EXCLUSIVE: Def Jam Recordings’ first president, Bill Stephney, EPMD’s Parish Smith and The Bomb Squad’s Keith Shocklee were among the many attendees.
Hip-Hop culture was alive and well in New York City last week. LL COOL J moved like a stealth bomber, popping up during the 2025 Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday (June 12) at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, where he posed for a handful of photos and quickly disappeared.
He was also technically at the Tribeca Festival premiere of The Sixth Borough, a film highlighting Long Island Hip-Hop artists like Rakim, Public Enemy, EPMD, MF DOOM and De La Soul. Ahead of the screening, the audience was treated to the music video for LL COOL J’s “Rock The Bells,” which recently got the visual treatment 40 years after its initial release.
On the red carpet, the evening morphed into a bonafide Hip-Hop family reunion, with De La Soul’s Posdnuos and Maseo linking up with longtime producer/collaborator Prince Paul and famed Hip-Hop photographer Ernie Paniccioli, who appeared in De La’s video for the 2000 single “All Good,” embracing them all.
Def Jam Recordings’ first president, Bill Stephney, EPMD’s Parish Smith, The Bomb Squad’s Keith Shocklee, former Tommy Boy Records’ A&R Dante Ross, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s ex-manager/record exec Steve Lobel, Biz Markie’s widow, Tara Hall, The Sixth Borough producer and Warner Music Group’s EVP/Head of Business Affairs & Legal Julian Petty and the film’s director, Jason Pollard, were among the many others in attendance.
As for the film itself, at just over 70 minutes long, it was the perfect amount of time to encapsulate the immense impact Long Island Hip-Hop artists have had on the culture and how Long Island, in turn, informed their styles.
Artists interviewed for the film included Chuck D, Method Man, Rakim, De La Soul, Parish Smith and Erick Sermon. Combined with rich archival footage, it tells a comprehensive story of Long Island’s history and “the sixth borough’s” many famous Hip-Hop innovators.
The Sixth Borough will show at the Black Star Film Festival in Philadelphia taking place July 31-August 3.
