The Roots will open for rapper/ composer/ producer/ actor/ activist/ philanthropist James Todd Smith, 55, otherwise known as LL Cool J. Among the first of the generation of rappers to achieve crossover pop success, he was the first rapper to win a Kennedy Center Honor (2017), and he was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. The Long Island native has two Grammys, two MTV Video Awards, four NAACP Image Awards and three Soul Train Music Awards. It’s hard not to like this guy. I tried. But I keep coming back to “Mama Said Knock You Out.”
