LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells Festival is returning to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York.
The annual event, which will take place on Saturday, Aug. 5 this year, has partnered with Walmart Makers Studio to help celebrate hip hop’s 50th anniversary by honoring the Black entrepreneurs, creatives, supporters, and fans who shaped the genre’s legacy through style, beauty, visual culture, and much more. Walmart Makers Studio will offer a variety of activations such as The Sneaker Salon, The Tagging Table, The Refresh, The Stoop among other fun stops.
For people who are not able to attend the event, Walmart also partnered with Brooklyn artist Adrian Brandon to design a Walmart x Rock The Bells capsule collection that can be purchased exclusively on the NTWRK app. Download it and tune in on Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT to watch an exclusive interview with Brandon and learn more about the inspiration behind his collection. According to the official website, NTWRK is a livestream shopping platform that hosts live auctions, virtual shopping festivals, daily product drops, and exclusive partnerships with world-renowned brands and creators.
The 2023 Rock The Bells Festival will take the crowd on a journey through the many years of hip hop with an incredible lineup of performers including LL Cool J himself, The Roots, DJ Z-Trip, RUN DMC, Queen Latifah, Ludacris, Redman, Method Man, Boot Camp Clik, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Cold Crush Brothers, Brand Nubian, Lost Boyz, Swizz Beatz, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, MC Sha-Rock, Yo-Yo, Roxanne Shanté, Monie Love, Slick Rick, and more. Tickets to the show are on sale here.
LL Cool J founded Rock The Bells in 2018. “I feel like hip hop is indispensable 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,” the “Doin’ It” rapper said in a statement.