ll cool j
LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj & Jack Harlow To Host 2022 MTV VMAs
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz This year’s edition of the MTV Video Music Awards will be a truly unique one, as LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, and Jack Harlow have been named as the emcees for the event. The network announced on Thursday (August 18th) that instead of one artist serving as the emcee for the night, they are calling on the Hip-Hop trio to do the honors which include introducing the major performing acts for the awards show. The move marks a return to the origins of the awards show for MTV, as comedic actors Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler served as hosts for the first show that was held in 1984, and a group of MTV’s own VJs (“Downtown” Julie Brown, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn, and Dweezil Zappa)took over the reins in 1986 and 19...
Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow Will Emcee 2022 VMAs
Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow will serve as the closest thing the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards will have as a host on Aug. 28, as they will announce the performers, presenters and winners in a “more innovative and unique approach” than the usual proceedings. As previously reported, Minaj will receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award this year and will also perform. LL Cool J also received the Video Vanguard award way back in 1997. He performed on the show twice in the 1990s but has not presented an award since 2000. Harlow is up for artist and video of the year at this year’s VMAs, and is tied for the most nominations with seven. He will perform solo during the broadcast, following his 2021 VMAs teaming with Lil Nas X on their hit song “Industry Baby.” Anitta, Blackpink, J ...
LL COOL J Announces Brand New ROCK THE BELLS FESTIVAL
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Rich Fury / Getty LL COOL J famously delivered the blistering 1980s hit “Rock The Bells” in the early days of his recording career, and the phrase holds weight today. This week, the Queens Hip-Hop legend announced the ROCK THE BELLS FESTIVAL coming later this summer in the rapper’s home borough. On Monday (April 4), the artist born James Todd Smith announced the music festival that shares the namesake with his pioneering single, lifestyle brand, and radio station. Related Stories The stacked lineup includes Ladies Love Cool James himself alongside DJ Z-Trip, Ice Cube, Rick Ross, Lil’ Kim, The Diplomats, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Jadakiss, Scarface, Trina, N.O.R.E., and the Digable Planets. Other acts are expected to be added to this already stellar lineup. Hostin...
LL Cool J Tests Positive For The Rona, Won’t Be Performing At NYE Celebration
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Guillermo Proano/WENN / WENN The Omicron strikes again! And by that we mean another New Year’s Eve performance being canceled due to its infection rate. Variety is reporting that LL Cool J is the latest celebrity to cancel his planned appearance at a New Year’s Eve bash but not because of fear of COVID-19 wildfire that’s burning down the final month of 2021, but because he himself has tested positive for the dreaded virus. According to the report Ladies Love Cool J is pulling out of this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2022″ after testing positive for the Rona. Luckily for viewers of the annual show, the NYE event will still go down with Ryan Seacrest and Liza Koshy taking on hosting duties. Related Stories LL was set t...
The 90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s
This article originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of SPIN. “You must be high.” We heard that a lot during the time we spent preparing this issue. Which is understandable. Pronouncing the 90 greatest albums of the ’90s is a somewhat presumptuous thing to do. When you’re measuring the music this decade is offering to history—the sounds we partied with, copulated to, fought about, and wept over—everyone has an opinion. That ours should be more valid than yours is debatable. But hey—it’s our magazine. What, then, you ask, constitutes “greatest”? Don’t even start. Suffice it to say that, after much heated discussion and countless veiled insults, it came down to the factors of both remarkable artistry and cultural shock value. Sometimes a record’s knock-you-off-your-Skechers impa...
LL Cool J Honored With His Own Statue In His Hometown of Queens
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Al Pereira / Getty Hip-Hop legend LL Cool J has always made it a point to represent his home borough of Queens throughout his career. That love was reflected in a new statue dedicated to him. Last week Tuesday (December 7th), the “4,3,2,1” rapper and actor shared a post to social media featuring a new statue built and installed in his honor. The Instagram post he shared contained the caption “Anything is possible. Statue of me in Corona Park, Queens by the talented @sherwintheartist.” Related Stories The statue, which is a bust of LL Cool J atop a boombox similar to the one he had in his iconic music video “Radio”, is installed in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The boombox element of the sculpture even has a 7” cassette of the song in it to be played by an...
