the Bells is the name of one of LL’s classic songs that helped catapult him and his legendary music career.
On August 6, The Empire State Building in Manhattan, NY celebrated the festival by lighting the building light blue.
Honored to have the @EmpireStateBldg turned cyan blue as New York celebrates The Rock the bells festival coming to my hometown. @RockTheBells pic.twitter.com/Oq2JdqycwB
— LLCOOLJ (@llcoolj) August 6, 2022
According to the Rock The Bells website, portions of the proceeds collected from ticket sales will be used to support the Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Bronx, which is currently being constructed at the Bronx Point development at Mill Pond Park. It’s been reported by ABC 7 NY that the museum just received a $5.5 million investment.
“I feel like Hip Hop is indisposable,” LL said in a statement to HipHopDX. “And I feel like, the same reverence and deference in the way Paul McCartney gets celebrated, the way Bob Dylan gets celebrated or Mick Jagger, I feel like these artists, these kings and queens, deserve that same treatment for this art form.”