LL Cool J made a few powerful business moves this week as Rock the Bells Inc., his content and commerce brand, raised $8 million in Series A funding to grow its direct-to-consumer offerings.
The funding round was led by San Francisco-based Raine Ventures, with participation from Santa Monica-based venture capital firm M13 and New York-based investment firm Willoughby Capital Holdings, as well as Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban and music industry executive Irving Azoff were part of the first round of initial investors.
“This funding will help us accelerate our growth and team-building efforts to make sure we can further uplift the people and culture at the forefront of hip-hop through exciting e-commerce collaborations, storytelling, and experiences,” LL Cool J said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rock the Bells will use the funds to bolster its executive team, as well as boost its classic hip-hop content and e-commerce offerings. Rock The Bells is named after the rapper’s 1985 classic hit of the same name. The company was established in 2018 to create content and experiences that focus on the culture and core elements of hip-hop.
“This Generation X customer has basically been forgotten, right? It’s either been [boomers] or millennials. And Gen X has been kind of like a lost middle child. And I said, ‘You know what? This hip-hop customer, this core fan, still has buying power. They still care. They still love their artists,” explained LL to Forbes in an interview last year.
“They still love the culture. And we are poised to give them the type of experiences that they’re going to love. They can learn things that they didn’t know about some of their heroes. And those stories will go on and get deeper – and there will be more articles and more stories and more video content about more artists. And it will just keep growing.”
The company also has a Rock The Bells radio station on Sirius XM that is curated by the “Mama Said Knock You Out” MC and plays hip-hop classics non-stop. LL Cool J announced plans to expand the brand and its direct-to-consumer business in January, and in February named James Cuthbert, a former executive at BET, as its president.
