Hip Hop legend LL Cool J told The Associated Press that he will launch his classic hip-hop channel called “LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells Radio” on Wednesday.
“Rock The Bells Radio” will air on channel 43. The channel’s name derives from LL Cool J’s 1985 hit song, “Rock The Bells.”
LL Cool J says “I felt like classic hip-hop needed some leadership. It needed some organization. It needed somebody to step up and say, ‘Hey, this music is dope, people love it and want to hear it.’ But it has to be presented in a dope way and treated with the respect that it deserves.”
The famed rapper and actor said he created the channel because he felt old-school rap artists and their music were not getting enough attention. He said he wants to uplift the culture.
“There are so many artists who are the foundation of this culture,” he said. “But it seems like they have been marginalized and pushed to the side if they’re no longer on the pop charts. I felt like hip-hop has a story and a lot of founding fathers and mothers that the world should know. … People know Run-DMC and myself, but there were people before us.”
LL Cool J hopes the channel can be an avenue for rappers from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s to promote their past songs, unheard records and new material. He said the channel will feature interviews and classic hip-hop songs from Ice Cube, Outkast, Public Enemy, Run-DMC and Snoop Dogg.