Foo Fighters, Jay Z, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
And they’re in. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their inductees for 2021, and it’s a doozy. Foo Fighters, Jay Z, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner will round out the performer category. Additionally, in the Musical Excellence category, LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhoads get the call to the hall while Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton were tapped in the Early Influences category. Clarence Avant will be inducted as the recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award which honors non-performing individuals. The Foos, Jay Z and The Go-Go’s were first-time nominees. Late last year, we wrote about why the Go-Go’s should be inducted into the Rock Hall and spoke with the band’s Jane Wiedlin earlier this year about their new documentary and her thoughts o...
LL Cool J Reacts To Twitter Randomly Crowning Him “Pop Rap” Pioneer
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: SXSW / Getty LL Cool J is not too old to knock people out if they erroneously keep associating his legacy with being a Pop star. The legendary rapper felt it necessary to defend his life’s work on social media after discovering fans were crowing him a “pop rap” pioneer, whatever that means. “Me being called the forefather of pop rap is very confusing. What the f*ck are you talking about?? LOL,” he wrote on Twitter. In the early 1980s, the Queens native first broke into the scene as a pretty-faced teenage street rapper named LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James) signed under Def Jam Recordings as their flagship artist. He’s since released ten consecutive platinum-plus selling albums that have catapulted hit singles “I Need Love,” “Rock T...
LL Cool J Is Not Feeling Kanye West Pissing On His Grammy Award
Source: Neilson Barnard / Getty One of Kanye West’s most recent antics is not sitting well with the self proclaimed greatest of all time. LL Cool J is making it clear Ye needs to put more respect on the brand he help build. As spotted on Page Six Ladies Love Cool James made a recent appearance on the Desus & Mero show. While the trio discussed a myriad of topics the Bronx media personalities made it a point to get the “I Need Love” MC to touch on Kanye’s blatant disrespect of his Grammy Award. “With all due respect, I think Kanye should just — maybe he should just piss in a Yeezy or something instead of pissing on a Grammy,” he said. “Piss in a pair of one them Yeezys, B. I felt some kind of way about that sh*t. I didn’t love that sh*t, because I’ve been with the Grammys for ...
The 25 Best Soundtrack Albums of the 1990s
In the 1980s, music and film collided for cross-promotional blockbusters both transcendent (Purple Rain) and transcendently cheesy (Footloose). In the ‘90s, soundtracks continued to sell in the millions, capturing cultural moments like the Seattle grunge of Singles or the Britpop and electronica of Trainspotting. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson reached deep into their record collections to set the mood while movies like Above the Rim and Menace II Society pioneered the concept of soundtracks as hip-hop mixtapes. A great soundtrack can propel an unsuccessful single, like Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose,” to the top of the charts, or revive a decades-old hit, like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It can also push a cult singer-songwriter like Elliott Smith or Aimee Mann to an Oscar perf...
LL Cool J Drops #BlackLivesMatter-Inspired Freestlye After Headass Biracial Tweet
Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty LL Cool J is looking to redeem himself after he joined the list of celebrities who did their best to get canceled over the weekend. Twitter was saying Ladies Love Cool J was head sprung after he pressed send on a headass tweet that stating “Imagine how people raising biracial children feel right now!!!!!! This is crazy!!!!!!”. As expected, Twitter wanted to know what the hell was LL Cool J thinking, wondering how biracial kids were feeling amid the country currently in the streets risking their lives as they demand just for George Floyd. remember when LL Cool J and Brad Paisley made that song like “if you don’t judge my gold chains…ill forget the iron chains” https://t.co/8PLgPUcRS2 — Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) May 30, 2020 LL de...
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