EXCLUSIVE: LL Cool J to Launch Vintage-Inspired Hip-Hop Collection

It’s a far cry from the streets of Queens, N.Y., to the stage at the Kennedy Center, but that’s the path that James Todd Smith — better known as LL Cool J — has taken. LL Cool J, who started his career as a rap artist as a teenager and now stars in the CBS series “NCIS: Los Angeles,” has appeared in scores of films and television shows, and in 2017 was the first rap musician to receive a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement. But while his accomplishments are many and varied, he hasn’t forgotten his roots. On Tuesday, LL Cool J will launch Rock the Bells limited-edition apparel and accessories, a collection of T-shirts, hoodies and jackets that speaks to the heritage of the hip-hop movement. Rock the Bells was the title of a hit song in 1986 that the entertainer has parlayed into a number of arenas, including a classic hip-hop channel on SiriusXM satellite radio that launched in 2018. “We’d been trying to get the station going for five years,” he told WWD after wrapping the day’s shooting on the set of “NCIS: Los Angeles.” But since the station made its debut two years ago, “it blew up,” he

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