VIA: Rollingstone.com
The ballot for next year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class is one of the most diverse ever: LL Cool J, Donna Summer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Chantels, Darlene Love and reggae legend Jimmy Cliff are among the artists up for nomination.
Artists are eligible for induction 25 years after their debut release, so all the candidates released their first single no later than 1984. LL Cool J and the Red Hot Chili Peppers both made the ballot on their first year of eligibility.
If LL Cool J gets inducted he will be the third hip-hop act to get into the Hall, after Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (Class of ‘07) and Run-DMC (Clas of ‘08). “I don’t even think I can describe it. In terms of music, it’s probably the happiest moment for me since I got my break,” LL Cool J tells Rolling Stone. “My break was the moment I was called by Rick Rubin and he said, ‘Come down, let’s make some records.’ Now they are nominating me for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it makes me feel like it mattered a little bit. It’s cool. It’s a great feeling.” Watch LL Cool J react to his Rock Hall nomination below.
The final list of inductees — decided by the 500 voters receiving ballots — will be announced in January and the ceremony will once again be held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria on March 15th, 2010.
