LL Cool J Named 2014 Cultural Rhythms Artist of the Year

Philanthropist, musician, actor, and author LL Cool J has been named the Harvard Foundation’s 2014 Artist of the Year.

He will be honored on Feb. 22 at the 29th annual Cultural Rhythms festival, a day-long celebration of campus diversity, which will also feature food and performances from a variety of student organizations.

The first rap artist to accumulate 10 consecutive platinum-plus selling albums, LL Cool J is a two-time Grammy award winner and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee. Also two-time NAACP Image Award-winner, he has hosted the Grammys for the past three years and currently stars in “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

According to Neurology professor S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, LL Cool J is a talented musician as well as a philanthropist and a strong supporter of youth literacy and music and arts enrichment programs in schools.

Counter called LL Cool J a “very fine person” and said that he was particularly impressed by the rapper’s involvement in Jumpstart, a program that promotes early education for children in low-income communities with the goal of closing the academic achievement gap.

“We find it very appealing that he has dedicated himself to that,” Counter said.

LL Cool J is also founder of the charity Jump & Ball tournament, an annual five-week program hosted in Queens, N.Y., his hometown. The program serves to encourage athleticism and team-building among young people. In addition, as a member of the Red Cross Celebrity Cabinet, LL Cool J helps to raise awareness of the work of the organization.

Cultural Rhythms begins with an intimate lunch reception at Kirkland House, meant for the Artist of the Year to interact with students and “inspire them,” Counter said. Students then perform in skits and roast the chosen artist of the year.

Counter said that LL Cool J was a nominee for Artist of the Year for previous Cultural Rhythms festivals. The rapper was ultimately selected based on the input of student interns at the Harvard Foundation, as well as student organizations associated with the Foundation, he said.

When making decisions for Artist of the Year, the Foundation strives to select individuals who have “made significant contributions to humanitarian causes or efforts to help people improve the quality of their lives,” Counter said.

Recent honorees include singers Shakira, Wyclef Jean, and Nicole Scherzinger.

—Staff writer Celeste M. Mendoza can be reached at Celeste.Mendoza@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Yasmin Moreno can be reached at ymoreno@college.harvard.edu.