PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — LL Cool J will be rocking the bells, or at least the Liberty Bell, this summer. The Grammy Award-winning hip-hop legend will headline this year’s Welcome America July Fourth concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway alongside Grammy-winning R&B artist and Philly native Jazmine Sullivan.
Mayor Cherelle Parker and Welcome America officials made the announcement Tuesday morning at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
“We are really going to get the party started,” the mayor enthused.
LL Cool J started in the burgeoning hip-hop scene of the ’80s and “has remained a musical and cultural force, a living icon and a significant, relevant artist,” Welcome America said in a press release. In 2018, he launched his own SiriusXM hip-hop channel, “LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells Radio,” which garners millions of listeners every day.
Sullivan is a dynamic singer-songwriter most known for her 2021 album “Heaux Tales,” which garnered widespread success and landed her on 2022’s TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people. She is also a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.
Also at Tuesday’s announcement, Welcome America CEO Michael Delbene shared dozens of free events leading up to Independence Day.
“Our festival will once again stretch from Juneteenth to July Fourth, commemorating and celebrating these two very different but very important expressions of freedom and liberty and independence,” he said.
There will be a Juneteenth Block Party at the African American Museum, a Kidchella Music Festival, a performance by the Philly Pops at Independence Hall, and much more — all leading up to the main event and fireworks show on the Parkway.
“Sixteen days — free, family-friendly, fun and entertainment,” Parker boasted, “creating opportunities for communities and neighbors to come together and celebrate all that is wonderful about our city and, quite frankly, our nation.”
A full list of events can be found at july4thphilly.com.